I believe in the UK setting a node to a static frequency is technically illegal. All the commercial nodes we have prevent this. But I understand for home experiments the cost savings etc. All multi-channel gateways on TTN should follow their rules configuration wise - 8 channels / correct frequency. The nodes we use allow switching from 16 to 8 channels. I just ensure everything complies with the TTN rules.
Hello
I had successfully setup an Heltec Wifi LoRa 868 MHz Esp 32 board with this software gateway version dedicated in the past to 8266. https://github.com/things4u/ESP-1ch-Gateway-v5.0
Today the uptodate version is 5.3.3 (August 25, 2018) and ESP32 board as TTGO are supported .
It’s easy to add another ESP32 board as Heltec ( few parameters to modify in ESP-sc-gway.h and loraModem.h files).
This version has an improved Downlink function. Work for SF8-SF10. Does not work reliable for SF7, SF11, SF12.
I have tested successfully with TTN server uplink and downlink with ttb-abp software (ABP LoRa device from examples of LMIC-arduino library https://github.com/matthijskooijman/arduino-lmic)
As stated in version 5.3.3 notes, download is not fully reliable
By performing a dump on the output interface of my Raspberry I see the traffic being forwarded to the Handlers, the ones do not have a valid Radius request response in my understanding.
20:56:03.683957 IP 192.168.88.243.55983 > 13.76.168.68.1700: RADIUS, Access-Request (1), id: 0x79 length: 237
20:56:03.684575 IP 192.168.88.243.55983 > 52.62.83.250.1700: RADIUS, Access-Request (1), id: 0x79 length: 237
20:56:04.053008 IP 13.76.168.68.1700 > 192.168.88.243.55983: [|radius]
20:56:04.125858 IP 52.62.83.250.1700 > 192.168.88.243.55983: [|radius]
20:56:10.090125 IP 192.168.88.243.55983 > 13.76.168.68.1700: RADIUS, Access-Request (1), id: 0x3b length: 236
20:56:10.090841 IP 192.168.88.243.55983 > 52.62.83.250.1700: RADIUS, Access-Request (1), id: 0x3b length: 236
20:56:10.463806 IP 13.76.168.68.1700 > 192.168.88.243.55983: [|radius]
20:56:10.535532 IP 52.62.83.250.1700 > 192.168.88.243.55983: [|radius]I found a solution! I am working with Raspi and the single_chan_pkt_fwd application to send to the TTN handlers, well, since Rasp has two network interfaces (eth0 and wlan0) I deleted my gateway record in TTN with the eth0 network card MAC and made a new one Register with the MAC of the wlan0 card, now the Gateway is online!
Hope it helps our friends!
Did any of you connected single channel gateways with GSM module to Internet? Do you have some schematics and code?
I want to make that if my board (ESP32, ESP8266) doesn’t have WiFi connection, turns on GSM module (SIM800L), and connects with it on server.
Thanks 
That’s not really a question/related for this topic… ’ connecting your single channel gateway with 800l chip ’
I suggest to open a separate topic for this subject.
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Hi everyone !
I had successfully setup a RasperryPi+RFM95W single channel gateway with the code from https://github.com/hallard/single_chan_pkt_fwd but i am stuck on a problem with The Things Network. Btw my end node (for testing purpose) is an im880b and i am using the ABP activation. This node is sending messages at 3 different frequencies 868,1MHz, 868,3MHz, 868,5MHz. But i take into account only the one at 868,1 because my gateway is set at 868,1 with SF7BW125.
The problem is that i dont see any messages in the application console on TTN ! I checked on the TTN gateway console and I noticed that my DevAddr are almost all the time wrong. It’s supposed to be 26 01 19 08 :
I am really lost on where the problem can come from. I tried my ABP activation with a multi channel gateway (sx1308 picocell gateway from semtech) and everything is working fine (the DevAddr is never wrong) so i suppose the problem doesnt come from my end node and comes from the gateway. Maybe there is a frequency to set for the udp transmission in the single_chan_pkt_fwd code ? If someone can helps me it would be nice because i really dont know what to do now.
Thank you all !
How close is the node to the gateway? You need at least some meter.
Around 7 meters, do you think it’s not enough ? Do you think the problem only come from the distance and there is no mistake about DevAddr or a UDP frequency to set in the code ?
Thanks I will try to test with a longest distance this afternoon !
UDP does not have a frequency. It might also happen that you have other LoRaWAN nodes around, or LoRa, or even non-LoRa transmission around you. However, looking at numbers, this seems not the case (random counters, as one example). 7 meters is not bad.
I suddenly remember to have had some similar problem with the same gateway software; did you try to restart it?
By the way, I went with a different version of the same software that also should allow for downlinks (the Hallard one does not).
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Just disable, in your LoRa device, frequencies not received by gateway
LMIC_setupChannel(0, 868100000, DR_RANGE_MAP(DR_SF12, DR_SF7), BAND_CENTI); // g-band
for (int i = 1; i <= 8; i++) LMIC_disableChannel(i); // Only channel 0 is enabled
I am sure the messages come from my node because i see it in real time appearing in my terminal and if you look carefully i noticed that every DevAddr has the form XX XX 26 01 or XX XX 19 08 ! And the real DevAddr is 26 01 19 08. What can produce this kind of mistake ?
Yes but this other version is using 2 RFM95W ? i would like to use only one
Regarding the errors, try restarting the gateway, and also to stay far if possible (but 7 meters should be ok). Regarding the other version, read carefully the linked post.
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Thank you so much i restarted my gateway and now everything is working fine !!
For everybody who’s interested:
I have compared a single channel gateway with a very expensive commercial one.
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Both ‘Gateways’ are using the same LoRa device in effect, you would expect the range to be the same, no surprise there at all.
That’s a very suggestive description.
A single channel gateway is of course not a LoRaWAN compliant gateway.
Therefore the ‘whether worthwhile’ is quite misleading.
Initially a LoRaWAN gateway was relatively expensive, but these days a TTIG can be bought for less than € 100 and a RAK concentrator board based DIY gateway can be build starting for around € 125 (and up). With these prices and an assortment of available gateways there are currently no good reasons for having Single Channel ‘gateways’ anymore.
Single Channel ‘gateways’ actually negatively impact proper operation of regular LoRaWAN gateways.
So there is no case of ‘whether worthwhile’ here.
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From the article linked to;
“But I’m not a radio expert. I’ve heard that at least with Wifi you can say that 3 dBm more can double the range”
Why would WiFi be different to all other RF protocols ?
Perhaps you can correct that false impression your giving, as to double range you need a 6dBm advantage.
Indeed, and as the article specifically does not detail advantages\dissadvantages, readers are very likely to assume that as the range is similar (exactly as expected) then the extra expense of a compliant gateway is not worthwhile.
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