2026-07-17

Raspberry Pi has just announced its own official LoRa radio communication HATs — a first-party product line that brings long-range, low-power wireless into the Pi ecosystem without needing to bodge together third-party modules.

There are two variants: one for the sub-GHz 868 MHz band (the legal one for the UK/EU) and one for 915 MHz (US). They sit on top of a Pi as a standard HAT and use the SX1261/SX1262 Semtech chipsets. Raspberry Pi is also offering a matching LoRa gateway HAT for building out a proper network.

This matters for homelabbers because LoRa is the go-to tech for sensors that need to talk over hundreds of metres — or even a few kilometres — on tiny amounts of power. Think garden weather stations, shed security sensors, remote temperature monitors for a server room in an outbuilding, or water-leak detectors in the garage. All stuff that's too far for Zigbee or Bluetooth but doesn't warrant running Ethernet or relying on Wi-Fi.

Having an official, well-documented HAT from Raspberry Pi themselves should mean better software support and fewer headaches compared to the cheap SX1278 breakout boards from AliExpress. The announcement post includes details on software libraries and getting started.

Caveats: LoRa is low-bandwidth by design — you're sending small sensor readings, not streaming video. And you'll need at least two devices to do anything useful (a node and a gateway), so budget accordingly. Pricing hasn't been fully confirmed for UK retailers yet, but expect the HATs to land around the £15–25 mark based on comparable Pi accessories.

If you're already running Home Assistant or similar on a Pi and want to extend your sensor network beyond Wi-Fi range, this is worth a look. Grab a Raspberry Pi 5 if you need a base board, and keep an eye on The Pi Hut and Pimoroni for UK stock.