Command Referece/User Guides Manuals Libraries for RAK4631

Good morning,

I am looking for a Command Reference or User Guide Manuals for the RAK4631. In other words, I would like to work with some features/functions for the "Nordic nRF52840 MCU " as “sleep”, “deepsleep” for the microcontroller and read LoRa informations for the Semtech SX126x, like to read the “Spread Factor”, but I couldn´t find where is the Libraries Manuals.

Could you help me?

Hi @crmrosa ,

Most of the info you need for RAK4631 can be found here RAK4631 WisBlock LPWAN Module | RAKwireless Documentation Center

The WisBlock quickstart guide will be helpful as well WisBlock Quick Start Guide | RAKwireless Documentation Center

The github repo is also a good reference GitHub - RAKWireless/WisBlock: Quickstart, tutorials and examples for the RAKwireless WisBlock product line.

Hi @crmrosa
In addition to Carl’s feedback, there is a low power example in the LoRa library. This example is made for nRF52 devices in general, so it might need some updates to work on RAK4631.

When you say “read LoRa informations” do you mean readback these settings from the SX1262 transceiver?

@beegee and @carlrowan , Thank by your support.

I would like to explain a little more. When say:

  1. Command Reference: it is a manual with library commands syntax/options, functions and a quick explanation about each one.
  2. User Guide: it is a manual where a user can see some user case and how to implement the functions and features avail in each feature.

It is hard to need read a library code to understand what kind of features/functions are available and for each possibility, what range of values are valid or not.

More clear now?

WisBlock is a modular system in which there are hundreds (if not thousands) of ways how it can be used. The docs/guide are designed so that users can easily start developing the solution using different modules. Different modules require different libraries and these libraries are mostly open and have their own documentation.

What we did is provide different examples on sensors, connectivity, and even solutions so that WisBlock users can start working on their applications quickly. It is a lot easier if there are examples available for tweaking. Any roadblock on the development of using WisBlock system, we are here to support. You should be able to see lots of examples for various sensor and even specific applications

It is a work in progress and continuously improving. If you have any issues on using these examples, please let us know :slight_smile:

I am not looking for a example.

Let me try to explain better, I am a network engineer that I already worked with many different tecnologies as LoRa, Wifi and LTE, and many different companies as Nortel Networks, Cisco, HP, IBWave, Nokia and Huawei, and all of them have a common thing: “command referece and user guides”

Maybe I am expecting a thing that RAKWireless don´t have a intention to create, I mean manuals. Is this the case?

I am following the RAKWireless development for more or less 2 year. I already saw that you the effort to make documentation better, but what I can find in your web site https://docs.rakwireless.com/, it is more related with datasheets, mouting guides, board design, but I didn´t see any “command reference and user guides” . If you are looking for something to do a “copy and paste” without to understand what is the meaning of things, your examples can help you.

I already bought 3 LoRaWAN gateways, many WisBlocks, WisTrio and WisNode, I think that until now with Arduino IDE, VSCode/PlatformIO, I am reaching my results, but now it is time to think if it is good idea to proceed for large projects this way, I mean without support and manuals.

Please, I would like to listen more from you all. Let me add the RAKWireless teams that we are having important conversations in South America @anon55548400 and @jmarcelino

Hey, Claudio (@crmrosa), :wave:t2:

Nice to see you around here, also tinkering with the WisBlock!

As far as I can understand from your messages, you expect a technical specification guide for the WisBlock Core RAK4631 from the RAK team since it is a combination of an nRF52840 MCU and an SX1262 LoRa chip. However, this is out of our hands, as you are asking us to merge the information from two technical guides, both nRF52840 and SX1262, to provide one for the WisBlock Core. But this is not possible due to legal terms. Additionally, we cannot guarantee updates on it if there is a modification from the vendor, which is a third party.

Just as a reference for the Nordic MCU. As you can see, they are very strict with their copyright.

More than saying it is something RAK does not intend to do, I would say it is something we cannot do. However, based on your concerns during development, we will improve the information provided in the documentation given on docs.rakwireless.com to redirect people to the official technical guides for the MCU or LoRa chip used in the different modules.

I hope you can understand this scenario since it’s completely out of our hands.

If you have any additional questions, as always, I’ll be happy to help you with anything you need to carry out the projects you have planned for your region.

All the best,
Maria H.

Hi @crmrosa,

Please forgive me if my perspective isn’t wanted, I think I understand what you are looking for, but in the Arduino eco-system documentation is mostly in hybrid form - I have many folders of bookmarks to ‘document’ an Arduino Board variant.

What we do have is:

  • We have the base language that Arduino provides along side C and a fair amount of C++
  • BLE uses the BlueFruit library so that documentation is with Adafruit.
  • The LoRa radio chip library is well documented from the Readme of the Github repro
  • There are some nRF specific features like PDM and the internal file system that leverage the Adafruit libraries
  • Any other component that’s added from the WisBlock range uses the appropriate Arduino library which provides variable amounts of documentation.

If you need to get in to the MCU specifics, that’s usually related to the board support files - which could be documented further so you can see what extra parts of the vendors SDK are supported but generally I find that’s not going to work so well with the Arduino environment as if it’s not in the Arduino style, you end up with some unwelcome side effects.

So fundamentally, the documentation is the Arduino reference + the documentation for the libraries.

Copyright issues aside, the cost of bringing documentation together is huge and then represents an ongoing struggle to keep it up to date as various releases of libraries occur. This cost would then have to be reflected in the boards pricing.

Perhaps on the docs page there could be a link to the GitHub repro for the relevant libraries for each module so that there is a quick way of collating the bookmarks required?

For the base board RAK4630:

I have three modules to hand:

RAK1901 - temp & humidity - GitHub - arduino-libraries/Arduino_LPS22HB: LPS22HB Library for Arduino
RAK1902 - pressure - GitHub - arduino-libraries/Arduino_LPS22HB: LPS22HB Library for Arduino
RAK1903 - ambient light - GitHub - closedcube/ClosedCube_OPT3001_Arduino: Arduino library for ClosedCube OPT3001 Digital Ambient Light Sensor breakout board

I got these by loading up the base example for the board in the Arduino IDE, found the link (never seen it before, learnt something new), it loads up the library manager with the appropriate library for me to install and I can click on the More info link to get to the link above.

There’s just so many ways that documentation can be supplied, rarely is it gift wrapped and ready for exactly my style so I have to take a little time to prepare things.

1 Like

Hi Maria and @nmcc ,

How are you?

I have no doubts that RAKWireless can´t take the reposability about other vendor, but I am talking about User Guides/Command Reference for WisBlock, that I think that it is a RAKWireless solution.

Even though they are other manufacturers, OEM contracts typically cover support for third-party products from other manufacturers.

It is too dificult/risk to create solutions that I will go in production, without operations manuals. This is my point of view.

Well, I know that I can count with WisBlocks solutions to my tests, but when I have to think about thousand sensors, the scenario changes completely.

Hi there!

Can you give a couple of examples of the sort of questions that the documentation would provide, it would help me understand the differences.

Prototypes are the fun part. You can explore stuff, etc. Document the test and scenarios. Perform thermal test, power cycle, mechanical stress, ESD, certifications, create the datasheet, guide, etc.

When we talk about thousands, things are a bit different. Issues are different as well. It is more on manufacturability, lead time of components, proper assembly documents, engineering change notes, etc. If you got this kind of volume, we can assist you too. We deliver thousands of end-devices and gateways so we know how it works.

I understand what you want, however it is just hard to create detailed documentation for WisBlock because you have lots of permutations on how users can use Wisblock modules. You can think of it as Lego. Lego provides some examples but the creativity is not limited by those examples provided. Users can create other stuff with those Lego blocks they have :slight_smile: