other parts of this topic :
The hard RAK831 cafe part 1
The hard RAK831 cafe part 3
HARDWARE
where to buy ( choose the right frequency for your country !) :
SOFTWARE
still running like this well ventilated setup here 
Anyone already tried to use the RAK831 outdoors at low/high temperatures?
To follow up on my RAK831 GW: Today I built a node and its message was received immediately by the gateway:
From syslog:
Nov 13 16:56:42 B827EBFFFE8FE3C3 ttn-gateway[6582]: ### [UPSTREAM] ###
Nov 13 16:56:42 B827EBFFFE8FE3C3 ttn-gateway[6582]: # RF packets received by concentrator: 1
Nov 13 16:56:42 B827EBFFFE8FE3C3 ttn-gateway[6582]: # CRC_OK: 100.00%, CRC_FAIL: 0.00%, NO_CRC: 0.00%
Success!
Next step will be to position the gateway so it can help the community. Covering my apartment is nice, but it would be nice to do better than that 
niceā¦ very strong signalā¦ donāt go to close to the GW !
I have one mounted on the base of my TV antenna pole above my house. It is in an enclosure approx 200 x 150 x 80 with no additional heating or cooling using a single PoE cable to bring power and data to the gateway. It runs sweet in the Irish climate which is temperate, my house being close to the gulf stream zone never really getting too warm or cold. It has not been tested too hard yet as we are only feeling a little frost this week but solid as a rock so far, on line for about 1 month with only a few restarts for maintenance, internet re-connects etc. FWIW, it runs Kersingās code on resin.io which just works.
HTH
Garry
Just to clear things with RSSI.
I needed to reboot my gateway today.
And now I see some nodes with lower RSSI
So I was wrong about gw not receiving lower then -115.
I agree as I have very reliable signal from high ground 15km from my gateway but the RSSI can lower than -121 or more if I recall correctly.
The RAK831 Datasheet (in addition to the SPI pins) lists the following pins:
LNA_EN_A
RADIO_EN_A
PA_G8
RADIO_EN_B
PA_G16
PA_EN_A
RADIO_RST
and 5 SX1301 GPIO ports: GPIO0 ā¦ GPIO4 (each with a corresponding status LED).
Are any of these pins used by the gateway software or is only the SPI interface used?
Would it be of any use to connect these (non-SPI) pins to the host controller (RPi)?
(Just asking because these pins are wired on RAKās Raspberry Converter Board.)
Iām still waiting for my RAK831 board and not sure if GPS is required for the gateway or not (and which would be the best converter board to use with RPi 2/3).
RAK831 has an IPEX connector for connecting GPS time pulse.
I see no other connections (usually serial Rx/Tx) for connecting a GPS to the board.
Is only the GPS time pulse used for the gateway, but not any location data?
Or does the gateway software support location data and does the GPS have to be connected to the Rx/Tx pins of the (RPi) host?
Concentrators just take in the PPS. It is the packet forwarder running on the host PC (e.g. the RPi) that can be made to parse the NMEA data, but I donāt know if any packet forwarder supports this out of the box.
GPS is not required for a functioning gateway.
RAK831 is available in several combinations.
When ordering I unfortunately overlooked this specific combination: RAK831 + Raspberry Pi converter board (not including the Pi itself).
The photo shows GPS time pulse cable soldered onto the converter board. On the actual version it is connected with an IPEX connector (located near the reset switch).
@jmarcelino
Responding to The hard RAK831 cafe part 1
The GPS module used for the RAK āConverter Board for Raspberryā is: U-blox Max-7Q
The latest version of the RAK Raspberry Pi Converter Board now has header pins/jumpers for GPS RX/TX.
(source: RAKWireless)
RAK831 and Raspberry PI with RAK Converter Board + GPS module.
RX/TX pins are located next to the GPS antenna connector.
What is the purpose of that RX/TX jumper?
I assume to connect the GPS module RX/TX pins to Raspberry Pi pins to make possible to communicate with the GPS and read location data. The jumper construction is for making the connection optional I guess.
(I have ordered a board but have not yet received it.)
For older versions of the converter board without RX/TX wired it will be relative easy to solder two wires from the GPS module to the 40-pin Raspberry Pi connector (if needed).
Ahh, ok, makes sense, since the PPS signal is for the RAK831, and if want to access GPS data from the RPI some connection needs to be made. Probably this.
I just got my rak831 with the vendor supplied raspberry pi 3 and the interface board. However it seems that the reset pin is not routed to the same GPIO port as is used on the ttn-zurich build. Couldnāt find out if it is routed to a different pin or not at allā¦ Resetting it manually using the switch on the interface board gets a little bit irritant.
Never mind, looks like it is GPIO17 
Quick question to all those in this conversation who have attempted to set up and mount the RAK831 dev kit as a functioning gateway (i.e. high up with an external antenna or installed outside within a suitable housing).
How robust is the hardware?
I am keen to order the RAK831 as the price is great, but I am worried about the need to constantly maintain it (compared with an out of the box MatchX or equivalent).
I have a simple RPi + RAK831 using a Chinese antenna all mounted on my TV antenna pole in the east of Ireland. The climate here is ātemperateā so temperature ranges little by comparison to continental Europe for example, maybe -6 to 25C max range in the main. Right now I can see that the Piās CPU is at 30.4C. It is a rainy climate so I think skill in weatherproofing will be more important than temperature tolerance of the concentrator board.
The setup uses PoE injected at 19Vdc beside a small switch in my loft then regulated to 5Vdc beside the gateway. Everything is housed in a IP67 plastic box which should have enough volume and surface area not to overheat in our summer. So far using @kersingās uper easy to setup packet forwarder (resin.io) with 100% reliability and a great console to monitor/manage the gateway.
Some pictures and words HERE
HTH?
Garry
