AT module and RN2483: not working with my Linux box

Maybe link to http://www.espruino.com/RN2483 as well? Might be handy for buyers to have example code available :)

@DrAzzy Feel free to add a link to your new board to there - it'd be really handy to have a link to something 'ready to go'. Also, just IMO, but you could offer an aerial as well. They're pretty cheap, but I had to order mine from China which took ages. I'd definitely have bought an 'all in one' if it were available...

Great, thanks. I'll order some aerials to offer as addons. Do you have experience with any specific ones that you thought were good?

Honestly, I have no idea. I bought this one, and it seems to work (but I haven't done any distance tests): http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291844009518

You can get them a bit cheaper though.

@DrAzzy from my own experience, for such a device it will be far better to use a dipole antenna. The one pointed by Gordon should be a good candidate.

Cool, thanks. Ordered a few.

Does anyone have any links to sensible code for a really basic (non-TTN) LoRaWAN setup? I'm trying to get something really simple set up that I would have thought would be easy:

• RN2483 with an Espruino
  
• ic880a concentrator & Pi
  
• Sending and receiving packets of data from node.js
  
  

After much fighting I now have packet_forwarder running and forwarding packets over UDP, which I can decode in node.js. However it looks like sending data the other way is going to be just as painful, if not more so.

@Jean-Philippe_Rey any ideas? It seemed like you'd done quite a bit of LoRa stuff

https://github.com/lrnzzz/RN2483-LoRa-Sh­ield is the shield
Some guy sold me a nRF52 device that is neat.
Trying to find some spring loaded connectors or else risk having to buy more devices from a guy if I make mistake with soldering.
Code ?

• hmm, Espruino was my best bet.
  
  

https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/communi­ty/silkeborg/

@gnz is zurich the things network

github is a great place to post WIP ...

https://github.com/lrnzzz/RN2483-LoRa-Sh­ield/issues/2 is a request for a puck.js footprint

• in the meantime, I drill in the two boards I have and cross my fingers with the construction process
  
  

By the way, things go slow at times cos the kids are building ...

Edit: Probably wrong thread

Did you post in the wrong thread? I know you posted a bunch of stuff in other RN2483 threads, but I'm not convinced this really has much to do with the question of setting up a non-TTN LoraWan network

Hey @Gordon, in general, TTN shouldn't differ much (at all?) from any other LoRaWAN network. I haven't tested myself, but there are a bunch of guys in our local community that have sensors that they interchangeably switch from network to network without issues.

If you wanna setup a local test environment to isolate from TTN and any other provider, I'd recommend this backend: https://github.com/brocaar/loraserver It's well documented and I know others have tried it successfully. About the concentrator, I guess you have it figured it by now, but you could use TTN install scripts (https://github.com/ttn-zh/ic880a-gateway­/wiki) and just change the backend server to forward to on the local_conf.json

The biggest problems you will face with downlink (from backend to espruino) are related to time sync, the receive window is rather small, and it's a source of constant issues on some MCUs.

Let me know if I can give you a hand.

Cheers
Gonzalo

EDIT: Actually, I DID test switching networks now that I remember, and it worked without having to make changes to my node. Just provision the keys on the new network and off you go.

Thanks! I'll have a go at setting that up - I'd had a quick go, but it seemed a bit heavyweight with the MQTT transformation in there too.

So far I'd just implemented the packet forwarder protocol in node.js, so I can receive fine - and I can even transmit as of yesterday (but just not it a way that can be received yet - I think I need to get the correct transmission format).

For what I'm doing the LoRa nodes are well powered, so I can increase the receive window if needed. I guess the best thing is to make sure I can get something working with lora-server before I go off trying to do my own thing :)

before I go off trying to do my own thing

yep, I'd advice against building it yourself unless you have a lot of extra time in your hands. Not sure what's your project exactly, but unless your goal is really to build a packet forwarder in node.js, then go with lora-server (or TTN, or a loriot.io community account) as your backend.

Unless -of course- you're trying to build an espruino-powered lorawan gateway :)

wonders how far Gordon is with his thing as I just received 3 ic880a (spi) as well as having a couple of RN2483 boards that go in action in a bit.

3 ic880a? Wow, that's expensive!

I haven't had time to work on it sadly, but I'll have to get back to it soon. As @gnz suggested it looks like I'll have to go with lora-server.

I'm working on smart electricity meters for a solar electricity system in developing countries, and there isn't a reliable internet connection so I need to make sure I can do everything I need to locally.

Yep: expensive, I got sponsered: they will be used for play and learn in education while the county council tried to find a sponsor for 5 that cover the town. In the meantime, they get setup and get used by kids if I can find the best solution for nodes with play and learn and fresh air measurements.
The lack of internet connections (and power) is actually a small subset of the problems I have ( a luxury problem in europe) in order to allow for quick diagnose of a down gw.

The play and learn pi GW will probably have a https://nodered.org/ server as I might as well put some of the pi to use with that (or any other crazy idea I get).

Edit
Actually, the lack of a stable internet is sometimes a problem in some places in europe for play and learn

EDIT
There are many thoughts about GW and lack of Internet backhaul that I want to address in my solution that may have interest:: new thread??? @Gordon