This is the fully assembled version of my RN2483/RN2903 breakout board, available here as a bare board.

Good news! Our latest round of process improvements in lead-free assembly of boards containing modules - like these - would have enabled a $5/unit price cut. Bad news! Our suppliers, or at least the ones with lead-times of less than a year, have eliminated quantity discounts thanks to the chip shortage, which has seen lead times on some parts from this manufacturer, Microchip, exceeding 18 months*. This works out to a price increase of around $5/module. Well... so much for that price cut. You'll still enjoy benefits of our more consistent process, and boards come out clean and free of flux residue used by our previous methods. We expect additional inventory of 2483's in April 2022. Unfortunately, I've been having great difficulty sourcing the RF connectors now. I have 19 additional RN2483's fully assembled except for the connector.

* Yes, seriously. I've only been able to get lower price quotes on the RN2xx3 parts if I was willing to wait until the end of the year to get them, and the price is still higher than what we'd been paying. But it could be worse - I was trying to find another Microchip product that I needed; it was out of stock, but no problem, if I ordered today, I could expect them to ship as soon as October... of 2023! I miss the good old days when you didn't have to check the year of the expected ship date when you needed something that was on backorder, and a 6 month lead time was a disappointment, rather than a cause for celebration

This breakout board offers an affordable solution for makers working with the popular RN2483A and RN2903A LoRa transceivers from Microchip, widely used for LoRaWAN (Commonly called just RN2483 and RN2903, or collectively, RN2xx3). The layout of this breakout board is based on the the datasheet reference designs. This board breaks out all 14 GPIO pins to a row of 0.1" pin header, and the power and serial communication pins to a second row of 0.1" pin header.

The RN2483A and RN2903A are identical except for their transmission frequency and which world regions they are approved for use in. The RN2483 operates at 433mhz and 868mhz, and is approved for use in Europe, while the RN2903A operates at 915mhz, and is approved for use in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The markings on these breakout boards correspond to the RN2483A; if using with RN2903A, use the antenna marked 868mhz (the low frequency antenna is not used). Prior to ordering, please verify that the RN2903A or RN2483A is legal to operate in your jurisdiction.

Also available with a PCB-trace antenna (RN2903A only)

RN2483? RN2483A? I/RM?

The RN2903A and RN2483A are an updated version of the RN2903 and RN2483. Within a few months of the initial release, errata came out (described as errata for the firmware version) describing a number of issues that sounded suspiciously like a hardware issue. Shortly thereafter, a shortage struck - they vanished from distributors worldwide! During this time, I happened to have a few modules that I hadn't mounted. when a desperate user emailed me, and offered me the full $35/ea if I had any bare modules. When the RN2xx3 parts reappeared, there was an A after the part number, in addition to a new firmware version. The I/RM in the part number refers to the pre-loaded firmware version. Note that this is user-upgradable, and there's even a bootloader (though the PGD and PCG pins are available on these boards to allow arbitrary changes to the firmware) - official firmware versions conforming with other nations' regulations are available from the Microchip website.

The pin layout for the serial and power pins is designed such that it can be plugged into breadboard alongside an Espruino Pico, and the pins will line up.

The row of pins along the edge of the PCB will match up with the classic "FTDI" serial adapter pinout for rapid development.

Assembled in USA with unleaded solder, so the result is ROHS compliant.

Optional Level Shifter

Since many of our customers are using these with 5v microcontrollers (such as Arduino), we now offer a level shifter as an add-on. These level shifters are mass-produced 4-channel bidirectional fet-based level shifters. See the diagrams below for wiring examples.

SMA and Antenna options

The RN2483 supports communication at 868mhz and 433mhz - however, I've heard from my customers that they only install the high 868mhz SMA connector. In order to keep costs down (since these are all made to order), I've made the SMA connector for 433mhz on the RN2483 optional.

Regulator options

This board can ship with three regulator options. If you have a regulator on the RN2483/RN2903 board, it can be used to supply 3.3v to the rest of the project (within the limits of the regulator - 1A, less if Vin exceeds 5v due to heat dissipation). See the wiring diagrams below.

No regulator - If you will already have a regulated 3.3v supply, there is no need to use a regulator on the RN2483 board. The board will be shipped with a 4.7uf cap installed on the pads for the output capacitor, but no regulator or input capacitor.

ZLDO1117 - The ZLDO1117 is one of the best 1117-series regulators available, and provides a dropout of around 1.1V at maximum load (meaning a minimum of 4.4 V input to get 3.3v out), and permits a maximum input voltage of up to 18V.

AP2114 - The AP2114 is a modern LDO regulator that has much lower dropout than the 1117 series, as low as a few tenths of a volt. This allows it to put out 3.3v when powered from a 1S LiPo battery. However, the maximum input voltage must not exceed 6 volts.

Wiring

Useful Resources

The Things Network is a thriving community dedicated to LoRaWAN which has a great deal of useful information available to makers experimenting with these sort of devices:The Things Network

For use with Espruino, see the Espruino RN2483 module documentation

For use with a Raspberry Pi, Michael Honaker of Beach Cities Software has written some demo code that can be valuable to help get started, available from his Github: Interfacing with C Interfacing with Python

A word on pre-certification

These modules copy the layout specified in the Microchip datasheet. It is my belief that they meet the requirements for FCC precertification, but as always, you should consult with an expert in the relevant laws in your jurisdiction if you do not fall under the "hobbyist" exemption provided in many countries (in USA, you can make up to 5 of something without FCC certification as long as you're not selling them). In order to maintain precertification, you must use an antenna consistent with the datasheet (in the US, sleeve dipole antenna not more than 6dBi - I couldn't figure out the requirements for other jurisdictions); the antennae we offer are spec'ed at 5dBi, so they should comply. Note that the precertification covers only the intentional radiator portion of FCC requirements. Any unofficial firmware voids all certification.