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Portrait of Alonso Sandoval Alonso Sandoval
2025 Completed build

TP1 Modular FPGA, Sensor & LoRa Telemetry Platform

Four-board embedded system combining custom hardware, LarVA-based RISC-V logic, sensing, GPS, and LoRa telemetry

Integrated embedded engineering project spanning custom PCB design, FPGA / SoC integration, firmware drivers, sensor acquisition, GPS parsing, and wireless telemetry over LoRa.

A serious hardware-software integration build: four dedicated boards for power, compute, sensing, and wireless communication, tied together by a LarVA-based RISC-V subsystem, low-level firmware, and real telemetry workflows.

Context

This project sits much closer to integrated systems engineering than to a standalone software repository. It combines electronics design, programmable logic, firmware, sensing, and wireless communication inside a single modular platform.

The architecture is split across four dedicated PCBs:

  • a power / USB board
  • an FPGA board
  • a sensor board
  • a wireless board

That separation makes the project feel like a real engineering platform rather than a monolithic prototype.

What the system includes

At the digital core, the platform uses a LarVA-based RISC-V subsystem connected to:

  • multiple UART interfaces for debug, GPS, and extension
  • SPI0 for environmental sensing and ADC communication
  • SPI1 for the LoRa radio path
  • GPIO lines for radio control, diagnostics, and sensor power management

On the firmware side, the repository includes drivers and support code for:

  • environmental sensing with BME680
  • analog acquisition through MCP3004
  • GPS sentence parsing over UART
  • LoRa communication with an SX1262 transceiver
  • power-control logic for auxiliary sensing paths

Why it is portfolio-worthy

What makes this work valuable is the breadth of integration:

  • custom hardware and manufacturable PCB outputs
  • HDL and SoC-level wiring
  • low-level firmware and peripheral handling
  • telemetry and wireless validation
  • documented analysis around BOM, power, and supporting system artifacts

It is a strong example of the kind of project where electrical engineering, embedded software, digital design, and communications infrastructure all need to line up for the system to make sense.

Engineering scope

The repository includes:

  • schematics, footprints, and Gerbers
  • firmware sources for sensing, SPI, GPS, and LoRa
  • Verilog sources for the top-level system and peripheral integration
  • validation and documentation for the broader system work

This is best read as a validated academic engineering build and a strong foundation in embedded, communications-aware, and infrastructure-oriented product work.