Nano-gateway and Node

[tealbrains]

Hi,

I am trying to get a very simple setup working :

• AU915.
• OTAA.
• The Things Network.
• One Lopy4 as a nano-gateway.
• One Lopy4 as a node.

I have followed the example provided in the pycom-libraries but can't get the node to work. The gateway shows as "connected" on my TTN dashboard. There is no activity on the gateway's terminal coming from the node.

I also did a ping-pong test to see if the hardware of the two Lopy4 is functional, which it is.

Has anyone been able to get this to work? Here is a link to the code:
https://github.com/tealbrains/simpleLoRa

[robert-hh]

@robert-hh To be more precise, it is in branch nanogateway at the URL:
https://github.com/robert-hh/pycom-libraries/blob/master/examples/lorawan-nano-gateway/nanogateway.py

[robert-hh]

@prawnhead The problem ist the timing of the nano-gateway example with a xxPyx device. The downlink message misses the receive window. I have it working with a LoPy and a FiPy as gateway. Even those two differ in timing. I am testing that with a LoPy4 at the moment, and downlink does not seem to work, at least for the RX1 window. I'll test further.
b.t.w.: My working code for the nanogatewa with compensation for the timing is here.
https://github.com/robert-hh/pycom-libraries/tree/master/examples/loraNanoGateway/gateway
https://github.com/robert-hh/pycom-libraries/blob/master/examples/lorawan-nano-gateway/nanogateway.py

[Prawnhead]

@tealbrains Ah, this issue. I'm hoping my boss is asking for help from Pycom in the UK at the moment :)

I'm in Newcastle, NSW. If I take Pycom's OTAA example code and modify it for:

• LoRa AU915 region
• My TTN Application's APP_EUI and APP_KEY

It will connect to existing TTN infrastructure (mutli-channel gateway) using OTAA. Perfect!

If I then implement a lorawan-nano-gateway per Pycom's examples code it will not connect. I can however create a working APB node and it's fully functional. Full details on our web site: Your First LoRaWAN Node on The Things Network Apologies for the plug, just didn't want to write it all out again.

I still have my fingers crossed for a working AU915 OTAA node via a Pycom LoRaWAN-Nano-Gateway!

• Chris

[robert-hh]

@tealbrains It might be of interest for you, that I was temporarily in the same state like. I'm trying to implement EU433 with two LoPy4, and while it is working normally, sometimes the gateway does not receive packets. Then, after a few resets, it starts to work again. The behavior points at an initialization fault, but the place is hard to spot.
If that happens again, I'll go hunting it.

[tealbrains]

@robert-hh Thanks for your reply. The main reason behind the 3 issues you have raised (and thanks again for going through my code) is that I tried the example and it did not work so started changing a few things (too many). Some of which, as you have pointed out, do not make sense.

I just started using LoRa 3 days ago so I am still in the learning process. What I have found is that there normally is documentation for EU868 and US915 but not so much for AU915. I know that the theory behind is almost the same but the regulation / channels in use are different. If you know any good source could you please post it?

I decided to explore another route and got closer to the goal by using TTGO LoRa boards and Arduino. I still did not get the node to send data, but the OTAA joining procedure worked.

I will revisit the Pycom nano-gateway + node and use US915 first instead of trying to change to AU915.

[robert-hh]

@tealbrains A few questions:

• why did you set the frequency of the node to 915 MHz. The first channel in AU915 is 915.2 MHz.
• Why did you configure the DR of the node to DR0, and set dr_max of the channel to 0.
• Why did you add also to the gateway the channel remove/add sequence. That's not required sind the gateway runs lora in raw mode.

Do you see at least at the gateway prompt the packages that the node attempts to send? You should at least see the join request. That's completely independent from the TTN server. I also recommend to start with abp mode for the basic uplink communication between node and gateway. If you see each packet from the node at the gateway, then you know that this part is working, and, if keys and id are proper set, you can go on with downlink messages.

[tealbrains]

@jcaron Thanks for your input. I am aware of that and have been disabling all but one channel but it is still not working.

[jcaron]

@tealbrains have you checked the past discussions on the forum regarding disabling all frequencies but one?