Pycom fipy works fine with ABP, but not with OTAA

[Dale Fletcher]

I have a Things Gateway established here with a ThingsNode connecting and communicating with it without trouble using ABP.

My poor little Pycom fipy, on the other hand, will only connect with ABP. If I try the following example using OTAA, I receive no response from the TTN gateway and the fipy merely loops printing "Not joined yet."

Any suggestions on how I can debug and figure out what's going on?

from network import LoRa
import time
import binascii

lora = LoRa(mode=LoRa.LORAWAN)

app_eui = binascii.unhexlify('<app eui key here>')
app_key = binascii.unhexlify('<app key here>')

lora.join(activation=LoRa.OTAA, auth=(app_eui, app_key), timeout=0)

# wait until the module has joined the network
while not lora.has_joined():
    time.sleep(2.5)
    print('Not joined yet...')

print('Network joined!')```

[robert-hh]

@Dale-Fletcher Which firmware version do you use?

The time window for receiving a OTAA join confirmation is small (~10 ms after 5 or 6 seconds) and the PyCom (ESP32) device have not
You could try to join with a lower data rate or init Lora with a higher spreading factor. That will increase the time window for receive.
Edit: Do you see the join request in the TTN gateway console?