Autonomous Buoy — release 1.1.6
This release is the outcome of the trials carried out over the summer to prepare the upcoming LoRa Ground Station. To test the link that will one day connect the station to all eight buoys, the real-world range of the 433 MHz radio had to be measured precisely — and those measurements led to revising several settings that already benefit everyday use with a joystick.
What's new
A faster radio link with four times the data rate
Six different radio data rates were compared on the water, at increasing distances. The rate selected, 9.6 kbps, is the one that reaches the farthest — and it is also the only one compatible with the traffic of the future ground station. The previous setting was 2.4 kbps.
The most recent trials hold at least 150 metres with no message loss at all, with a good antenna and careful cabling (see below).
Important fix: a buoy could switch itself into HOLD
When several buoys were powered on at the same time, one of them could switch into HOLD mode without any command having been sent to it — simply because a neighbouring buoy was
acknowledging an order that was meant for itself.
All buoys hear each other over the radio. Under certain conditions, a message intended for buoy 8 could be misread by buoy 6 and turn into a valid command for it.
This is fixed. If you sail with several buoys, this update is strongly recommended.
A deliberately more talkative start-up
The buoy now clearly reports the state of its radio module at start-up, and flags when a setting could not be applied. This is what lets you diagnose a silent link yourself instead of searching blindly.
⚠️ Important: every buoy AND every joystick must be updated
The radio data rate has changed. A buoy on 1.1.6 cannot talk to a joystick still on an earlier version, and vice versa — with no error message whatsoever, the link is simply silent.
So update all of your equipment before going back out on the water:
buoys → 1.1.6
joystick v1 → 1.1.6
joystick v2 → 2.1.6
Commissioning the LoRa module — once, on each device
This is the step everyone forgets: flashing the firmware is not enough. The radio module keeps its settings in its own memory, and they must be rewritten once, by toggling the small M0/M1 switch on the module.
Flash the binary (M5Burner).
Set the M0/M1 switch to OFF, then power on.
Check the console for: MODULE EN MODE CONFIGURATION
followed by Module E220-JP configured successfully!
Cut the power completely. A simple reboot is not enough.
Set the switch back to ON, power on again.
Check for: MODULE EN MODE NORMAL — liaison radio active.
Send a command from the joystick to confirm the link is working.
At step 4, the message « configuration non ecrite a ce demarrage » (configuration not written at this start-up) is normal: with the switch ON, writing always fails, and the module uses what was stored at step 2.
The point that really needs stressing is number 3: cut the power, don't just reboot.
It's the one that wastes the most time when it gets skipped.
💾 Don't forget the SD card — or you'll lose your settings
M5Burner always overwrites the buoy's entire memory, including its preferences: buoy number, battery type, magnetometer calibration.
Since version 1.1.0, the buoy automatically copies these preferences to the SD card in a file named buoy_prefs.json, and restores them on the first start-up after a flash.
So leave the SD card in place during the update. Without it, the buoy will have to be fully reconfigured, magnetometer recalibration included.
If your buoy is coming from a version earlier than 1.1.0, the backup doesn't exist yet: you'll have to reconfigure it one last time, and subsequent updates will be seamless.
📡 And while you're at it: take care of the antenna cable
The firmware update is only half the gain. The trials showed that the antenna installation matters as much as the radio settings.
If the excess antenna cable is coiled inside the buoy's enclosure, it picks up interference from the other equipment and feeds it straight into the radio receiver.
Route that excess cable up along the mast, above the enclosure. Two effects:
the cable no longer runs alongside the electronics, so it picks up far less noise;
laid out vertically, it acts as a proper counterpoise for the antenna, which a coiled cable
does not.
It's free, it takes five minutes, and it should be done on every buoy.
One last point while we're on antennas: they are far from all being equal. Three models were compared under the same conditions — 12 dB separate them, which is a two-to-one ratio in
range. Cheap compact "multiband" antennas are the worst, whatever their spec sheet promises.
Summary
Update all buoys and both joysticks
Leave the SD card in place during the flash
Do the M0/M1 switch procedure, with a full power cut
Check that a command gets through before going back on the water
Route the antenna cable up along the mast