Finished Opensource Raspberry Pi Gateway Hat (SX1301/8 base)

Gateways Raspberry Pi Gateways
43

Hi,
I I’m not able to boot the board. I soldered all pins, including POE and followed the guide.

It says:

loragw_pkt_logger: INFO: FSK channel enabled, radio 1 selected, IF 300000 Hz, 125000 Hz bandwidth, 50000 bps datarate
loragw_pkt_logger: INFO: global_conf.json does contain a JSON object named gateway_conf, parsing gateway parameters
loragw_pkt_logger: INFO: gateway MAC address is configured to FE000100FF000001
loragw_pkt_logger: ERROR: failed to start the concentrator

No lights on the board. 2.0A power source on my raspberry pi 3B+.

Do I miss something?

44

I’ve added localisation options and wifi setup and now it seems to work!!!
So great! I will let you know what happened exactly when I finish investigating…

45

Hi @aizukanne do you posted the source opensource?

I’m looking for a solution that uses the board so I don’t write something it’s already done and working. If you will not opensource it. Can you tell me if you forked another one or you started from scratch?

Thank you.

46

Hi @gaguilar
Please clarify, are looking for the LoRa Packet Forwarder solution or the dashboard?

47

Hi, the packet forwarder but I must confess that dashboard looked so nice that I was also looking for it. It seems you are using grafana with some sort of metrics sending. Right?

48

Yes I am using grafana pulling data from influxdb.

About the forwarder, @will3509111 sent me these links. I used that to setup painlessly.


Hope that helps.

49

Yes. I was not aware that plain packet forwarder can work out of the box. I thought it requires modifications to deal with specialized chips sx1301/8 on board.

Another question. I was using the util_pkt_logger, with the black antenna @will3509111 shown in one of the pictures. I’m getting about 100m coverage that’s too low from the measurements other people is doing.

Do you put a RF Frontend?

I don’t understand if that’s the antenna or just I’m doing something wrong…

50

A lot of antennas though identified as 868MHz are not actually centered at 868MHz. With a good antenna your range should be a few Kilometers with clear line of sight. What SNR and RSSI do you have at 100m?

Have you tried with a different antenna? The simple 1/4 wavelength antenna is a good point to start. For me it has performed better than most purchased so called 868Mhz.

Best bet is to test with an antenna resonance tester. I don’t have one but i understand it shows you the frequency to which an antenna is tuned.

51

That’s pretty weird result, have you check the SNR and RSSI?
RF Frontend is onboard now(V3), so it should be plug and play.

52

When they are received I have:

RSSI SNR
-61 +10.0
-90 +9.5
-105 +7.5
-109 +5.0
-119 -5.5
-117 -5.5
-117 -5.8
-111 +5.5
-118 -2.8
53

Any walls between them?

54

I’m wondering if I bough an antenna for different frequency since I saw that on Will setup. And he’s not in 868Mhz. https://www.seeedstudio.com/LoRa-Antenna-Kit-p-2787.html

That’s the one I have. I’m talking with a fellow to make some 868 tested antennas. That must be the problem I checked source code and node is transmitting full power.

Maybe we can follow this in personal messages since it will clobber this thread. I appreciate a lot your help!

55

Hi, when I go outside yes. The antenna is inside the house. Maybe leaving it outside measurements will be a lot better. But even inside the house I expect to have few km (1 or 2). But I get roughly less 100m. It’s so sad… :wink: I suppose I have a problem on node transmission.

Basically using this one: LoRa32U4 II V1.2 Development Board | Home

I bought 4 of them I will try the four, and if that doesn’t work I will use @will3509111 setup to just act as node, to try find where the problem is.

56

HI Will,

I bought new software on the nodes. https://bsfrance.fr/lora-long-range/1345-LoRa32u4-II-Lora-LiPo-Atmega32u4-SX1276-HPD13-868MHZ-EU-Antenna.html

Basically from the original store just to be sure there’s no counterfeit chips. But I got exactly same result. 64m.

The antenna is this one:
https://bsfrance.fr/lora-long-range/1356-antenna-868mhz-2dbi-with-sma-ufl-ipex-cable-antenna-868mhz-2dbi-avec-cable-ipx.html

What do you think it can be? Why such low distance?

Do you think it could be any trouble with PCB. I will try other one in my purchase to discard problems in the on I’m using.

57

These are the packets when I go out to 64m and then back.
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:4038420179,“time”:“2018-08-10T12:58:44.864258Z”,“tmms”:1217941143864,“chan”:0,“rfch”:1,“freq”:868.100000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:10.2,“rssi”:-87,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaAAAABFUkOB1/9GbOC6JpTdCmy3dBqfw6A”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:4070599547,“time”:“2018-08-10T12:59:17.043709Z”,“tmms”:1217941176043,“chan”:1,“rfch”:1,“freq”:868.300000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:8.8,“rssi”:-82,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaAAQAB2YANjqM2KP632fQs6NBk3dsWRZj4”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:4102779139,“time”:“2018-08-10T12:59:49.223382Z”,“tmms”:1217941208223,“chan”:2,“rfch”:1,“freq”:868.500000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:7.8,“rssi”:-90,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaAAgABTvLvPLvz6HyezWYJ+fCRUuNUUdgY”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:4134958531,“time”:“2018-08-10T13:00:21.402855Z”,“tmms”:1217941240402,“chan”:3,“rfch”:0,“freq”:867.100000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:1.2,“rssi”:-114,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaAAwABs3Lq+5eGHmKWrTWvjdzxrPH7foKj”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:4167137691,“time”:“2018-08-10T13:00:53.582098Z”,“tmms”:1217941272581,“chan”:4,“rfch”:0,“freq”:867.300000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:-2.8,“rssi”:-118,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaABAABNIhnIiBd6YQgC3fdLzWIJYwi0VlP”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:888483,“time”:“2018-08-10T13:03:02.300514Z”,“tmms”:1217941401300,“chan”:0,“rfch”:1,“freq”:868.100000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:6.2,“rssi”:-108,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaACAABhxq2Y+TcadVW9Q8iKIuDCboHXcJQ”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:33067403,“time”:“2018-08-10T13:03:34.479515Z”,“tmms”:1217941433479,“chan”:1,“rfch”:1,“freq”:868.300000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:9.0,“rssi”:-88,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaACQABW0AUyRq5kjMSJO7NsDJ01vXaGVcu”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:99300267,“time”:“2018-08-10T13:04:40.712547Z”,“tmms”:1217941499712,“chan”:2,“rfch”:1,“freq”:868.500000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:7.8,“rssi”:-60,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaAAAABFUkOB1/9GbOC6JpTdCmy3dBqfw6A”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:131478971,“time”:“2018-08-10T13:05:12.891332Z”,“tmms”:1217941531890,“chan”:3,“rfch”:0,“freq”:867.100000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:10.8,“rssi”:-59,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaAAQAB2YANjqM2KP632fQs6NBk3dsWRZj4”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:163657667,“time”:“2018-08-10T13:05:45.070107Z”,“tmms”:1217941564069,“chan”:4,“rfch”:0,“freq”:867.300000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:8.2,“rssi”:-73,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaAAgABTvLvPLvz6HyezWYJ+fCRUuNUUdgY”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:228014860,“time”:“2018-08-10T13:06:49.427460Z”,“tmms”:1217941628427,“chan”:6,“rfch”:0,“freq”:867.700000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:-6.0,“rssi”:-90,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaABAABNIhnIiBd6YQgC3fdLzWIJYwi0VlP”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:280886667,“time”:“2018-08-10T13:07:42.299399Z”,“tmms”:1217941681298,“chan”:0,“rfch”:1,“freq”:868.100000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:-2.2,“rssi”:-91,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaAAAABFUkOB1/9GbOC6JpTdCmy3dBqfw6A”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:313065219,“time”:“2018-08-10T13:08:14.478031Z”,“tmms”:1217941713477,“chan”:1,“rfch”:1,“freq”:868.300000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:-3.0,“rssi”:-90,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaAAQAB2YANjqM2KP632fQs6NBk3dsWRZj4”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:345243779,“time”:“2018-08-10T13:08:46.656672Z”,“tmms”:1217941745656,“chan”:2,“rfch”:1,“freq”:868.500000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:-7.0,“rssi”:-91,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaAAgABTvLvPLvz6HyezWYJ+fCRUuNUUdgY”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:441779596,“time”:“2018-08-10T13:10:23.192730Z”,“tmms”:1217941842192,“chan”:5,“rfch”:0,“freq”:867.500000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:1.5,“rssi”:-90,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaABQABjJn8j9kxCCgScJgge4ScP3BMcfL1”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:506139396,“time”:“2018-08-10T13:11:27.552690Z”,“tmms”:1217941906553,“chan”:7,“rfch”:0,“freq”:867.900000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:-5.0,“rssi”:-93,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaABwAB8v6a8LUWpFiCCIKlPMZEqZ8VJmWV”}]}
JSON up: {“rxpk”:[{“tmst”:570496547,“time”:“2018-08-10T13:12:31.910002Z”,“tmms”:1217941970910,“chan”:1,“rfch”:1,“freq”:868.300000,“stat”:1,“modu”:“LORA”,“datr”:“SF7BW125”,“codr”:“4/5”,“lsnr”:8.8,“rssi”:-71,“size”:30,“data”:“QFEbASaACQABW0AUyRq5kjMSJO7NsDJ01vXaGVcu”}]}

58

The most weird thing is that RSSI suddenly drop ~24dB,
Even if the antenna or any thing is wrong, the RSSI will drop linearly, since the distance is the only factor “changes” Link budget while moving.
What happened or added to the RF path between the two position?

But still which antenna you were using on the GW?
I can’t source 868Mhz antenna so I ship without antenna for 868Mhz…

59

I used the one I told above and switched to the one here also for the GW just to see if it changes.

with no changes. Do you think it can be the antenna?

Think also we are inside a building where the GW is powered on, I walked to the street with a battery connected to the USB on the node and waled away. But even inside a building and moving away I would expect at least 1 km, not just 100m.

Do you think software has something to do?

Client node is built on this:

http://git.level2crm.com/arduino/level2-lora-gps/blob/master/arduino/src/ttn_abp.cpp

Gateway has the software you described in your tutorial.

60

What materials are used for the building? Keep in mind lorawan is very low power and modern building materials are extremely good at shielding RF signals. (Near to me new homes have been build where people need to go outside to use their mobile while in my home 500 meters away I have all bars ‘lit’)

61

I’ll suggest using larger dB gain antenna like 6dB omnidirectional antenna or larger.
6dB might able to push more then double current distance, larger dB gain if you want to push to 1Km.

Another way is to increase the Node power, there is some LoRa module with PA,
which will help in this situation.

62

I don’t think the building is special. Old way construction. But anyway this week I will do some measurements outside. I think the antenna can be the turning point. Though would expect more distance even with 2dbi antenna. 64m is less than expected.