Off-Grid Communication in Your Pocket

FloraNet—A LoRa Digital Radio Network Accessible with Any Smartphone

- By Aaron Huinink, Tella Osler, and Cameron Gillingham

What do you do when you're in a remote area with no cell service, but you need to contact someone far away? The current market for off-grid communication systems is missing an affordable, user-friendly option, so three inventive Camosun College students created one. FloraNet is a battery-powered, affordable, and accessible network that uses LoRa radio to keep people connected or contact emergency services in the backcountry with any smartphone.

FLoRa Communications, a group of three Electronics and Computer Engineering Technology students, built an alternative off-grid communications network using Long Range (LoRa) radio called “FloraNet” (Figure 1) for their capstone project at Camosun College. The floral name and branding was inspired by the fields of avalanche lilies we saw while we were experimenting with LoRa technology in the Pacific Northwest backcountry.

FloraNet is a pre-installed network that operates on battery and solar power, and does not require an Internet connection or cellular service. It is designed to be as user-friendly as possible, accessed via a web browser through a JavaScript and HTML web app served by an ESP32-S3 microprocessor over a locally hosted Wi-Fi connection. Users can post messages to the public network, chat, and contact emergency services directly from their smartphones without needing a user account, pre-installed app, or additional hardware.

GOOD PRODUCTS AND GREAT PRODUCTS

Before the idea for FloraNet was fully formed, we knew we wanted the final product to be highly accessible and user friendly.

We agreed that a “good product” is well designed and useful, but a “great product” is well designed and useful for everyone. As inventors and enthusiasts, it’s easy for us to lose sight of three main barriers to a product being widely adopted and useful for a customer base—complexity, cost, and the customers, themselves.