Building non-LoRaWAN gateway based on Raspberry Pi 3 + Lora shield on RFM95

1

some background of my project:

I have a few outdoor lora nodes based on Anarduino - Arduino+RFM95 (I call them - servers) which can send some measured data after receiving request from client device.
These nodes installed in mountains region and now covered under snow.
Data from nodes is used by avalanche patrol.
To get data from nodes I have a client device (Anarduino + ftdi adapter) which I connect to my smartphone via OTG cable, then open FTDI terminal, enter request - server number (1,2,3, etc) and send it.
Client sends this request via LoRa radio, then Server (node) that have this number in firmware, receive this request and send back answer with measured data and I receive this data and can see it on screen of my phone.
Then I choose next server, if it located in radio range - enter another server number, and receive data from next server.
This way works ok.
But I have to go to all these places for receive data from servers.
And often it is not very convenient because of many reasons - weather conditions, time etc…
So I want to have this data in some web interface via Internet access.
For this I need to add some gateway device into my LoRa network. This gateway should be able send request to servers, receive data, and forward this data to some network server.

For now I’ve built single channel gateway on Raspberry Pi 3 + LoRa shield on RFM95 module.
I used this simple manual: https://www.hackster.io/ChrisSamuelson/lora-raspberry-pi-single-channel-gateway-cheap-d57d36
I know that single_chan_pkt_fwd based on deprecated repo, but I didn’t find any else manuals that allows me to build gateway with my hardware.
Also I connected this gateway to TTN and checked if it forward some data from my test node - arduino example code from RadioHead library just send LoRa one radio packet per second and wait for answer.
I thought that I will see some data on TTN side but nothing.

And this is my first question - maybe this because that my test node not LoRaWAN compliant?
So I can’t use such gateway, connected to TTN, for my project?
If so - I need create another gateway and I would like to check this LoraServer project.
And my second question - is it possible to use my hardware (RPI3 + LoRa shield) to build gateway for forwarding data from non-LoRaWAN (just LoRa) nodes to some server with web interface.

Please advice.
Thank you in advance.

2

For TTN related support, see The Things Network :slight_smile:

3

thanks, my first question probably some off topic here.
but what about second question?

UPD:
if I go with this instruction:
https://docs.loraserver.io/lora-gateway-bridge/install/debian/

and install it on PRI+RFM95 - will it work, or it need LoRAWAN module?

4

That could work. Note the gateway knows about LoRa, the end-devices and the network-server know about LoRaWAN. Note that a single-channel gateway has its limitations, which can be fine depending your needs or usecase.

5

I have only one type of nodes and I need send request to them one-by-one, so I suppose that single channel gateway will work for me.
but sorry - I didn’t understand your statement about LoRaWAN -

the end-devices and the network-server know about LoRaWAN

what do meant?

6

Only the end-devices (e.g. your sensors) and network-server implement the LoRaWAN network stack. The gateway itself only knows about LoRa modulation and does not need to know anything about the LoRaWAN network stack.

7

thank you, it is very interesting.
but seems it means that now my current gateway on RPI somehow should see packets from my test LoRa node?
Am I right?
But I can’t see anything in console when gateway is running.

8

well… just installed LoRa Gateway Bridge on my RPI and noticed that it is not gateway forwarder itself.
it is serivice " which abstracts the packet-forwarder UDP protocol into JSON over MQTT."
I’m not sure is I need it now.
For now I just want to check if I can receive on RPI side data from my LoRa node.
I suppose I still need run some packet forwarder on RPI which should to listen radio and receive all that it hear.
It is the main function of LoRa gateway.

I even run single_chan_pkt_fwd:

    pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo ./single_chan_pkt_fwd/single_chan_pkt_fwd
SX1276 detected, starting.
Gateway ID: b8:27:eb:ff:ff:e3:85:c2
Listening at SF7 on 902.300000 Mhz.
------------------
stat update: {"stat":{"time":"2018-02-05 17:30:48 GMT","lati":0.00000,"long":0.00000,"alti":0,"rxnb":0,"rxok":0,"rxfw":0,"ackr":0.0,"dwnb":0,"txnb":0,"pfrm":"Single Channel Gateway","mail":"","desc":""}}
stat update: {"stat":{"time":"2018-02-05 17:31:18 GMT","lati":0.00000,"long":0.00000,"alti":0,"rxnb":0,"rxok":0,"rxfw":0,"ackr":0.0,"dwnb":0,"txnb":0,"pfrm":"Single Channel Gateway","mail":"","desc":""}}

and just in case:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ systemctl start lora-gateway-bridge
==== AUTHENTICATING FOR org.freedesktop.systemd1.manage-units ===
Authentication is required to start 'lora-gateway-bridge.service'.
Multiple identities can be used for authentication:
 1.  ,,, (pi)
 2.  root
Choose identity to authenticate as (1-2): 1
Password:
==== AUTHENTICATION COMPLETE ===

and again nothing changed - I can’t see any data from my node which is up and running and continuously sending some data.

Also I wonder if the frequency is ok in my forwarder - it show " Listening at SF7 on 902.300000 Mhz."
but my node working on 915Mhz,

9

Are you sure your packet-forwarder is configured to send data to the LoRa Gateway Bridge (localhost?) on port 1700?

10

the thing is that I don’t have any packet forwarder on my RPI…
I didn’t know that I need it.
and now I’m googling how to get it and install it on RPI.
so far I found only this:


but seems it pretty outdated code.