The hard RAK831 cafe part 3

Hello .
Some one can suggest me a tutorial about how can use ( rak831 + FT2232HL in ubuntu ) ?
thanks in advance

You may do better looking for info on the RAK833, which is basically the same LoRa concentrator as the RAK831, but has an optional FT2232H on-board. Then make sure you wire yours so that the SPI signals (and if you can, reset) are mapped to the FT2232H in the same way as the RAK831 does.

But it would really be better to use SPI if possible. Most embedded platforms should support that, the exception would be if you’re trying to use a PC.

Also have a look at the new RAK2245 its the same chips but in a different package and with an improved receiver.

That’s potentially very interesting for the next round of gateway builds given the improved heatsink situation.

However, I was recommending that @momo look at the setup documentation for using the RAK833 version with the build in FT2232H via USB in order to achieve their goal of using their existing RAK831 with an FT2232H. I wasn’t recommending that they go purchase a different concentrator than the one they already have - if they wire their RAK831 and FT2232H up like the internals of the RAK833, then they should be able to use the RAK833 USB instructions.

But if that was pre-purchase research then yes, avoiding USB would be best and the RAK2245 looks potentially better than the RAK831

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cslorabox, TonySmith thanks for your reaction !!
yes i have alredy rak831
i will try your proposition and keep you informeds.

I have multiple RAK831+rpi 3 868mhz gateways (complète product with enclosure from AliExpress, no hardware mods) where I have seen a problem with the util_pkt_logger. Every time I remove and put back the SMA antenna it stops receiving any messages. Even a slight touch/vibration on the antenna could cause this problem.

I have also seen other people in the forum getting this issue. But I don’t know if it is caused by the same thing.

A quick fix is to just reset the GPIO pin 17. But that’s not reliable.

Anyone having the same problem and or a fix? I am using this software: https://github.com/Lora-net/lora_gateway

Note: this should not be done with the device powered as if there is a Tx from the card during the time without ant/load there is a high chance of the Rf self destructing! :scream: or at least overload and later self annealing, leading to poor future performance/latent failure.

If doing this with device powered down and then restarting results in the unit appearing to be deaf then likely that is the system not effectively asserting reset on the Concentrator and/or an SPI speed issue. the causes and solutions for these are well documented on the forum (search) - GIFY.

This suggests either 1) antenna is not secured/screwed on correctly or 2) Ant defective or SMA pad is poorly constructed/part open circuit - check ant by substitution, open unit and inspect SMA landing pad for crack/bad solder joint - may be device has suffered impact damage or lateral stress! (Also check pin structure of SMA and Ant - too often I have seen female SMA Ant added to female SMA socket (i.e. neither side having a centre pin!) causing either no connect or at best capacitive coupling (poor) or very bad mechanical connection resulting in slight touch/movement loosing signal)…this is all basic trouble shooting… :slight_smile:

There is no connection with the packet forward used in this case as this is software only and it only act after any LoRa signal received and demodulated - the packet forwarder just sends the received decoded (if not decrypted!) packets on to the back end. Poor RF behaviour may result in increased CRC errors that result in dropped packets and no data being provided to the packet forwarder to send on…

@momo

You mean this? : http://docs.rakwireless.com/en/LoRa/RAK831-LoRa-Gateway/Software-Development/RAK831-FT2232HL-Quick-Start-Guide-V1.2.pdf.pdf

@Nordrunner
yes i had i look at this document but it not work well becose the repositery where is not exist:

git clone https://github.com/RAKWireless/RAK831_LoRaGateway.git
Cloning into ‘RAK831_LoRaGateway’…
remote: Repository not found.
fatal: repository ‘https://github.com/RAKWireless/RAK831_LoRaGateway.git/’ not found

Hi,

How can I enable beacons with mp_pkt_fwd?

I added this to config:
“beacon_period”: 128,
“beacon_freq_hz”: 869525000,
“beacon_datarate”: 9,
“beacon_bw_hz”: 125000,
“beacon_power”: 14,
“beacon_infodesc”: 0

I have working GPS on /dev/serial0 and PPS.

Still in logs:
INFO: GPS is enabled
INFO: Using real GPS if available.
INFO: Beaconing period is configured to 128 seconds
INFO: Beaconing signal will be emitted at 869525000 Hz
INFO: Upstream data is enabled
INFO: Downstream data is enabled
INFO: Ghoststream data is disabled
INFO: Radiostream data is enabled
INFO: Statusstream data is enabled
INFO: Beacon is disabled
and then…
### BEACON IS DISABLED!

Beacons in mp_pkt_fwd are not supported. I haven’t invested the time required to make beacons available because the TTN back-end does not support class B.

I still have a copy of that document (attached below):

RAK831-FT2232HL-Quick-Start-Guide-V1.2.pdf.pdf (1.8 MB)

I’m not sure if it will work with FT2232HL but the new repository for RAKwireless LoRaWAN concentrator boards is this one:


@rakwireless It is better to mark an existing (product related) github repository as depricated and add a link to a new repository than to delete the repository which causes broken links and user frustration.

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please, my RAK 831 Gateway is well set up and the gateway is receiving data as i can see on my raspberry terminal with “sudo tcpdump -AUq port 1700”. My challenge now is to sniff the lora packets directly from the gateway using Node-Red without having to connect to the things network. Is there a way i cam do this? this is a screenshot of data coming in from two nodes to my gateway.screen%20shot%20gateway

you could build a local server. not connected to TTN

thank you for your reply. well my aim is to use internet as minimally as possible, hence my need to use node red so as to maintain and all LoRa communication. to be clearer, i want to grab the packets directly from the gateway terminal as the arrive and save or log them to make graphs and chats of my sensor reading without needing to use internet of wifi to upload them.
Thanks

As already explained, you can run LoRaServer or similar locally. Or you could just run its gateway bridge and MQTT broker and get the data that way. Or you can listen to the UDP traffic, it is documented in a file at the top level of packet forwarder source code, took me a few hours to put together something in python to collect and reformat it (I can’t share that code as it belongs to a client, but get a python UDP “echo server” example and a python JSON example and put them together informed by the semtech format documentation).

But realize that you are going to have to implement decoding for the packed and encrypted LoRa traffic. And if you want anything like adaptive data rate or over the air activation, you will have to implement support for that too. So you’ll actually end up building your own LoRaWAN server to run locally. If you have unique needs that can make sense, if you don’t you might use an existing piece of software.

This isn’t really on topic here, as it is not about TTN.

31%20AM

V2.9.2 released

Could someone please direct me to location on HOWTO setup a /LoraWan-Gateway/Rasp pi 3B/RAK831 .
I have found a couple of locations but the Links in instruction are not good links.
I would greatly appreciate any and all help.

The latest RAK common gateway software actually already has Loraserver included.
(The gateway itself is on topic here but Loraserver is not.)

What locations/instructions and which links are not working?

You may have a look at this thread: RAK831 with RPI 3B+ suddenly not working anymore

On RAK Wireless downloads you can find ready made images that can be written to SD card.
These images also have Loraserver installed which is not needed and not used when using the device as TTN gateway. There is a setup menu with an option to configure the device as TTN gateway (see included documentation for details).

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