I don’t have a lot of money to spend on contributing to the network or the community., but I have just set up my first 2 single channel packet forwarders
an RPi2 with this quirky little board I bought from MicroRobotics in Stellenbosch Elecrow - you guys rock, although you hadn’t much more of an idea how to use this board than I did - .nss pin is WiringPi pin 11, the rest as per default hallard SCPF RPi config, for those who want to be saved some pain
I had to read quite a bit to get those working and neither is stable yet, but one thing I learned is that single channel packet forwarders are not really in the interests of TTN - they have kind of evolved in the way that only open source software can, because people always find a way. Since I understand the concerns with such mutant, non-compliant beasts once they are out there in the wild, and the implications for the network as a whole, I thought maybe there is a middle way. It’s a stretch even for our European collaborators for fork out €300 for a TTN gateway, or €190 for an IMST iC880A concentrator board plus a spare RPi2/3 to make a full blown, compliant gateway. More so for us with our dominant Rand Then I also saw that people are building multi-channel packet forwarders with multiple RFM95W breakouts - how cool is that? So my proposal/question for the Western Cape Community is this:
Can we not roll out a whole bunch of these devices that satisfy the minimum requirements of TTN so that the cost is distributed in a way that we can all afford and the network is not compromised by isolated non-compliant devices?
wow! that’s a pretty good deal. even with the US$65 shipping.
They have some bigger units that they are mentioning but have not got for sale (or any public info on yet) that could be interesting to know about when they finish their website.
Would love to see this pico unit opened up for use with other systems. it’s only a kinetis K64F - if there’s any good quality lorawan gateway stack software available to use, might be possible to just take that and make 3rd party firmware for it.
The Pico is not supported for use with TTN. They’ll sell you one, and hand you some documentation and sample files, but don’t expect them to answer any questions.
It might be supported in the future, but isn’t now. I’m sending mine back.
I forgot to mention that the Pico goes silent after about 90 minutes. Stops forwarding packets. Definitely do not buy one until Tektelic advertises and provides TTN support.
Thanks, that’s helpful to know. It’s listed here: https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/gateways/start/list.html
’This gateway is an easy-to-configure gateway, advertised as a plug-and-play pico gateway.'
And @adrewetx here Read LoRaWan Sensor directly
describes Tektelic gateways as easy to configure.
I wonder whether TTN core team members might find it possible and useful to communicate with Tektelic about getting clear documentation for making their gateways readily TTN-compatible.
Thanks for your respnses. Point about multiple antennae taken, although cost is again the only real hurdle there as LoRaWAN is highly resilient to noise, so it should be ok. Unless ther is some other point I’m missing.
configuration wasn’t easy but I’m happy to help others after going through their tech support. I needed new binary and config files and their docs are not great. if more people are buying them (best price going right now), then I’ll make a config script for this gateway.
Very… it’s solid and a good price. Lots of devices using this gateway even though its indoors. But… only config via TFTP, so it’s not just a few clicks to get it to use different networks. Some strangeness about it always using zero for snr and rssi too (support never answered this, probably cut some corners on their low end?)
I’ll post the latest bin and config files here if you need them.
I didn’t receive any user guide or documentation with the device, and the user guide I found online all it said about configuring it was to plug power and network into it haha.
Where did you get the binaries from?
I found a configuration User Guide on support.tektelic.com/portal, which says about the firmware but can’t find anywhere to download it from
Then I also saw that people are building multi-channel packet forwarders with multiple RFM95W breakouts - how cool is that? So my proposal/question for the Western Cape Community is this: