TTN Australian communities

#1

Hi,
there has been a questions whether there is an Australian topic where we can discuss general questions and to start closer cooperation between the Australian TTN communities and its users.

I hope this new topic can achieve this goal.

As the first post we had a talk to couple of people to decide on the preferred channels to use in Australia to facilitate roaming between different cities/communities.
For this it is essential to use the same channels.
So far ch 8-15 was the winner in spite we use different ones here in Melbourne.
However, we are ready to change in order to help in this compatibility issue.

If you are a GW operator or an initiator, we would like to know your opinion on this or on anything else that is specific to the Australian communities.
Thanks.

Australian Channels for TTN - is there a standard?
(Andrew Maggio) #2

Thanks Istvan. I have also created an "Australia" channel on Slack.

Yes, as discussed we have been deploying gateways using channel 8-15 / sub-band 2 on the AU915 band.

We have been using https://github.com/TheThingsNetwork/gateway-conf/blob/master/AU-global_conf.json ever since the AU band was announced as part of the LoRaWAN 1.0.1 standard and have used this as the definitive TTN reference since then.

This is the config that forms the basis for gateway installation scripts such as the one by @kersing.

We have a number of gateways and node devices in multiple cities based on this standard.

#3

We will also be launching country specific community pages soon where we can put all the information per country.

(Andrew Maggio) #4

Thanks Wienke - exactly what we need!

(Rolf Becker) #5

Hello,

I am not sure whether this is the right thread but I have to start somewhere. I am currently trying to connect to the TTN gateway on the roof of the QUT building, Brisbane, Australia.
The hardware I am using is Arduino-Pro/Pro Mini-based, i.e. ATmega328, 3.3V, 8MHz + Dragino LoRa Bee, 915 MHz, based on HopeRF RFM95W (SX1276).

The Arduino library I am using is the IBM LMIC library to be downloaded with the Arduino library manager:

I am porting it to the Australian regulations as far as I need it to connect the TTN gateway. The frequencies are already adapted. (there is more: TX power, duty cycle, SF, ...). I would like to send data via 125 kHz bandwith channels with SF10 and 30 dB power. (I don't know if my hardware can provide this power). According to the companion "LoRaWAN™ Regional Parameters, v1.0" it is required to use 20(!) channels for frequency hopping when sending with max output power 30 dB.

When I understand your TTN gateway config file correctly you provide 8 RX channels on the gateway:

Just for clarification, am I right when I assume you are using the following channels on the QUT Brisbane TTN gateway:


AU ISM 915
Ch# | direc | f/MHz | BW/kHz | data rate
8 | up | 916.8 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
9 | up | 917.0 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
10 | up | 917.2 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
11 | up | 917.4 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
12 | up | 917.6 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
13 | up | 917.8 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
14 | up | 918.0 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
15 | up | 918.2 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
65 | up | 917.5 | 500 | DR4
0 | down | 923.3 | 500 | DR8 - DR13
1 | down | 923.9 | 500 | DR8 - DR13
2 | down | 924.5 | 500 | DR8 - DR13
3 | down | 925.1 | 500 | DR8 - DR13
4 | down | 925.7 | 500 | DR8 - DR13
5 | down | 926.3 | 500 | DR8 - DR13
6 | down | 926.9 | 500 | DR8 - DR13
7 | down | 927.5 | 500 | DR8 - DR13

Is my assumption correct?

Thank you,

Rolf

(Andrew Maggio) #6

Hi Rolf, The 125kHz uplink channels are definitely correct.
This might help too - https://github.com/TheThingsNetwork/ttn/issues/120

(Marcell Marjee) #7

Hi guys,
I need a pointer or ten to push me in the right direction.
I got a spare Raspberry and decided I want to learn a bit more about LoRa so I ordered one of those Modtronix inAir9B devices. Configured it according to the CongDucPham's documentation. Once it booted up I realised the frequency is wrong and I don't understand enough of the code to know what to change.

Is there a version of the code that is for Aus? or is there other code/lib that I can use?

Thanks in advance,

Marcell

(Glovebox) #8

Hey Rolf, I'm trying to do the same with LMIC and an Adafruit Feather 32u4 rfm95w Lora 900mhz and am getting stuck on what frequencies I should be defining for Australia. Did you manage to resolve, would you mind sharing where you got to? Cheers Dave

(Andrew Maggio) #9

The frequencies in the post above are correct:

AU ISM 915
Ch# | direc | f/MHz | BW/kHz | data rate
8 | up | 916.8 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
9 | up | 917.0 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
10 | up | 917.2 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
11 | up | 917.4 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
12 | up | 917.6 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
13 | up | 917.8 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
14 | up | 918.0 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
15 | up | 918.2 | 125 | DR0 - DR3
65 | up | 917.5 | 500 | DR4
0 | down | 923.3 | 500 | DR8 - DR13
1 | down | 923.9 | 500 | DR8 - DR13
2 | down | 924.5 | 500 | DR8 - DR13
3 | down | 925.1 | 500 | DR8 - DR13
4 | down | 925.7 | 500 | DR8 - DR13
5 | down | 926.3 | 500 | DR8 - DR13
6 | down | 926.9 | 500 | DR8 - DR13
7 | down | 927.5 | 500 | DR8 - DR13

(Glovebox) #10

Thanks with a bit of excel, your figures and https://github.com/TheThingsNetwork/ttn/issues/120 got it working :grinning:

I'm using the LMIC fork https://github.com/mcci-catena/arduino-lmic

I updated the lorabase.h file as follows

// Default frequency plan for AU 915MHz
enum { US915_125kHz_UPFBASE = 915200000,
       US915_125kHz_UPFSTEP =    200000,
       US915_500kHz_UPFBASE = 915900000,
       US915_500kHz_UPFSTEP =   1600000,
       US915_500kHz_DNFBASE = 923300000,
       US915_500kHz_DNFSTEP =    600000
};
enum { US915_FREQ_MIN = 915000000,
       US915_FREQ_MAX = 928000000 };

I'm amazed that a 3inch piece of wire attached the to https://tronixlabs.com.au/arduino/adafruit-feather/adafruit-feather-32u4-rfm95w-lora-radio-900mhz-australia/ works. Am a couple of kilometres from the gateway and it's sitting on table chirping away:)

Have it hitting The Things Network and Bridged to Azure IoT Hub with this project https://github.com/gloveboxes/Waste-Management

Cheers Dave

(Andrew Maggio) #11

Such is the magic of LoRaWAN :wink:
Glad to see you got it working.