But now you have log files to look at. Is anything showing up at ttn console page for your gateway? Secondly, you should see rxpk messages in raspberry pi system log. When the ttn recognizes the join request, you’ll see a txpk message on your pi, even if your node doesn’t see it. Iow, you have more visibility of what might be going wrong. Once you are sending the correct ID and key information, you should see data traffic on the ttn console device page. If it’s an option, I would suggest working towards getting ABP working first.
Edit: make sure you have five or ten feet of distance between the node and the gateway. BTW, you are seeing your gateway as being connected on the ttn page, right? And you should see the “last seen” updating every 30 or 60 seconds, regardless of what you are doing with your node. Be aware that the traffic view in the ttn console is browser cached, meaning you only see what happens when that page is already open in your browser. Once you hit refresh to reload the page, it’s all cleared out. Switching between gateway and application on the console clears the browser cache too. You might want to add an application integration to permanently store some of the data. It’s really easy.
Edit 2:. You want a data storage integration.