Is the TTN Gateway Vaporware?
If TL;DR short answer: no it is not (but the long waiting might make it look like that).
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Those are only pictures 
I heard that delivery is taking longer and longer.
A friend is waiting 1+ year for his already with regular updates saying ‘it will take longer’.
Yes it’s taking longer … something that is normal for a new complicated kickstarted product.
But now you are indirect accusing the TTN team ‘for your friend because you’ve heard’ that this gateway is 'vaporware… that means that its fake, that it will never be delivered. 
Hi Backers,
Just a little heads up on what is happening this week. We now have the exact procedure that is required for the RED certification and we will finish the firmware for the test house early next week. The gateway firmware tests are going well and we feel ever more confident that we can finish the gateway firmware in one or two weeks. The team and our partners Microchip and Element14 are working full force to get the products with you as soon as possible. Getting the final hurdles out of the way step by step.
Wienke Giezeman @ 2 april 2017
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All my posts are my own personal posts. I’m only asking a question here, no accusation whatsoever.
Of course the TTN Gateway is not vaporware. I hope you can see the humor part in the question. No pun intended.
I understand people are working hard on the gateway and the hardware looks real nice.
many people are waiting and I can imagine its frustrating sometimes, he… I’m waiting to
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The gateway won’t be vaporware, but I am afraid TTN has lost some of its traction due to the very long delays. Lets hope the eventual release will make it pick up steam again 
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Let’s see the positive way. How can we help ? Handwork? Coding ? Hardware design ? Financial ?
I doubt that there are many people around with a lot of free time and … that high level of technical skills, uncharted territory and everybody is watching, the first impression is more important than the delay imho.
Your friend is one of many of us who backed The Things Network Kickstarter. Our motivations may differ in the details but I expect we nearly all backed it because a) TTN sounded like a BRILLIANT idea, and b) building low cost fully functioning gateways is a really good goal and c) IN YOUR FACE Vodafone, Sigfox…!.
Building a low cost LoRaWAN gateway was always going to be challenging. I don’t believe for a second that it is vaporware. I do believe that the TTN guys were super optimistic in their original timescales. To their credit they have kept us updated with progress, slippages, etc. It can’t be comfortable having to say “er… we’ve hit a problem…” and all credit to them for not giving up and for keeping us informed.
The people involved in The Things Network - including all us community members - have helped build something incredible. Lets keep it going - the gateways will turn up soon enough - what matters is what you do with them 
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One thing that I don’t understand is why TTN doesn’t publish the detailed specifications of the gateway. It was announced to be an open source product. And before you ask, I am also in the queue of waiting people… for more than a year.
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hear hear 
…for which Wieke wrote September 9th 2016:
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Yes, I remember that post. I just hope that by now the license type is already decided.
By the way, by detailed specifications I meant the exact type of processor the gateway runs on, what is included in the package, power consumption, dimensions, expansion possibilities, etc.
There are some specs floating around the forum. The gateway will use some bespoke parts made in collaboration with Microchip, so it probably won’t be fully open source but more like a first-gen RasPi with the Broadcom blackbox GPU. I’m also very interested if and how they are going to release the source code. The packet forwarder will run on a PIC32, which allows for additional cost s(h)avings on gateways compared to the RasPi option most compliant gateways now use.
The lowest priced PIC32MZ micro alone is more than the price of an entire RaspPi so there aren’t any cost s(h)savings.
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Unless you have a very good vaporiser I think we will have a hard time making the products in to vapourware
Let me see if I can share the BOM already, which might give you some insights. I think from the pictures you can already depict a lot of the design. I sent out weekly mails and updates now to share the our hard work on the final steps. Let me know if you have more detailed questions we are happy to answer them between getting these products at you as soon as possible.
We have not yet found time to decide on what open source license we will use. We need to find one that helps in contributing to our common goals and mission and also offset the large investment that has been done by us. Maybe if somebody has some ideas already, I would love to see them in Is The Things Gateway open source?
High res images can be downloaded here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hnufhovpgi6el5o/TTNproducts.zip?dl=1
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Thanks.
It would be nice if you could share details about the antenna (length/make/where available for order).
Assuming the antenna is carefully selected it will probably benefit (indoor) nodes and Single Channel ‘Gateways’ too.
Is the same antenna used for both 868 MHz and 915 MHz bands or are different antenna’s used for each band, each optimal for the band used? (Assuming separate SKU’s will be available for 868 MHz and 915 MHz.)