I wanted to share a project I’ve been working on that might be useful for others.
Many Helium hotspots are now available on the second-hand market for very little money. I bought my Bobcat 300 G285 for only €30 (at marktplaats), and instead of letting it collect dust, I converted it into a fully functional TTN UDP Gateway.
To make the process easy, I created an installation script that performs the complete installation and configuration automatically.
Features
Fully automatic installation
Automatic Gateway EUI generation
Automatic TTN server configuration
Supports multiple TTN regions
Clean reinstall support
Runs from a microSD card using Armbian
Original Helium firmware remains untouched (simply remove the SD card to restore it)
For the Bobcat G285, you first install the excellent Armbian port created by sicXnull:
The installer has been tested on my own Bobcat 300 G285 and works reliably.
I hope this helps give these inexpensive Helium gateways a second life instead of becoming e-waste. If you have a Bobcat sitting unused, it can become a very capable TTN gateway for a fraction of the cost of buying new hardware.
Many thanks to sicXnull for making the Armbian port possible. My project builds on that work by providing an easy installer focused on TTN UDP Gateway deployment.
Feedback, improvements and testing on other Bobcat models are always welcome.
Update: Bobcat 300 G285 → The Things Network gateway conversion
A few days ago I announced that it was possible to convert a Bobcat 300 G285 Helium hotspot into a TTN gateway for around €30. That announcement was a bit too early — the concept worked, but the installation process still needed some improvements.
After several days of testing and debugging, I can now confirm that it is working properly.
The project has evolved into a fully automated installer:
Automatically detects the Bobcat G285 hardware
Generates the Gateway EUI from the device MAC address
Configures the correct SX1302/SX130x settings
Installs and configures the TTN packet forwarder
Requires minimal user interaction
The conversion runs completely from the microSD card and does not modify the internal eMMC, so the original Helium firmware remains untouched.
A Bobcat 300 G285 that was no longer useful for Helium can now become a fully functional The Things Network LoRaWAN gateway again.
Thanks to everyone who tested, provided feedback, and helped identify the remaining issues. The project is now ready for further testing by the community.
my personal problem with such custom implementations is: no upstream support from armbian so only if the sinlge dev has time or is willing to provide fixes/updates/upgrades.
nice for proof of concepts but nothing i would roll out or count on.
so 1st thing should be: get the changes upstream to acquire direct armbian support
2nd: add our implementations on top