Jeremy Geppert's SAO LoRa Walkie Talkie Gets Your Badges Talking Over Radio Links
With a LoRa module on the rear, this Simple Add-On gets badges on-air.
Maker Jeremy Geppert has built a badge add-on that really gets people talking — delivering, as it does, a "walkie talkie" for badges to communicate over a LoRa transceiver.
"[The SAO LoRa Walkie Talkie is] an adapter that accepts a Reyax RYLR998 transceiver to easily enable wireless serial communication from an SAO [Simple Add-On badge accessory[ using the GPIO [General-Purpose Input/Output] pins," Geppert explains. "It is made to look like an retro walkie talkie. LoRa is [an] amazing technology and very accessible requiring only simple AT commands over serial to send data."
Designed as a long-range low-power wireless communication system, LoRa is — as Geppert says — easily added to projects, and can be found at the heart of everything from LoRaWAN initiatives like The Things Network to the Meshtastic mesh networking system. In Geppert's case, it's used to allow badges to talk to other badges — and while the microphone and speaker might be purely for show, the walkie-talkie-shaped PCB is a fully-functional LoRa transceiver.
"The 'PTT' [Push To Talk] button on the left is actually the reset button for the LoRa module," Geppert explains. "This is necessary once powered depending on how you are connecting to it. I am pleased that the button also fills an aesthetic role. These are intended to be 'blingy' SAOs even without the LoRa module on the back."
The project is documented in full on Hackaday.io, including a schematic and production files for those looking to add a little LoRa to their own badges.