It is fair to say that now may be the worst time to design new hardware. Of course, the reality is that even if there is a shortage of parts, the cost of many components will soar (if you can find them), and we can’t stop manufacturing new equipment. In practice, this means that you need to be more flexible when starting a new design. As stone said, “you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you will find / get what you need.”
For ryanwalmsley, this means that it is impossible to build his new outdoor Lora gateway on the ubiquitous raspberry skin. So what can he replace it with? The software of the nano PI duo looks pretty bad. Although the onion Omega 2+ was initially attractive, it seems that an error in the hardware SPI makes it impossible to run. But after more research, he found that there was a software implementation that met the requirements.
With the PI alternative, he must now find the rest of the components. Since the design may not be put into production, [ryan] infers that he can use ready-made modules such as adafruit and PI hut instead of realizing their functions on PCB. It would be a bit expensive, but it would mean less work for him. With such a big function as Ethernet power supply, he only needs to bundle it with 0805 passive components to facilitate manual assembly.
The test and assembly are better than the Lora gateway before him, and the final circuit board fits closely with the commercial weatherproof housing. [ryan] said that each one costs $300 to $350, but it sounds like he hasn’t decided the fate of this special design. Maybe your comments below can help him choose whether to sell it as a kit or publish a file and turn it into an open hardware project, so don’t be shy.