Hi everyone, I have a number of gateways (RAK7240’s) and am setting up a number of Trackit nodes. I understand that I need to connect to a gateway to use the Lorawan RAK Embedded NS, but is it possible to utilize more than one gateway? Or once it’s set up for one, it’ll work for all? Thanks in advance!
Andrew.
Hi @Andy
Based on the work mode. If you are using RAK gateways in Built-In mode with Master follower, the device will be picked by more gateways. Here it is important for all the gateways to be pointed to the LNS and the application(AS) to the device is registered. For Example: If used 3rd party mode with the Helium LNS, all Helium gateways in the range of TrackIt will pick up the uplinks.
Hi Fernando, can you elaborate more on “Built-in mode with Master follower”? I can’t find any reference to that, nor can I find any settings on my gateways regarding this.
I’m sort of assuming this is how all of mine are already set up (ttn), and I have no problems setting the device up with 3rd party NS, but I would like to have used the app for the device, and so wanted to use RAK Embedded NS. Is this possible on numerous gateways?
Apologies for the confusion.
Hi, @Andy there is no problem if we got confused at some point.
I think this happens all the time when we address a new product.
Please feel free to ask whatever you need to ask and as many times as could be needed.
Following points look for a detailed explanation (I’ll need to make more than one post because of a limit on the number of URLs I could share).
RAK2171 (WisNode TrackIt) supports three working modes:
1- LoRaWAN Mode with Third-party LoRaWAN Network Server: I think this is your case. (RAK2171 Quick Start Guide | RAKwireless Documentation Center)
2- LoRaWAN Mode with RAK Embedded LoRaWAN Network Server: You need that the gateway’s network is conformed just by RAK WisGate Edge gateways, no third-party gateways. In this mode, it is used the RAK Embedded Network Server, available at each one of the WisGate Edge gateways. No third-party NS.
3-P2P Mode: In this mode, no LoRaWAN gateway is needed, but you need at least two RAK2171 devices. One of the trackers is permanently connected via Bluetooth to the TrackIt App on your smartphone and acts as a Host. The other tracker/s is/are registered as Clients and send their data to the Host tracker.
Please note that for point number 1 any LoRaWAN NS can be used (TTN, Helium, or other). The RAK TrackIt App acts only as a configuration tool for the trackers, no map or location data is available in the mobile app (map and/or location data should be available in the third-party cloud application provider, please check the example at: docs_rakwireless_com/Product-Categories/WisNode/RAK2171/Helium-Datacake/).
In conclusion, if you have different brands of gateways you will not able to use the TrackIt app for having location reports. For such a case, you should use the cloud application provider app (in the above example the Datacake app).
In order to use the TrackIt app for having location reports, you should use, working mode 2 (all gateways should be WisGate Edge type) or 3 (one RAK2171 acting as host for the other RAK2171 devices in the field). The whole details could be found at: docs_rakwireless_com/Product-Categories/WisNode/RAK2171/Quickstart/
Please note: For the last two links I had to replace dots with an underscore in order to workaround the limitation for including links on these posts.
Please let me know if you have any further questions or comments.
I’m also curious about the possibility of utilizing multiple gateways simultaneously. Should I be configuring each Trackit node individually to connect with a specific RAK7240 gateway, or is there a more streamlined approach where once it’s set up for one gateway, it seamlessly works for all? I want to make the most out of my LoRaWAN network and ensure optimal communication between Trackit nodes and gateways.