Does LoRa work inside a freezer or metal cold room?

Metal and insulation attenuate any radio, so from deep inside a single hop can be marginal. A relay node at the door gap catches the leaked signal and the self-healing mesh carries it out. You add a hop instead of fighting the metal.

Application · Cold-chain temperature

“The freezer room was never built to send its temperature out. Do I have to cut into the panel?”

Q: Can cold room temperature over LoRa feed our existing SCADA?

Yes. A gateway forwards the data to your SCADA as Modbus-TCP or MQTT — the same kind of feed it already consumes.

Q: Do we have to drill or run cable through the insulated cold room panel?

No. The link out of the room is wireless, so the insulated panel stays intact — no broken seal, no condensation path, and no re-certification because of a new penetration.

Q: Is the hardware rated for cold and condensation?

Yes, it is industrial-grade. The probe sits in the cold zone and the electronics are specified for the environment.

No. A sealed metal cold room is basically a Faraday cage — but you don't fight the metal, you hop over it. Put a node inside on the sensor and a relay right at the door; the self-healing mesh carries the reading out of the box and straight to your SCADA.

Self-healing mesh Straight to SCADA No panel drilling

Tell us your setup → See the node →

Diagram: cold room temperature carried out of the metal box over a LoRa mesh to SCADA

The situation

A cold storage or freezer room has to log its temperature continuously — for food safety, pharma, or GDP compliance. But the room was never built with an external temperature feed. Getting a signal out of a sealed, insulated metal box is hard, and running a new cable means cutting through the insulated panel — which breaks the seal, invites condensation, and can mean re-certifying the room.

Why people assume it can't be done

The fear: “It's a sealed metal box — nothing gets a signal out of there, and I'm not cutting into the panel of a certified cold room.”
Part 1 — the barrier is real: Metal walls plus insulation do act like a Faraday cage. From deep inside, even LoRa can be attenuated — this part isn't imagination.
Part 2 — you hop over it, you don't push through it: This is the point. Because every Siliqs node meshes by default, you place one relay node right at the door gap or just outside — the signal only has to leak to that one node, and the mesh carries it the rest of the way. Two hops and the reading is out of the box, with nothing to configure.

How Siliqs solves it

A node inside, a relay at the door, straight into SCADA.

A node inside on the sensor

A cold-rated Siliqs node reads the temperature/humidity sensor (RS485 / Modbus or probe) and timestamps each reading.

A relay at the door hops it out

A second node at the door gap or just outside relays the reading over the mesh — the signal only has to reach that one node to escape the metal box.

Into your SCADA

A gateway forwards the data as Modbus-TCP or MQTT — the same feed your SCADA already reads. No new dashboard to learn.

What if the signal can't get out of the metal box?

Then you move the relay closer to the gap — and that's the whole answer.

Mesh is the default: Every Siliqs node joins the same mesh out of the box — you never design or switch on a network.
Escape route = one relay: Doors, seams and cable glands all leak a little RF. Put a relay node where the signal escapes best — the door frame, a gland, just outside. It only needs power.
Zero configuration: The relay just works — no pairing, no addressing. The mesh discovers it and routes through it automatically.
It self-heals: Door open or closed, a truck parked outside — if a path degrades the mesh re-routes on its own. No single link is a point of failure.

What you actually need

Sensor: Any temperature / humidity sensor with an RS485 / Modbus interface, or a compatible probe.
Cabling: None through the panel — no cutting, no drilling, no broken seal.
Infrastructure: No LoRaWAN gateway, no internet. Feeds your existing SCADA over Modbus-TCP / MQTT.
Devices: One node inside + one relay at the door + one gateway to SCADA. Add more cold rooms to the same mesh.
Environment: Industrial-grade hardware for the cold and condensation — the probe sits in the cold, the electronics are rated for it.
The node: SQC485Iv2 — LoRa RS485 industrial node.

Questions people ask

How do I get a temperature reading out of a metal cold room without cutting the panel?

Put a sensor node inside and a relay node at the door or just outside. Siliqs nodes mesh by default, so the reading hops from the inside node to the door node and out — no cable through the panel, nothing to configure.

Does LoRa even work inside a freezer or metal cold room?

Metal and insulation attenuate any radio, so from deep inside a single hop can be marginal. That's exactly why the mesh matters: a relay at the door gap catches the leaked signal and carries it out. You add a hop instead of fighting the metal.

Can it feed our existing SCADA?

Yes. A gateway hands the data to your SCADA as Modbus-TCP or MQTT — the same kind of feed it already consumes.

Do we have to drill or run cable through the insulated panel?

No. The link out of the room is wireless, so the panel stays intact — no broken seal, no condensation path, no re-certification because of a new penetration.

Is the hardware rated for the cold and condensation?

Yes — it's industrial-grade. The probe sits in the cold zone and the electronics are specified for the environment.

Can I monitor several cold rooms at once?

Yes. Each room's nodes join the same mesh and report to one gateway, so all rooms land in one place.