Hello.
I have my own gateway an can join successfully, works flawlessly. But if I take my node outside, for a drive, I can not connect. So far I managed to connect only to my own gateway in 2 large 300k+ cities. Is there something I should know?
I made my own node using MCCI LMIC for Arduino and join with OTAA.
Any ideas what is wrong?
What region are you in / what cities did you visit?
Perhaps there are simply not any gateways in the places you visited.
On TTN Coverage you can get a good idea of the coverage as mapped previously by other users.
Or perhaps you programmed the node AND configured your own gateway both for the wrong regional settings?
Or there is something wrong with your node, so only a very nearby gateway can hear it. This could be (for example) the wrong type of antenna (WiFi antenna won’t work for LoRa), bug in the node configuration to set RF switches, etc.
Hello.
I have EU868 on both node and gateway, have a chip antenna on the node, the gateway has a 868MHz antenna. The TTN mapper shows my gateway got a packet from somebody that is 1.28km away.
I am now sitting in the next room, the node sits on my laptop as I type, there is a single 12cm wall between the node and the gateway, which sits at approx. 30cm above floor. the air distance is 4m, no line of sight. It is internal gateway.
The TTN network says:
“rssi”: -53,
“channel_rssi”: -53,
“snr”: 9.75,
Oh, so your own gateway is probably OK, and that signal strength looks about right for the node too!
I can only imagine that the cities you visited just have very bad coverage by TTN gateways then…
But there is no option or mode I should have enabled then?
This sucks.
I even went to “visit” one gateway, like some kind of a creep. Did not connect! So infuriating.
When you say “any network but my own” do you mean your gateway and you are using TTN or do you have your own LNS? If the gateway is on TTN and your device joins OK, then you are good to go.
Why do you need to do this? And how do you know that the gateway is operational?
I only own a gateway. The way I see it, it should work right away, no matter who the owner of the gateway is.
I did not know the gateway is operational, I found it on TTN mapper and since it was operational there (like my gateway is), I went to check if my node connects to it.
So what the heck is wrong?
Really … your using a ‘chip’ antenna, risky.
‘Chip’ antennas are normally very poor, very short distance etc. Why are you using one ?
Symptoms of a poor antenna could be that you can connect to a gateway that is very close, but you cannot conect to more distant nodes.
Node size, smaller than a credit card. Well not in thickness.
So how would I figure this out? When I was sitting next to a, allegedly, working gateway, it did not connect. Was probably around 30m away.
Nodes do not connect to a gateway. Nodes connect to a network.
Did you try with your node started at your gateway and without powering it down or resetting it moving to another gateway? My nodes work alright that way. And I can reset an (OTAA) node anywhere and have startup if an other TTN gateway is near. However I use larger antenna’s.
Try your node with your own gateway at a distance of 100 meters to see what happens.
Not all gateway owners provide the real exact location. Sometimes they report a position a few hundred meters away to avoid issues with burglars and the like.
At what SF? For SF7 with a 30cm reinforced concrete floor and 6 meters between my node and a gateway I’m seeing rssi 69 and snr 10.
If your attempting to use a node that you have designed that uses a very short range ‘chip’ antenna, then why are you surprised if it only works at short range ?
To check the ‘chip’ antenna is not the problem, use your code with a node that has a standard or normal antenna and see how well that works.
Also remember that if your right next to a gatewway, the node signals can be so strong, that the receiver part of the Gateway gets overwhelmed, and you might never connect. Go maybe 100m away and try again.
De-caffinate, slow down, stop leaping to conclusions about what should be happening based on your expectations / needs, don’t infer to much by something appearing on a map, respond to reasonable questions like which cities you are trying in so other sources of information can be used, buy another gateway for testing, fit a piece of bent wire 86mm long instead of your chip antenna, tell us what your MCU and radio chips are so we have more context, but most of all, chill.
Nodes do not connect to a gateway. Nodes connect to a network.
True that.
Did you try with your node started at your gateway and without powering it down or resetting it moving to another gateway? My nodes work alright that way. And I can reset an (OTAA) node anywhere and have startup if an other TTN gateway is near. However I use larger antenna’s.
I tried both.
Try your node with your own gateway at a distance of 100 meters to see what happens.
Will do that. I know this HW can reach quite far, as before I was running a non-LoRaWAN app with it and it worked at 100m, several concrete walls with steel at 4dBm Tx power, but yes, maybe the antena or the PCBA got somehow damaged, was not exactly gentle with it.
Not all gateway owners provide the real exact location. Sometimes they report a position a few hundred meters away to avoid issues with burglars and the like.
It did cross my mind, that the location of the gateway might be misleading, but I figure it won’t be off by much, otherwise there is no point in advertising, which the owner clearly wants to do. I do the same.
At what SF? For SF7 with a 30cm reinforced concrete floor and 6 meters between my node and a gateway I’m seeing rssi 69 and snr 10.
Ok, thanks for that, looks my node provides a strong signal after all, still I am doing the 100m test.
"data_rate": { "lora": { "bandwidth": 125000, "spreading_factor": 7, "coding_rate": "4/5" } }
But the way I see it, nobody sees anything other than signal strength. So for now let us work at this.
but most of all, chill.
I think you need more chilling mate 
I would say thanks, but I don’t see it being productive, will rather work with other people.
Your call, but once more you have missed important questions that can help with diagnosis - rushing to debug a complex issue is a common problem on the forum which is why I took time to suggest you slow down.
You really should! Whilst may not read well from your side Nick is only responding and reflecting how your posts are/may come across to other community users. I would note that you are fortunate to have 3 of the most experienced TTN users already contributing ideas and comments that are designed to help you (and your thoughts/diagnostic process) and get you on a path to an effective resolution. 2 contributors (make that 3 now) being communitty forum moderators who have seen much over the last many years of users posting effectively “my node/GW/TTN is broken and not doing what I want/expect/hope”. None of the community forumites have crystal balls so we often need to ask for more complete details and info to guide efficiently, please hold that in mind (if you spend some time reading the previous forum posts and using search you will see many examples of this). As often stated LoRaWAN can be a complex multi-element beast to wrestle if implementations do not go easily(*) or right 1st time and a steady approach with lots of detailed information sharing is usuall the best approach. If you prefer to work with others - of course that is your choice! 
(*) Fortunately, if done right and following simple implementation rules, attention to details, and with known good products LoRaWAN usually ‘just works’ …just as well really as otherwise people like me would struggle! 