LoRaWAN Birdhouse with Grasshopper
Solar-powered LoRaWAN birdhouse using the Grasshopper board to monitor bird activity via a load cell, transmitting weight, temperature, and battery voltage to TTN and Datacake.
LoRaWAN Birdhouse with Grasshopper
A solar-powered IoT birdhouse project by Jan Schlieper that monitors bird activity and environmental conditions, transmitting data via LoRaWAN to The Things Network.
Overview
This project combines a physical birdhouse with IoT connectivity using the Grasshopper LoRaWAN Development Board. It detects bird presence through weight measurement using a miniature load cell and monitors temperature, sending all data wirelessly to the internet.
Hardware
- Grasshopper LoRaWAN Development Board — STM32L082 MCU with SX1276 LoRa radio
- TAL221 Mini Load Cell (500g) — detects bird presence and nest activity
- HX711 / NAU7802 Load Cell Amplifiers — signal conditioning for the load cell
- TSic 306 Temperature Sensor — digital temperature readings
- Seeed Studio 0.5W Solar Panel — renewable energy source
- LTC4070 Li-Ion/Polymer Shunt Battery Charger — solar charge management
- LiPo battery (100 mAh) or LIR2032 coin cell
Data Transmitted
- Weight (bird presence and nest activity detection)
- Temperature readings
- Battery voltage
Power Optimization
The system achieves 2-4 uA sleep current through hardware modifications including cutting the PCB trace for the power LED and removing pull-up resistors on the HX711 board.
Software Stack
- Arduino IDE for firmware development
- The Things Network for LoRaWAN connectivity
- Datacake Low Code IoT Platform for data visualization
