Is camera video sent anywhere?

No. Detection runs on the reCamera and only short count messages go over the radio. LoRa carries a few bytes per crossing, not images.

How accurate is the count?

It counts each sheep that crosses the virtual line in view of the camera. Sheep crossing in a tight bunch or outside the view can be missed, so check the count against a manual tally on your own gate before relying on it.

How far can the gate be from the farmhouse?

It depends on terrain and antenna height; open line of sight gives the longest range, while hills and trees shorten it. Test the radio path between gate and farmhouse before installing.

What happens if the radio link drops?

The camera keeps counting. A heartbeat every 15 minutes resends the totals, so the dashboard catches up once the link is back.

Can one dashboard cover several gates?

Yes. Add a reCamera and XIAO radio node per gate and give each node a unique name; all of them report to the same gateway and Home Assistant.

Do we have to use Home Assistant?

No. The gateway publishes plain MQTT topics for the IN, OUT and INSIDE totals and the latest event, so any system that subscribes to MQTT can use them.

Can it count other animals?

The line counter, radio link and dashboard are not tied to sheep. Counting another animal needs a detection model trained for it on the reCamera.

Sheep Counter with LoRa / Meshtastic

Count sheep moving through a gate and send live IN / OUT / INSIDE totals over LoRa — all the way to your phone and a Home Assistant dashboard, no WiFi needed in the field.

SenseCraftIntermediate30minOff-Grid CommunicationAI Agent ReadySource Code

Rendered scene — reCamera above a gate lane, with the count dashboard on a tablet and a Meshtastic radio in hand

reCamera 2002 HQ PoE — runs the sheep detector and the gate-line counter

Reusable Site Templates

A paddock gate with no WiFi or mobile signal, where sheep are still counted by hand.

Daily mustering — know how many sheep went in or out of the paddock without counting them.
Night watch — get a phone notification whenever sheep cross the gate after hours.
Remote farms — check the totals on the Home Assistant dashboard from town, without driving out.
Several gates — add a camera and radio node per gate; all of them report to one dashboard.

Not a fit: tagging or identifying individual animals, or a wide gate where sheep cross in a dense crowd. The count relies on each animal crossing a line in view of the camera.

How it works

Two ends joined by radio. At the gate, a reCamera counts sheep and a XIAO radio node sends each count over LoRa. At the gateway, a matching XIAO radio accessory plugged into the reComputer R1100 over USB passes the counts to Home Assistant. Only the gateway needs a local network; the gate needs power and nothing else.

Device	Role
reCamera 2002 series (HQ PoE)	Runs the sheep detector and counts crossings of a virtual line
XIAO ESP32S3 + Wio-SX1262 with Meshtastic firmware	Receives counts from the camera over UART and broadcasts them over LoRa

Mount the camera beside the gate at an angle, so each sheep clearly crosses the line. The camera and the XIAO share a ground and connect TX to RX. The counter starts automatically at every boot.

Device	Role
XIAO ESP32S3 + Wio-SX1262 with Meshtastic firmware	Plugs into the reComputer R1100 over USB and receives LoRa messages
reComputer R1100	Runs two bridge services that turn radio messages into MQTT
Home Assistant	Shows the dashboard and keeps count history

Home Assistant can run on the same reComputer or on a separate server on the local network. Its MQTT integration must connect to the same broker, with discovery enabled.

The data interface is listed under What You Get below.

How well it works

Scope: capabilities and limits of the full system on reCamera 2002 series, XIAO ESP32S3 with Wio-SX1262, and reComputer R1100.

What it does: counts sheep crossing a line at the gate in both directions and keeps IN, OUT and INSIDE totals. Totals and the latest crossing time appear on a Home Assistant dashboard with a 24-hour history, and each crossing can also notify the Meshtastic phone app.

Limits: counts are only as good as the camera's view of the line; sheep crossing in a tight bunch or out of view can be missed. Radio range varies with terrain. The counter line position and a count reset can be changed from Home Assistant.

What you get out of it

The gateway publishes plain MQTT topics that any system can read, not just Home Assistant.

Topic	Content	Retained
`sheep/ha/in`	Total IN count, integer	Yes
`sheep/ha/out`	Total OUT count, integer	Yes
`sheep/ha/inside`	Sheep currently inside, integer	Yes
`sheep/ha/event`	Latest crossing as JSON: direction, time, counts	—

The counter line and count reset are also controlled over MQTT, which is what the dashboard buttons use. A ready-made dashboard file is included for import into Home Assistant.

How to deploy

Check the setup and its product list, then follow the deployment guide.

Hardware Sizing & Deployment Setup

Select site conditions to generate recommended bundles and guides, or let an AI assistant estimate hardware and deploy for you.

Self-service Consult & Deploy

Deployment Options

LoRa Gateway (Full System)

Full system: reCamera counter, LoRa node, gateway bridge, Home Assistant dashboard.

4 steps · ~30min

Deployment Guide →

AI Camera

recamera_2002

LoRa Node

xiao_meshtastic_kit

Gateway Computer

recomputer_r11

FAQ

No. Counts leave the gate over LoRa radio. Only the gateway computer at the farmhouse needs a local network to reach Home Assistant, and none of it depends on a cloud service.

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