Looking for openwrt gateway

Gateways
21

Clearly you are the go-to-person for OpenWRT!

22

You may want to look at RAK7258 gateway, $150, will connect to TTN or can run standalone as a complete gateway and Lora server and built in mqtt…

I have a few of them deployed and they work very well… 8 channels, openwrt

23

Synchronicity??
I just ordered it a couple of days ago and today it is on the way to arrive. I am quite impressed with the overall value of rak7258 as advertised, and really glad to hear your feedback. Can’t wait to do all the openwrt fun with lorawan.

What’s the max range have you tried with this?
Which version of openwrt does it come with?

24

Enough already - almost all the gateways in the world use the same Semtech design & chip set so it’s down to you to give it a decent antenna in a good location for your range question. The antenna it comes with will be fine for indoor use but if you are hoping for 10’s of km, you’ll need to sort out an external one.

And, to be blunt, no one cares what version of OpenWRT it comes with because we don’t buy them to play with OpenWRT, we buy them to be a gateway. RAK do a good job of shipping a variety of gateways using different OS’s but they haven’t said which OpenWRT is on the box, principally as it will depend on where in the pile yours was when it was built and which warehouse it has been sitting in and for how long.

The datasheet doesn’t mention the version, I can’t see any information on how to rebuild OpenWRT for it nor do they provide the additional files to allow you to do that but they do update the firmware frequently. At worst, you do a rebuild and then use a packet forwarder at the command line.

28

This is not only unhelpful but also factually false.
The reality is that all of RAK’s OpenWrt gateways ship with 15.05

This is because they all use the MT7628, for which Mediatek abandoned support several years ago. No new versions with a Mediatek WiFi driver will ever exist. There are efforts to make newer versions with a non-Mediatek driver but RAK isn’t following those. Vendor support of the MT7628 both starts and ends with the single 15.05 OpenWrt release.

And one should care. The SoC is a decent tool for the job, but the fact that it can only run a rather old 3.18.45 kernel (it’s the kernel version to which the WiFi driver is locked) is something a buyer should be aware of. In theory, you can try the non-Mediatek supported releases, you may be able to get this to work by forward porting RAK’s handful of changes, who knows - WiFi isn’t all that important to a field deployed gateway, though it can be handy at earlier stages.

29

A rather unfocused assertion I feel. I definitely can’t find any RAK published information on which version of OpenWRT these gateways come with and I receive product directly from RAK with varying levels of firmware due to which warehouse, when it was made etc etc. And I definitely can’t find build instructions.

I can find third party reports, but they age.

I appreciate that my opening statement was rather broad & assumptive. Perhaps that’s the bit that is factually false?

30

principally as it will depend on where in the pile yours was when it was built and which warehouse it has been sitting in and for how long.

This is utterly false.

RAK has only ever used a single OpenWrt version, 15.05, because that is both the first and last version supported by the SoC vendor.

There are multiple version of the gateway system image, but they are all OpenWrt 15.05 - what’s going to differ are RAK’s custom components.

31

As they haven’t released information on which version of OpenWRT they use, and the products that arrive here come with varying levels of firmware, I think I made a reasonable assumption.

Your inside knowledge is useful, but somewhat bluntly delivered.

32

Alright people, I’ll need to step in here a bit.

  1. Please try to provide links so that things are evident.
  2. Be civil to one another. I got notified of some flagged posts in this thread.

Great information here and super relevant also, but let’s be nicer and work together on this one.

3 Likes
33

Yes, I can recommend the Dragino LG308. It’s open and based on OpenWRT.

35

I am developing dusun’s DSGW-090B loRaWAN gateway with OpenWRT system. You can ask them for the SDK and develop your application on the gateway. Currently their gateway’s OpenWRT version is 19.03, they are upgrading to the latest 22.03 version, and they upgrade the gateway’s system firmware quarterly. you can check the website: The Things Network Gateway - dusuniot
Hopes it will helps you.

36

Looks neat - are there any distributors in Europe. And do we have to get a quote if we just want to buy one for evaluation?

1 Like
37

You can buy it from their shop: Dusun Mtk7628n Os Openwrt 8-channel Long Distance Wi-fi 2.4g/5g Indoor Lite Lorawan Gateway - Buy Indoor Lite Lorawan Gateway,Lite Lorawan Gateway,Long Distance Lorawan Gateway Product on Alibaba.com

38

Aliexpress is simple, Alibaba always seems to turn in to a blizzard of paperwork on the basis that you are importing large quantities for resale.

And at $184, that’s a fair bit more than the RAK gateway that has the same chipset.

And it’s not a known brand - do you have any users in the EU who we can ask questions?

3 Likes