TTN coverage is poor in my area and I am looking for a TTN gateway for around 100 Euros. I really like LoraWan and would like to contribute to TTN, but find it hard to get info about buying the right device…
Can anyone tell me if this would be a good option for a range of approx. 3 KM, open area (no high buildings), when I can put the antenna on the roof of my house? I am in Europe, The Netherlands.
I saw some posts of this brand but not recent therefore this question to be sure and before buying something outdated of not supporting V3 or so,
Any help, or other alternative recommendations are much appreciated!
The link is to an indoor gateway, so not weatherproof, but you can probably put the included antenna outside.
Range is a huge minefield and is subject to a certain amount of pre-planning / geo-analysis but mostly down to surveying. So you may have areas 25km away that are heard and two streets away that have no coverage.
There is much that comes with experience and you have to get started to get that experience.
What sort of device (node, ie sensor) were you thinking of deploying - a gateway is not that exciting.
Agreed, a gateway is not my goal, the real goal is to monitor my boat: bilge pump and battery, that sort of things.
I have succesfully created a sensor sending messages to the TTN (as long as there is coverage that is). It is a Heltec board which is able to sent messages about humidity, temp and airpressure, and receive these message to my Home Assistant which shows dashboard info. Later on I will configure all kinds of automation, e.g. alarms and such when the bilge battery is low so I can take action when needed.
Agreed that coverage is to be seen; its a matter of starting to gain experience. Running my own gateway ensures coverage in my home town and when it all works I will be contributing to TTN as well.
Hopefully someone can point me to a affordable TTN gateway.
Plug and play is preferred, but some DIY, (e.g. Raspberry Pi) is no problem.
Lots of blogs about gateway solutions seem outdated and only working on V2, or are not compatible wich EU frequency.
It is difficult for me to determine which hardware options I can choose from that will really work, and are around 100€. TTN website is not very helpful here.
So as to the one I linked to: I need confirmation that this is a proper gateway. That someone successfully runs that one.
Or be pointed to another alternative.
(Or be told that it is not possible / more expensive , which would be sad )
LoRaWAN isn’t a mainstream maker protocol so we have to bootstrap ourselves just a bit harder. It is a system used by businesses so you can expect to find gateways in the €300+ range that use exactly the same chips and do exactly the same thing.
Forum search will help you find discussions on this gateway and as Antratek are a known good distributor, you can rely on their write up & if it doesn’t work out you can return it.
Plus the Seeed website has details on frequency & which back ends it works with. V2 was discontinued over 2.5 years ago, anyone selling a V2 only gateway would be running in to issues, but there is no such thing anyway, it’s about the gateway software and v3 supports all mainstream types.
You will be hard pressed to buy a gateway for much less from a good distributor. eBay may have some 2nd hand gateways.
trust field: this was a bit tricky: fill out with all contents of a ca.pem file downloaded from TTN: Root Certificates | The Things Stack for LoRaWAN
(use the minimum Certificate file: Download the minimal certificate list here.)
token field: use the LNS authentication key from TTN Gateway settings, preceded by
“Authorization: Bearer andthenyourtoken”
And boom! up and running.
PS. In a while (after testing) I will inform about coverage.
)
