At the moment I own two gateways (one single channel and one IC880A). In my opinion, they both work OK, especially when I have a line of sight connection.
I wonder why commercial gateways would be better? Just more plug and play or do they have any extra features? More reliable? I like LorixOne but why would I pay 600€ if I can get the same performance with DIY IC880A for 200€?
why buy an amplifier for 500 if you can DIY for 60 and put it in a shoebox … I think its a strange question, companies have to pay salaries to start with.
I understand that but I want to know what commercial gateways offer that I can not find in DIY?
warranty and certification
Value
And you understand why you:
600 euro gateway?!? Have you checked the market recently? My new Laird gateway was a third of that. It was plug and play and has a great support team that I can call on when there are problems.
This allows me to spend all my time developing nodes. Worth every penny.
Which Laird gateway do you use?
@jubo RG191 (in Australia).
I have struggled along with a RAK831. And other single channel gateways in the past. Never again!
For the record, RAK831 is a 8 channel gateway, not a single channel one. For EU868 they work perfectly. AU915 might be a challenge.
Apologies @kersing my original post was not clear. Now changed. RAK831 Is a ‘full’ LoRaWAN compliant gateway.
I would put the RAK831 in the DIY bracket just because it took so much work to get it functional, and then a lot of ongoing maintenance to keep it online and reliable (that was my experience anyway).
@Phil_Wilko where is the best place to purchase an AU915 Laird gateway for use in Australia?
I am wanting to set up a network on my old mans farm and am weighing up costs of going a DIY option like (RAK831) or a commercial solution.
I used Mouser though there are other suppliers and I am sure they have similar pricing.
Mouser cost AU$340 and was delivered to my door within a week.
If you want, you can buy my RAK831, as it has been moved permanently into retirement since the arrival of the Laird !!!
Hmm decisions decisions. I’ll have a think and get back to you @Phil_Wilko
Whats the lowest cost you’ve been able to setup nodes for? The lowest quote I’ve got for plug n play nodes is $420 (batteries) and $520 (with solar).
I assume you can do them much cheaper if you DIY.
Nodes are a different ballgame from gateways! TTN Marketplace is a good place to start. There is a lot to read on these forums related to DIY nodes. I am not sure the criticality of the data you are collecting so I am not sure what the best advice is.
I have installed many DIY sensors as the cost (per sensor) for the commercial products is still too high for my particular business use cases. If, for example, your father’s farm wanted to know soil moisture levels right across his farm covering Australian distances, I would imagine you would be better developing (lots and lots) of DIY soil moisture nodes yourself. If your father just wants to know when the water tank level has dropped below some level, then a single commercial plug and play level sensor is your optimal solution.
Roger,
To start with I would be doing a few things, soil moisture, weather station, maybe a few tank level sensors. So I would be hoping to build a heap of DIY nodes that were SDI12 compatible and then hook up the relevant sensors.
How much would you be wiling to sell the rak831 unit for?
@DPI-OAI Would you have any wisdom for me given that you might have some LoRa farm experience over in Orange?
I’m based in Mudgee and wanting to build a LoRawan network on farm as cheap as possible. Have got an engineering background so not afraid of modifying code. Currently thinking:
Cheers,
Tim
Hi @tlmort91,
I can only comment on what I have used.
The indoor Laird is currently working fine, and is an easy setup with TTN. Outdoor I am using Multitech and they offer additional features but at greater cost.
The Adafruit Feather M0 LoRa board has proven to be quite robust and easy to program. There is an SDI-12 library available that works fine. There is another US manufacturer for soil moisture/temperature sensors that work great at 3v3 so run straight off the board with a Lithium battery (the EnviroPro need min 9v).
ThingsBoard,io is good. Also have a look at ThingSpeak for an easy display/storage solution.
Given your location, maybe send me a PM and we can discuss offline as well.
Thanks Gents,
I think it looks like its worth my time going for the Laird unit. If I was to buy the Laird gateway, what would I then have to buy to build a node that could connect to the gateway? I’m still a bit of a rookie so apologies if I am way off the mark.
As far as I am aware, this might include:
What else would I need? Happy for you to point me in the right direction if this sort of stuff has been answered elsewhere.
Cheers,
Tim
I understand that but I want to know what commercial gateways offer that I can not find in DIY?
I love to DIY things, but when it comes to customer solutions, all the factors together make commercial products more cost effective.
But everyone is different. The reasons above are my own observations.
I’m with you that for end customer paid deployments go commercial most of the time but its a bit like the early days of PC’s - build vs buy? - buy as you say ‘should’ improve things and reduce risk but the good thing about build is that you learn more yourself - and those working with you, get better understanding of what is involved to fix yourself if needed - commercial GW may be on RMA cycle times etc vs a quick fix if you know what to do, and of course you might get chance to look at ‘upgrade’s’ etc. (think adding RAM/HD/GPX/change case etc. in PC equivalent…)
…you literally pay your money and take your choice 