TTIG Outdoor Housing with Omni Antenna in 1 hour

[Martin_Kautenburger (Martin [DG6VK])]

I want to show how to build a outdoor TTIG with external Antenna.

Components you need:

Component Manufacture Type Price
Gateway The Things TTIG ~80€
Housing Hensel DK0600G ~10€
Pigtail ufl -> rpSMA ~10€
USB Adapter ~ 5€
Antenna RAK Wireless Fiber Glass Antenna 5.8dBi ~50€
cable gland PG11 ~ 5€
2 Meter flexibe 2 wire Cable ~ 5€

total price = 165€

Tools you need:

soldering iron
screwdriver
side cutter
drilling machine
hot glue gun

Steps to do:

1. Disasamble the TTIG Gateway
2. Disconnect the power cord plug on both PCB
3. Disasamble the Gateway PCB from the Housing
4. Connect the usb Adapter to the PCB
5. Drill 2 holes (6.5mm and 12mm) in front of the outdoor Housing.

6. Mount the pigtail in the outdoor Housing
7. Mount the cable gland

8. Extend the power cord with the flexible 2 wire cable

9. Mount the PCB with 2 Points of the hot glue gun on the Housing
10. Connect the power cord on both sides
11. Connect the Pigtail to the PCB

12. Mount the Cable with 1 Points of the hot glue gun on the power adapter Housing

13. Ready

Now you can Place the Gateway outdoor and extend the coveradge of your TTIG Gateway.

I think it is a good solution to place the Gateway outdoor and put the power adapter indoor.
So you can place the gateway next to Antenna.

[jwijngaard]

Nice work, i work all so on something like this. Great Idea

[pe1mew (Remko)]

Nice work! Good inspiration!
Some suggestions for improvement:

1. The SMA connector on the new housing is NOT waterproof. I suggest to keep him in the housing and use the gland to bring it out of the housing.
2. The cable is not UV protective. Replace by one that does.

[BoRRoZ]

great pictures !

[UdLoRa]

Nice, however I would also point out two things:

• while in practice could not be relevant, the electronic components are not certified for outdoor use (sx1308 temperature range is 0-70C vs -40-85C for SX1301);
• having already added an external antenna by myself, one concern I have is about transmission power going over allowed values. In fact, in “normal” gateways you have a way to set the antenna gain, that is used then to decrease transmission power. On TTIG we do not have this possibility; thus, be careful when adding high-gain antenna.

[incyi (Inanc)]

Nice housing ! Does the TTIG also fit wih the case in the housing ? I don’t want to hot glue my pcb.

The only thing what I don’t have is a mount for the antenna itself. How did you mount the anenna ?

[Martin_Kautenburger (Martin [DG6VK])]

I Think the TTIG fits also in the case with Housing when you unconnect the power plug. My Antenna comes with Mount brackets include (not on picture). But there are better Antennas on the Market. Last week i purchased Antenna tester N1201SA and see the Antenna is not good for 868MHz, it is only good for 915MHz. I replaced the Antenna with the “Aurel GP 868 Ground Plane Antenne”. The Antenna comes with Cable and BNC Connector, so you need an addition adapter to connect the TTIG.

[Martin_Kautenburger (Martin [DG6VK])]

This is V1.1 of the Housing.

Changes:
-new Antenna “Aurel GP 868 Ground Plane Antenne”
-better h155 coax cable wit sma and F-Connector
-antennaconnector inside the Housing
-installed the included cover holder
-use Pressure compensation elements

[jvgenderen]

idea ? use a N type SMA Bulkhead ontop of the case .

and just a personal opinion. the best thing about this gatway is also it worst feature No ethernet !!

Joost .

[costo]

If I understand this right, the TTIG GW has an internal PCB LoRa antenne as well as a UFL LoRa connector on the board.
By connecting an antenna with a pigtail on the UFL of the TTIG, you effectively connect 2 antenna’s in parrallel.
Should not there be a zero ohm part be removed or a pcb-track be cut to disconnect the original pcb-antenna ?
In theory this would result in a better radiation pattern and a more effective radiation of the few milliwatts that are generated. Also the GW should be more sensitive as all the received energy of the external antenna is directed into the LoRa chip and not partly into the pcb-antenna.

This is just an assumption of me because I do not have a TTIG to see what is going on.

Or did I miss the step of removing the internal LoRa antenna that was originally connected to the UFL connector ?

edit: Or maybe this chip does diversity with two antenna inputs and switches to the side which has the best signal ?

[kersing (Jac Kersing)]

The internal antenna is connected to the u.Fl connector on the concentrator board. It is not part of that board. So to connect an external antenna you disconnect the internal one.
(I have done that for a couple of units)

[costo]

Thanks Jac for explaining what was not so clear to me. It is very logical, I just missed the step of removing the internal (not pcb) antenna.