Bad OTAA login or no network?

[Widget]

Thought I'd dig out my LoPy boards I bought and then carefully filed away in the back of my garage. They're up and running and able to exchange raw LoRA messages with each other but neither are able to connect to TTN. I live in the UK and I've tried registering OTAA keys for both ttn-handler-eu and digitalcatapult-uk-handler (not sure if it should make a difference?) but no success with lora.has_joined().

Is there any way to use the boards to see if there's a network around? I've tried reading lora.stats() but since I stopped them transmitting to each other they've seen nothing.

[jcaron]

@Widget Contrary to cellular networks, LoRaWAN networks usually don’t transmit much, if at all. Other than the odd join accept, confirmed frame ack, or downlink, all of which should be very rare, they don’t transmit anything, and definitely no beacons, advertisements or broadcasts.

So it’s not possible to check if there’s a network around, just by listening, unless you plan to wait a very long time or get very lucky. But have you checked TTN’s coverage map?

Also remember that radio waves don’t like obstacles. Find the closest active gateway(s) and check the path between them and you, taking into account terrain/elevation, buildings, vegetation, etc. There are tools that allow you to simulate all that.

TTN being an open initiative, coverage varies widely. Some areas have lots of outdoor gateways in very good (high) locations, others may be the proverbial desert...