How it works
A pidgn listens for nearby probe readings, immediately acknowledges the probe itself so it can go back to sleep, then re-transmits the reading — wrapped with its own link-quality info — onward toward the gateway. It owns last-mile delivery: each relayed packet is held until the gateway confirms receipt, re-sending if needed.
Key capabilities
- Extenders chain: gophr → pidgn → pidgn → … → magpi
- Gradient routing: each pidgn learns its distance to the gateway and forwards downhill, with a hop limit
- Overhear-suppression: a pidgn cancels its own copy if it hears the packet already moving toward the gateway
- Flood fallback when routing info is missing — readings always find their way home
- Same enclosure, solar panel, and antenna as the magpi — visually interchangeable in the field
Specifications
| Hardware | RAK4631 (nRF52 + SX1262) or Heltec LoRa32 V3 / V4 (ESP32-S3 + SX1262) |
| Power | Solar or mains — always on (it can afford to relay + retry where a battery probe can't) |
| Role | ACK probes, relay to the gateway, multi-hop chaining, last-mile delivery confirmation |
| Updates | Bluetooth DFU (RAK), WiFi (Heltec), or over LoRa |
gophr — $200
magpi — $200