Indoor/Outdoor Helium Hotspots

Nebra, who is supplied to DigiKey from Pi-Supply, has developed a line of Helium hotspot miners. Helium’s network is based on LoRaWAN and is best suited for low-power applications by sending data back and forth to sensors over low-cost radio waves. This eliminates reliance on more costly networks like cellular or Wi-Fi. Helium is a peer-to-peer network, which with just 100 to 200 hotspots can usually cover most cities. The LongFi technology is optimized for miles of range with up to 1-mile range in dense areas and up to 10 miles of range in rural areas. In return for hosting the hotspots, hosts can earn $HNT for providing access to the network.

Nebra has developed two different versions of the Helium Miner: an indoor hotspot miner and an outdoor hotspot miner. Both miners are low power, using roughly 15 W or about the same as a broadband router. Setup of the miners can be completed in minutes using a smartphone. Users are also able to easily manage hotspots and tokens from the mobile app. These miners come in three different options for frequency, 470 MHz (CN470), which is suitable for China, 868 MHz (EU 868, IN865, RU864) for use in EU, India, or Russia, and 915 MHz (US915, AU915, KR920, AS923-1/2/3) for use in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, and lots of countries in South America and Asia. Once the frequency is selected, the user can automatically tune the frequency within the model by selecting the location asset, meaning if the user purchases a 915 MHz version, they can select from US915, AU915, or other available selections in that frequency range.