LoRa sniffer for debugging in field

Devices
1

Hi all,

In sigfox we have SDR dongle to capture the traffic and get idea that device is transmitting for specific band and able to see data from devices.

Do we have any thing in LoRa for sniffing actual lora traffic in the field and to isolate issue?

As there are multiple points where there may be issue.

  • Device is not transmitting as expected.
  • Device is transmitting but gateway is not able to receive.
  • Gateway has received but but not able to send to server.
  • Communication break between server and application portal.

Regards,
Lalit Shah

2

Sometimes I’m using an SDR with spectrum scanner to see if a device sends data which is not received by a gateway. However to find out WHAT has been transmitted by the device (bullet 3 & 4), you do need a gateway.

Connecting a gateway - ChirpStack open-source LoRaWAN<sup>®</sup> Network Server contains a few examples how to debug what a gateway is receiving.

3

Hi Brocaar,

Thanks for update.
Would you please provide any reference document for using SDR in spectrum scanner, that would be very helpful for many of us in real life debugging.

Regards,
Lalit Shah

4

Will try this sometime this year.

1 Like
5

Thank you so very much for this link.

6

Looks interesting can you please provide link from where to get one.

And assuming this would be configurable for all region and not specific to 915MHz band.

8

See its “kick-starter” page which has information on when next batch of boards will be for sale - you can preorder for 2/22 delivery.

For a $100 more, you get its big-brother HERE - the demo of it playing FM stations is simply breathtaking, if you’re old enough to be writing your own games in 6502 assembler as a kid :slight_smile:

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9

Realistically it’s probably better to create test traffic at the location of interest, rather than to try to sniff what’s already there.

Eg, what you want is a laptop with mobile internet watching the raw traffic feed for the gateway, and then an ABP test node with serial debug output connected to the same laptop.

Did the node transmit?
Did the gateway hear it?
Did the network server get that report?
Did the network and application servers successfully decode it?
Should the network server have sent anything back down?
Did it push a transmit command to the gateway?
Did the gateway transmit that downlink?
Did the node receive it?

1 Like