The hard RAK831 cafe part 1

Yes, this board is a full-featured 8-channel gateway just like the iC880.

Also working on a ā€œPi-RAKā€ too. Rather than mounting the board upside down (Spacing seems a bit tight ) I thought of mounting the boards end to end and adding GPS and OLED options. 128x32 OLED on board or the usual 128x64 modules through header pins, BME280 too rather than monitor core temp. GPS USB is not really needed.
Still work in progress. All components on board are entirely optional of course.

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Wouldnā€™t it be very hard to get to the sdcard slot with the RAK831 module at that side? How about positioning the RAK831 next to the RPi I/O connector?

An update for those who had followed my AliExpress (mis)adventures: RAKWireless contacted me directly as the payment was denied, and they had no problems accepting a Paypal payment instead.
So if thatā€™s the way you want to pay for your order, simply contact their sales services.

Now all I have to do is for the parcel to arrive!

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If you use an adapter ā€˜hatā€™ (or another hat) ā€¦ is it then still possible to use the display connector ?

I see some names I recognizeā€¦ congrats RAK contest winners :sunglasses:

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That depends on the design of the hat. For official hats the answer should be yes, however I donā€™t think any of the current designs meets the official ā€˜hatā€™ criteria.

For two of the current designs (kilobyte and mine [looks like kilobytes with the RAK831 connector near the RPi USB connectors]) I think it should work. For the Olabec design I think the position of the RAK831 connector combined with the PCB footprint will make it hard or even impossible to connect the cable and keep it undamaged.

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Ok. I have another layout. RAK and Pi side by side. RAK LEDs are still visible. All connectors available on Pi.

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I bought one yesterday.
And YES I will design a RPI adaptation board. Probably by the end of august.
Iā€™ll post the Kicad sources and gerber file on GitHub. And make a small qyantity (10 - 2 for me , 8 for anyone / 2 or 10 are the same price :slight_smile: )

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There are already 3 adapter board designs. Why add another one? Once Iā€™ve been able to validate my PCB Iā€™ll gladly post the (DesignSpark PCB) files. My PCBs are in production so its a matter of waiting for them to arrive from China. (3-4 weeks)

Yes you are right. I posted to early then I realized there are already Hats done.
Iā€™ll will probably focuse on a RPIZero size hat then

I had not considered the RPi Zero yet, that might be a nice addition to the line-up.

I would just need to add an external antenna to it because of the steel enclosures Iā€™m using for gateways.

Iā€™m also making one, so that are four :wink: . Mine will be compatible with RPI Zero and NanoPi Neo, and include some protection circuitry on power and SPI lines, and maybe some pins to connect to my SIM5320 shield. Iā€™m dusting off my plans for a fully stand-alone guerilla gateway again :smile: .

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Iā€™m thinking about making the PCB as small as possible to attach it to the antenna and feed it wit POE power.

what about a real mobile pocket gateway :sunglasses:

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Is any of the many in-progress boards going to cost less than 10 bucks? :wink:

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Wow, so 5 :wink: adapters in less than a month, this little gateway board is really picking up!

I think RAK are also planning an official adapter and case eventually.

Is there a reason most people stay with the ā€˜fullā€™ RasPi and not cheaper boards such as the Zero or NanoPi? In my experience a whole RasPi is quite overkill just to forward packets :nerd_face: .

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the difference in price is not that much and thereā€™s a lot more info and projects available, there is a life after LoRaWAN :sunglasses:
also ā€¦ I donā€™t mind if the final enclosure is 7 cm wider, its not important for a ā€˜modemā€™

Also, the original Zero (as pictured in above post) needed quite some additional investment for network access, and availability of a bare Zero (without some starter package) was bad.

I donā€™t know how availability of the Zero W has been since its release in February, but Kiwi Electronics in the Netherlands still only allows one per customer! (And the same still applies to the first Zero.)

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