That facility already exists, so have you now done so and if not, why not?
Ive known about the site for barely over a month, and was not aware of what it took to run it
Just sent $20
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Since you already have many users, you can write to them directly and ask how much the service is worth to them per month. I would also like to know how many euros you need per month to keep the service running.
The problem you solved with TTNMapper also exists in the cellular world. However, it is more complex there. In my 359 km² city with a central town and 33 villages, I have 3 NB-IoT and 3 LTE-M networks as well as 3 5G NTN networks in orbit at my disposal. I spent three weeks testing two IoT devices in France. The code for CoAP DTLS client and server is open source. In addition to RSRP, RSSI and SNR, the number of repetitions and much more is also determined. This is now connected to ThingsBoard. The data is visible to everyone within ThingsBoard, including AI queries. The basic service will be free of charge. It is a tool for all open source applications.
Below you can see three pictures from my Christmas mailing. We use NTN plus NeoMesh with LoRa PHY. NeoMesh with LoRa PHY also offers free tools for analysing the mesh network. These can also be integrated.
Furthermore, since last week, I have LoRa-HFSS/LoRa modules, which also require a tool for analysis. LR-HFSS for LPWAN and LoRa/LR-HFSS for analysing LEO satellites in orbit. Of course, anyone can build their own tools, but with a dashboard for testing multiple technologies, it becomes easier and more cost-effective.
If you like, I can connect TTNMapper to our ThingsBoard dashboard. I can also take care of sponsors. Your tool and my tool are similar. They go well together. Get in touch at harald.naumann(at)antennity.com.
ThingsBoard Dashboard Open Source: https://thingsboard.io/?utm_source=inf&utm_medium=hn&utm_campaign=nsltr
Made with ThingsBoard:
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How would you accomplish that? Users do not register at the site. Forwarding of data is anonymous as well. So the many users can not be contacted.
I would very much appreciate if you would stop turning every one of your posts into an advertisement. There are others on the forum with satellite LoRaWAN nodes doing potentially interesting things. All of them are able to contribute to discussions without dragging their newest toys into the discussion.
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This can be changed. Simply add a login.
I have offered to integrate TTNMapper into my free test server for LPWAN and NTN. The test server currently supports NB-IoT, LTE-M, 5G NTN LEO and 5G NTN GEO with a large number of parameters in the 3GPP networks. As with LoRaWAN, the networks have different parameters. If IoT developers are aware of the differences, devices will log in to all 3GPP and non-3GPP networks.
My test trip includes three weeks of data with two NB-IoT/LTE-M devices in Germany and France. The devices can freely choose the networks and carriers. The data is also used to create a map of network coverage.
The TTNMapper can continue to exist by integrating it with or without registration on our server. With registration, you then have access to all important LPWAN and NTN in Europe.
The map for network coverage can be extended to include LoRaWAN. Since I now have radio modules that support LR-FHSS, LoRaWAN, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GNNS, these will be connected to the same server. This server will be free of charge for non-3GPP servers.
My ‘toys’ are free tools for developers. With 30 years of experience in IoT/M2M and 5 years of experience in 5G NTN, I can develop perfect and simple tools. My farewell gift before I retire.
Merry Christmas
And then wait a number of weeks / months to accumulate enough registered users of which only a tiny fraction will voluntarily pay, so some incentive to register and some sort of business model has to be created.
Only then does some income occur, all the while paying for the existing infrastructure as it will be more work to scale it down until it is known if users will help fund it all.
Not so simple.
An offer without any meaning unless you understand the scale of the data set and servers required. Which you can easily do just by looking at TTN Mapper in heat map & beam mode in some of the heavily mapped areas. This is years of data from tens of thousands of users, not just a three week test trip by one person.
If you’d been regularly active, you’ll have seen the commentary on the last extended down time about servers (plural) in the garage as well as the cost of the cloud servers.
I saw the open source claim but totally failed to find anything on your website. Perhaps you’d care to substantiate this.
So you disappear for a few years, come back, offer to host a valuable tool but you are about to retire. This doesn’t sound like a convincing pitch to be the custodian of TTN Mapper.
First of all, thank you for your dedication and congratulations on the idea.
And I want to tell you that for me and many others, it’s still something very useful that we’ll somehow have to replace.
Kindly
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Huge thanks for this! I rashly assumed it was more of a community-run and hosted situation, had no idea it was the work (and money) of an individual, so many many thanks. I have used the mapper several times a month for a couple of years. For me, I’d love it to stay, and I would be happy to pay or at least make a donation wikipedia-style, and put up with a big banner at the top asking people to consider supporting. Do you have a timeframe in mind?
Hello, first of all thanks for the service the effort etc. I am super happy about that service and i use it and i go with my gps tracker with my motorbike everyday, i take my tracker for holidays. is it time to shut down TTN Mapper? Please no! I did not know its a private financed project. I want to spend some money. I use the coverage map very often to show my colleges at company or in private life to use the Lora technology and the coverage map is the best show case. Please dont stop the service.
I have to say that TTNMapper was my first real use-case for LoRaWAN! Thank your very much for so many years! As licensed amateur radio operator it was very nice to measure the real coverage of my gateways. Back in 2019/2020 I experimented a lot with different antennas etc.
I very well agree with @pattu: TTNMapper offers a powerfull visualisation what the LoRaWAN technology can do. This map also convinced the higher management level of my company to migrate our old private LNS to the Opensource TTI cloud stack (payed Plus plan). Just because it reflectes real world measurements of the additional coverage that you get on top of the private gateways on TTI.
There is definitly a need for this tool to exist! In my opinion it is a huge advertising tool for TTN itself. I don´t know if it could be possible to somehow unite this tool under the umbrella of TTI?
Regarding the concerns about the historical location data: Even if all historical data will be removed for some relaunch, I am very sure the map will build up very quickly again 
PS: Unfortunatly I am not a software engineer and I am not able to host the TTN Mapper project myself. I can manage to run some docker containers but the files which are available on github are to complex for me to get up running.
@kersing Thank you for silencing Harald Naumann
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Hi,
we would like to continue your project.
Just send me a message.
Best regards, Daniel
>>>Even if all historical data will be removed for some relaunch
Anything older than 1 year is kinda useless anyways. So many hotspots have gone offline. Even older than 3-6 months can probably be pared down and averaged
I also have to admit that TTNmapper is of huge use to me and many others. I do not agree that because hotspots became cheaper there is no need to see coverage - and while having a private network may be useful when setting up something locally in a fixed location, a vast amount of usecases is only possible when using gateway that you do not own.
For all of that TTNmapper is more or less the only helpful tool, and I was just using it for some hours today when I stumbled upon this post.
So, while fully understanding that it is a burden to you, I cannot agree that it’s not needed anymore.
Maybe lets focus on how to reduce the burden - as far as I understood its in large parts a financial burden - at least that part should be solvable.
As others said, it would help to know how much you need per month including all efforts, hardware etc. (not only electricity bill) and I hope enough will be sending some money.
An alternative, and maybe even better solution: Why not put a small popup or bargraph that shows the current “balance” of your costs/efforts vs. having to shut down - combined with a link to send some money.
In this way anyone can still use it free, but frequent users will directly see if its necessary to jump in with some donation.
Any gateway offline more than 3 days all its data gets removed.
There is a lot of engineering behind this project.
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Really? Here’s one offline since 2022
I work with computer recycling and resell for a living. Its amazing what stuff i come across. Back in 2017 i came across a few blade servers with 32 sticks of 32GB DDR3 RAM.
Anyways, my supplier has a box with a bunch of 4TB SAS HDDs. Not sure if those can help the cause
Since we are discussing things on the TTN forum, and not on Helium forum.
My references are to the TTN network.
Do you want to discuss Helium?
@jpmeijers i send you a PM
It would be a real shame if the service were to be shut down. I often use the site to determine LoRa coverage in my area. I am also the only one in my town who has set up a gateway. As far as I can tell, I am also the only one with a Meshtastic device in town.
Yes, the number of LoRa users is increasing, but coverage is difficult, especially in mountainous areas, and a map for analyzing and planning further action is really practical.
Incidentally, I have noticed that some companies are now also experimenting with LoRa. However, they are building their own networks and not using TTN.
I hope the project can continue, even if it means joining forces to spread the costs a little.
My assumption was that both network maps were getting shut down. Im just using the Helium one and any of my previous references were about that.