LDS02 not joining - Range issue?

LoRaWAN LoRaWAN Discussions
1

Hi,

I am a newbie. I got a LDS02 and I thought i could connect to a publicly available gateway on TTN. Unfortunately when adding the device to the portal. I get the following error:

No activity yet

{
  "time": "2023-12-14T19:28:48.018Z",
  "name": "synthetic.error.unknown",
  "isError": true,
  "isSynthetic": true,
  "unique_id": "synthetic.1702582128018",
  "data": {
    "error": "Error: timeout"
  }
}

Please can you help me check if my device should be the range of a gateway.
My device’s latitude,longitude is 45.75953320387659, 4.789259169782912

Many thanks
Jag

2

saying a gateway are close by and you should be in range is difficulty

you need to know what the terrain is like - buildings hills trees … in between the node and gateway

their is a gateway 2.07km (222°) and one at 3.46 km (72°)

you need to check the the terrain between you and the gateway

even better expand the community and install your own gatewat

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3

Hi @Piet_Pillay, thank you for your reply. Please can you share how you found out which gateways were nearby and the distance / direction ?
2km / 3.5km does not seem to far away but I understand that the terrain / situation could be an issue. But Could it be a misconfiguration on my end ? I have followed the instructions here

Also, would love to add my own gateway but my first experiment relied on the fact that there is no internet connection nor power to be used by the gateway.

4

The LDS02 is a tiny tiny device with a tiny tiny antenna. You will need to be within a 100m or less for it to work.

Search the forum for all the discussions on range - 2km / 3.5km is not far with a decent sized antenna on a device outdoors that has direct unimpeded line of sight to a gateway’s antenna.

And search the forum for how to find gateways - map on the TTN home page and TTNMapper.org!

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5

you can look at https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/map as well all the gateways are on this page

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6

if you are far from a gateway in urban area and you have a lot of clutter i am not sure how well they will work

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7

@jaguarg sadly I think where you are to the western side of the raised ground in the area precluded hitting the ‘LYON’ gw which is settled well down in the valley between the rivers in the area around Rue Terme and the Hotel de Ville area. A combination of woodland? building clutter and the extended high ground towards you away from the valley escarpment means chance of coverage from there is poor if not impossible. Similarly, I think the slightly closer gw down in the direction of Frencheville is low set also and therefore high probability that it is masked by the high ground to the west of Jeunet even without any building clutter.

Best option is move or extend the Community by placing your own GW :slight_smile: :+1:

image

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Also I suspect the SW Gw is not always online - TTN Map may show gw’s for weeks after last seen where TTNMapper likely drops after a few days… it shows on former but not the latter.

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8

Thank you @descartes @Jeff-UK @Piet_Pillay for your replies.
I will try again from another place and see if at least I can get the device joining.
I am also investigation the best option (cheapest) for a gateway to grow the network :wink:

9

That’s easy - it’s a TTIG, typically under €100 - more of a local indoor gateway but you can modify it for an external antenna and put it in the window for more range.

and the official docs, ignore the pink message, it’s global to all the old docs:

https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/gateways/thethingsindoor/


But what you REALLY want to be doing is telling us what you want to do, even if only vaguely, so we can help you avoid poor buying decisions!

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10

Thank you, I will get the TTIG

There are several use case for home monitoring . in my home and my holiday home.
At home, I wanted to monitor the state of the garage door. I have no internet connection there. I live on the second floor and the garage is just below my balcony. Having a gateway in the appartment should be ok. Ideally I wanted to avoid having a gateway.

For the holiday home it is more tricky. I want to monitor presence, temperature, door and windows open/close. There I don’t have internet access. That is why I was keen to try connection to an available gateway. My holiday place is located here lat 50.640450948017886, lng 3.06072599084507.

I so enthusiastic about lorawan. Have the first use cases working will trigger more ideas I am sure :wink:

11

Huh? One working at home doesn’t equate to one working at your holiday place.

LoRaWAN is all about low cost sensors reporting back to a LoRaWAN Network Server (LNS) via one or more gateways and the gateway to LNS requires some comms that end up on the internet. If there is mobile coverage you can get a gateway that can use a mobile connection. However if you have what is in effect a burglar alarm + a temp sensor, then LoRaWAN becomes questionable, it may be simpler to use other tech. If you have devices all around the property - not just the building but the surrounding area, then LW does make more sense.

FYI, after about 5 decimal places you end up in to cm territory, so no need to be so super accurate!

Using the map links above you can look at potential coverage - in the mean while, will you be there over the New Year and if not, can I just let myself in?

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12

their are 3 gateways in that area

1.14, 1.69 and 2.13

terrain seems fairly flat again you will need to test to see if you have coverage

image

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13

@descartes

Using the map links above you can look at potential coverage - in the mean while, will you be there over the New Year and if not, can I just let myself in?

You can try … not the actual precise coordinates :wink:
I agree with your comment re: use case. I am really in the learning phase, want to experiment and see the potential of the technology.

14

Excellent thank you @Piet_Pillay
I will give it a try next week-end when I am over there.

15

@jaguarg indeed very flat in relative terms - maybe 8-10m range of height variance so if sensor at reasonable height (not on the ground) and GW’s also reasonably high then it will be down to the scale of any building clutter and absorbers.

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16

So not only are you incapable to looking up gateways yourself, you are happy to waste volunteers time …

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