TTN Gateway
I’ve waited a long time to get it since I pledge on the kickstarter campaign but it’s now here and as all what TTN have done until now this it a really nice object.
The design itself is really good. You can easily fix it on a window or a wall.
You can hack this gateway a lot … by the way it is not yet my purpose.
And the installation process it so good.. You may understand I really liked it.
Install the gateway
The installation process is really simple like most of what TTN does. Once unpacked and powered, connected to an Ethernet cable, you just have to type the link provided on the back of the gateway package.
This will conduct you to a website where to configure your gateway online. The UI is really easy to understand and your gateway will be connected on the TTN network only after a few steps and 5 minutes.
I really loved the led indication with blinking indication to follow what is happening. You just have to know that the first phase can be long on wifi. I had to wait 1-2 minutes before going the next step. just wait.
Once configured you have to go to the console to set the location and the model. I assume this could have to be done automatically at least for the gateway model.
But for sure compared to my experiences with kerlink, being connected in less than 5 minutes … It’s really great.
Setup your The Things Node
The gateway has been provided with a Things Node (in the bundle I’ve pledge for). This is a keyapp you can click and is reporting information regularly or on the move. The device is basic but whaterproof.
To make it working you need to open it, add 3xAAA battery. But if you really want to use it you need to extract some information about the product and for this you need to connect it to an USB serial port.
On my rapsberry pi serial port server the device as been initialized with /dev/ttyACM0 this is not usual but it works.
# minicom -b 9600 -D /dev/ttyACM0
is displaying the information after a couple of seconds. Thanks to this you will get the device ID you will be able to use to register the node on your console.
Then you can update your firmware as it is an arduino inside you you can play a lot with this tool providing sensors like : movement, temperature and a button and a light sensor.
I assume the website could filter the devices based on the gateway you have attached to your profile to have a quicker start, not needing to connect a serial cable on it.
We will later see how to hack it.
I found some drawbacks on this gateway:
– When fixed to a window, the black part is facing exterior and possibly the sun. That’s make temperature very high.
– The gateway must be vertical, no way to lay it flat (the antenna will not be vertical).
– And it’s a shame to use a 12v charger, as everything in it run at 3.3v or 5v. An USB charger would have been much more convenient.
I agree that it’s better to find a window other than on south oriented. The vertical sound like the bst way to get a good radio signal and I assume it is what we are expecting when using it. Concerning the 12v charger… why not.
Thanks for putting this out there!!!
How’s it performing so far ? Is it stable to work continuously for months ?
Basically I’m not happy because the gateway is disconnecting from the WiFi and is not able to reconnect. As a consequence the stability is not good and I actually just using it when I want to deploy a temporary Gateway somewhere. I’ve switch to Laird gateways for having a stable gateway.