RAK7200 node, GPS tracker

Fomi · March 19, 2020, 2:38am

About the issue you met, i think you can try to upgrade the firmware according to this document firstly:
https://doc.rakwireless.com/rak7200-lora-tracker/upgrading-the-firmware

If it can’t work too, you can send an email to me, and i will give you the bootloader file.

emfpinto · March 19, 2020, 11:06am

Yes of course!
We are developing a custom tracking device for the metal sheets containers that goes by truck from a warehouse to the biggest automobile manufacturer (about 1.5Km in line of sight) in Portugal: Autoeuropa (Ford_/volkswagen). We would like not use LoraWan but a custom very simple protocol and so we would like to make the first tests in p2p configuration…
As I told you I’m more in charge of the hardware development at our research group. I will ask my Colleague Ricardo Mendonça to give you more details about the software implementation!

Thank you very much for the attention,
Eduardo Pinto

Ricardo · March 19, 2020, 7:57pm

Hi Fomi,

As emfpinto said in his previous post, we here only attempting to test the trackers in a simple configuration like p2p mode! However, being aware now that the firmware doesn’t support P2P mode, we moved on to the LoRaWan working mode.

Let me briefly explain now the scenario: We have built a custom made gateway/concentrator that is equipped with a SEMTECH LoRa transceiver. This gateway has been working with our custom made beacon using also LoRa modulation. This only for prototyping and it worked very well.

We now use a RAK7200 tracker to send data to our custom gateway. We configured the RAK7200 tracker to use the ABP authentication mode, and it notifies us that it joined the network succesfully and is now sending data at regular intervals. However, our gateway does not receive anything.

Maybe it is some misconfiguration between the tracker and the gateway/concentrator with the RF parameters (frequency, spread factor, coding rate, etc). Is it possible to change these parameters when in LoRaWan working mode? From the AT command list we know that it was possible to do that with the P2P mode.

Fomi · March 20, 2020, 5:52am

Hi @emfpinto,

If it is only used for evaluating, the P2P function is not nesessary. As your colleague said, you can use LoRaWAN to evaluate too.

Hi @Ricardo,

Please help to confirm whether the region setting of LoRa node and LoRa gateway are different, or the enabled channels on LoRa node and LoRa gateway are different;
You can use “at+get_config=lora:status” to get the LoRa information, and use “at+get_config=lora:channel” to get all LoRa channels state.

Ricardo · March 20, 2020, 5:19pm

Hi @Fomi,

the gateway is configured to operate in region EU868, listening at channel 1 (868.3 MHz), Bandwidth=125kHz, Spreadingt Factor=SF7 (128 chip/s), thus DataRate=5.
I also verified that RAK 7200 tracker is showing the same RF parameters by reading the output of both “at+get_config=lora:status” and “at+get_config=lora:channel” commands.

Console:

[LoRa]:Joined Successed!

at+get_config=lora:channel
OK *0,on,868100000,0,5; *1,on,868300000,0,5; *2,on,868500000,0,5; 3,off,0,0,0; 4,off,0,0,0; 5,off,0,0,0; 6,off,0,0,0; 7,off,0,0,0; *8,on,867100000,0,5; *9,on,867300000,0,5; *10,on,867500000,0,5; *11,on,867700000,0,5; *12,on,867900000,0,5; 13,off,0,0,0; 14,off,0,0,0; 15,off,0,0,0

at+get_config=lora:status
OK Work Mode: LoRaWAN
Region: EU868
Send_interval: 5s
Auto send status: true.
Send_interval work at sleep
Join_mode: ABP
DevAddr: 12345678
AppsKey: A0000000000000000000000000000000
NwksKey: B0000000000000000000000000000000
Class: A
Joined Network:true
IsConfirm: false
AdrEnable: true
EnableRepeaterSupport: false
RX2_CHANNEL_FREQUENCY: 869525000, RX2_CHANNEL_DR:0
RX_WINDOW_DURATION: 3000ms
RECEIVE_DELAY_1: 1000ms
RECEIVE_DELAY_2: 2000ms
JOIN_ACCEPT_DELAY_1: 5000ms
JOIN_ACCEPT_DELAY_2: 6000ms
Current Datarate: 5
Primeval Datarate: 5
ChannelsTxPower: 0
UpLinkCounter: 0
DownLinkCounter: 0
========================================================================

I cannot see why I am not receiving anything, maybe I am missing something here about the LoRaWan protocol.

Thanks for your quick replies!

leopold · March 21, 2020, 1:48am

Hi @Ricardo
If you use LoRaWAN ABP mode ,you should make sure the three parameters(DevAddr,AppsKey,NwksKey) match the server.

I saw your 7200 work in auto send and sleep mode,can I see the detailed log of nodes?And what server did you test on? Does the gateway receive data?

Ricardo · March 23, 2020, 9:45am

Hi @leopold,

the network server and gateway is our own implemented version. In this stage I’m not interested in the network server at all to unmarshall and decrypt any packet according to the keys and device address for any high-level application.

The issue here is a very low-level one in the network stack: Our own custom gateway receives LoRa packets and prints out the bytes received (even if not decrypt using NwksKey and forward to an Application Server, we really don’t care about that right now) from other trackers (SEMTECH SX1272 for instance) but not from the RAK7200 tracker. By sharing the same RF parameters shouldn’t I be receiving any LoRa packet in any way in our gateway’s LoRA transceiver or am I missing something here ?

leopold · March 23, 2020, 10:05am

Hi @Ricardo
In that case you should confirm the frequency list of RAK7200 with “at+get_config=lora:channel”,
then see if the supported frequency points of the gateway match the frequency points that 7200 has turned on.

focigod705 · March 25, 2020, 5:41pm

@leopold @Fomi

Do you know how to get the additional two digits of GPS data into The Things Network with the decoder? The decoder only shows 4 decimal places but the raw data in the serial port tool shows 6 decimal places.

TTN DATA
“gps”: {
“altitude”: “393.5m”,
“latitude”: “44.9833°”,
“longitude”: “-89.6449°”
},

DECODER SCRIPT
case 0x0188:// GPS
var gps = {};
gps.latitude = (parseTriple(str.substring(4, 10), 16) * 0.0001).toFixed(4) + “°”;
gps.longitude = (parseTriple(str.substring(10, 16), 16) * 0.0001).toFixed(4) + “°”;
gps.altitude = (parseTriple(str.substring(16, 22), 16) * 0.01).toFixed(1) + “m”;
myObj.gps = gps;
str = str.substring(22);
break;

JeroenKl · March 25, 2020, 7:10pm

@focigod705

With AT command:
at+set_config=device:gps_format:X
X means: <0: LPP format which is only 4 decimal digits accuracy>
<1: 6 decimal digits accuracy>

BR,
Jeroen

focigod705 · March 25, 2020, 7:54pm

Hi @JeroenKl,

I tried sending the command and found the following result.

at+set_config=device:gps_format:1
The AT Command is invalid.

Any other suggestions? Thanks for your help.

Is this AT command an update in the latest firmware? I am currently on 3.1.0.10.

Fomi · March 26, 2020, 2:33am

Hi @focigod705,

Which version firmware are you using?
I think it may be a lower version so that this AT command can’t be used.
You can download the latest firmware and the bootloader here:
https://downloads.rakwireless.com/en/LoRa/RAK7200-Tracker/Firmware/
Then flash them into your RAK7200 according to the document:
https://doc.rakwireless.com/rak7200-lora-tracker/burning-the-bootloader
https://doc.rakwireless.com/rak7200-lora-tracker/upgrading-the-firmware

focigod705 · March 26, 2020, 2:44am

Thanks @JeroenKl and @Fomi. After updating the firmware I was able to send the command. Thank you both.

focigod705 · March 26, 2020, 2:48am

@Fomi, will I need to adjust the payload decoder for TTN?

Fomi · March 26, 2020, 3:33am

Hi @focigod705,

Yes, we’re making another decoder for TTN now.

Fomi · March 26, 2020, 3:41am

you can use

github.com

RAKWireless/RUI_LoRa_node_payload_decoder/blob/master/RUISensorDataDecoder_for_TTN.js

// ttn application function to decode uplink data.
// Decode decodes an array of bytes into an object.
//  - port contains the LoRaWAN fPort number
//  - bytes is an array of bytes, e.g. [225, 230, 255, 0]
// The function must return an object
// for RAK, return {
//                     "DecodeDataHex": {} // RAK5205 sensor data in Hex format
//                     "DecodeDataObj": {} // RAK5205 sensor data object.
//                 }
// The function prototype cannot be modified.
function Decoder(bytes, port) {
  var decoded = {"DecodeDataHex": {}, "DecodeDataObj": {}};
  var hexString=bin2HexStr(bytes);
  decoded.DecodeDataHex = hexString;
  decoded.DecodeDataObj = rakSensorDataDecode(hexString);

  return decoded;
}

// convert array of bytes to hex string.

This file has been truncated. show original

for 4 digits precision gps data.

If you increased the precision(6 digits), you should use

github.com

RAKWireless/RUI_LoRa_node_payload_decoder/blob/master/RUISensorDataDecoder_GPS6digitPrecison_for_TTN.js

// ttn application function to decode uplink data.
// Decode decodes an array of bytes into an object.
//  - port contains the LoRaWAN fPort number
//  - bytes is an array of bytes, e.g. [225, 230, 255, 0]
// The function must return an object
// for RAK, return {
//                     "DecodeDataHex": {} // RAK5205 sensor data in Hex format
//                     "DecodeDataObj": {} // RAK5205 sensor data object.
//                 }
// The function prototype cannot be modified.
function Decoder(bytes, port) {
  var decoded = {"DecodeDataHex": {}, "DecodeDataObj": {}};
  var hexString=bin2HexStr(bytes);
  decoded.DecodeDataHex = hexString;
  decoded.DecodeDataObj = rakSensorDataDecode(hexString);

  return decoded;
}

// convert array of bytes to hex string.

This file has been truncated. show original

focigod705 · March 26, 2020, 4:12am

Wonderful. Thank you very much.

JeroenKl · March 27, 2020, 7:19pm

Hi @Fomi,

Can we expect a RUI based firmware soon?

BR,

Jeroen

JeroenKl · April 12, 2020, 7:24pm

Hi @Fomi,

Can we expect a RUI based firmware soon?

BR,

Jeroen

Fomi · April 13, 2020, 1:58am

Oh @JeroenKl,

I’m really sorry for late reply, especially your last post because i just see it…

About the new firmware for RAK7200 based one RUI, i’m afraid it will not be released soon.
Recently, my team are working on RAK modules linke RAK811, RAK4200, RAK4270, RAK4600, …
We want to focus on imporving these modules firstly (the first step), then improving RAK products like RAK7200 based on these modules’s new firmware (the second step). This is a re-optimized work.
Now, we are at the end of the first step, and the second step will start at the beginnig of the next month.