LoPy Node unable to find Single-Channel LoRaWAN Gateway

[obladio]

Hi, I'm using the LoPy 1 as a node to send data to my Raspberry Pi 3/Dragino gateway. The gateway is connected and being seen in the Things Network, but my LoPy fails to ever be seen.

Gateway:

Node/Device:

The guides I followed to get everything set up:
LoRa Raspberry Pi Single Channel Gateway
LoPy to Single Channel Gateway to The Things Network

My LoPy is updated to the latest firmware, I set up the same frequency (902.3 Mhz) in the gateway and LoPy Node code, verified that the keys are inputted correctly, tried using OTAA, but it's still never seen.

This has been an issue for days now, at this point I'm not sure if it's a problem with the hardware or software. So, any help is greatly appreciated.

[jmarcelino]

@obladio
I'm not sure if the Raspberry Pi code works in the current form, it's been a while since I tried it - almost as long as that code has been sitting there unchanged (1 1/2 years) but maybe it does.

I do know downlinks are not supported at all in that code which is what TTN is really annoyed about - in the past gateways without downlinks were blocked from participating in TTN https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/resolved-some-single-channel-gateways-stopped-working/6529 and https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/the-future-of-single-channel-gateways/6590/72

I'd recommend using a single channel gateway which supports downlinks, such as the LoPy with nano-gateway code or some of of the suggestions on that 2nd thread I linked.

If you want to use the Raspberry Pi code you have I guess you have to do some tests to understand if it's currently working.

[obladio]

@jmarcelino The project I'm working on only requires my node to send data to the gateway. So, I'm actually not worried about any downlinks (which is sending gateway data to a node, correct?) The method I used to activate my LoPy device was with ABP, but this goes back to the issue I'm having where the status in my device TTN console still says "never seen" and thus is unable to send data to my gateway.

I guess I'm just trying to determine if my issues lie with the LoPy node or RaspPi/Dragino gateway. I know you mention downlinks not being well supported, but since I'm only concerned about node data being sent to a gateway would the articles I linked still theoretically work for my situation?

Am I better off just having another LoPy set up as a nano gateway and having that communicate with my LoPy node if, like you mentioned, RPi development is behind?

[jmarcelino]

@obladio
As Robert said single channel gateways are supported but development generally moved to the ESP8266/ESP32 platform including of course Pycom's own nano-gateway code

The Raspberry Pi development has lagged way behind, I think most, including the one you linked, have generally been abandoned and no project I know of implements downlinks that would support OTAA.

With some tweaks and testing they might be able to work for ABP nodes.

[robert-hh]

@obladio Single channel gateway are supported by TTN. I use a Lopy for that purpose. They have serious limitations, but work. As far as I understand the discussion, it is still debated to open an own single channel gateway class.

[obladio]

@jmarcelino I know there is another single-channel gateway code on github that I've just replaced the previous version with:
https://github.com/hallard/single_chan_pkt_fwd

Is this one more reliable/supported for TTN? Or is a single-channel gateway just not supported at all for TTN?

[jmarcelino]

@obladio
The Raspberry Pi single channel code - https://github.com/tftelkamp/single_chan_pkt_fwd - is no longer supported for The Things Network.

That configuration definitely does not support OTAA because it doesn't support downlinks.

[robert-hh]

@obladio Does the Gateway have some logging features such that you can see what's going on there?