Review on 🔧 ESP32 LoRa 32 (V2) Development Board with Bluetooth & WIFI, Dual Core 240MHz CP2102, OLED Display, and 868/915MHZ Antenna for IoT Makers, Smart Cities, Farms, and Home Automation by Jignesh Shaffer

I was excited to use this little gem. So many possibilities in such a small package, I think this will be my new desktop board. Will not damage this board unless you step on or drive over it. Includes: circuit board, antenna and rows of pins. All in their own anti-static bags. Assembly: No assembly is required unless you require soldered pins. The antenna connector is easy to install by pressing the connector with your finger. Setup: This took the most effort as I am using the Arduino IDE and the board drivers are not available when searching the board manager library. I contacted MakerHawk and they quickly provided me with the information I needed. The board library along with very good setup information is on GitHub using the following contributor: Heltec-Aaron-Lee Folder: WiFi_Kit_series Once the board was configured to use the Arduino IDE I was off! Testing: LoRa was easy to set up and easy to use. Testing with the antenna included with the board was sufficient for NE line of sight at a distance of about half a mile (800 meters). I live in a very hilly and wooded area, so I couldn't complete the line of sight test. Using a $7 third-party LoRa 433MHz antenna, again NOT in line of sight, I was able to connect at a longer distance of just over a mile (1700 meters). I was very pleased with these results and did not expect such a range. I believe using line of sight will have incredible range. Bluetooth: Easily programmable with a new ID and password, works like any other Bluetooth device I've worked with. Uses the standard Bluetooth libraries in the Arduino IDE. Bluetooth range was about 25 feet in line of sight and 8-15 feet through walls. All quite normal, but better than my experience with cheap BT modules. Wi-Fi: That's ESP, and we all know it's an amazingly small technology. Works as expected. OLED: First off, I have to say how nice it is to have an integrated display. I never thought I would use it often but now that I have. Many of my other projects will only use this board because of the OLED. It's bright, clear and easy to use. Well, except that I have to add a few things that I think could be better. Pencils. Not a single picture shows the circuit board without contacts. So I fully expected the pins to be soldered. It's ok and some would prefer the pins not to be soldered but that fact should be in the text or some photos shouldn't have contacts or anything like that. Another thing is that I think the GitHub url might be included. Just a piece of paper that says "Setup Instructions See Here". would save me time.