RAK7258 Indoor LoRa Gateway is not working

Hi all,

Yesterday I received my third LoRa Gateway, I already have one Laird and one TTN and new RAK7258 Indoor LoRa Gateway but it is not working.

First bad signal it was that the heat sink was loosen inside of the box. I had to open the box and put the heat sink in the right place, but the mounting quality not so good for a brand new product. RAK need to pay attention for the quality.

I didn´t find any instruction as a quick start guide. After connect the power source, only LED that I get it is the PWR(power). I mean, I turned it on, put a ethernet cable in a wireless router with DHCP Server, but only LED is with light is the Power(PWR). No Wifi, no ETH, no activities.

I already read the manual but they are very poor since about basic steps to make it work.

Could anyone help me?

Regard,

Cláudio

Hello, Claudio
Thanks for your suggestion to RAK Wireless LoRa product. My apologize that we can’t give you perfect condition when you receive the product. We will improve ourselves.

As you mentioned, the heat sink inside the commercial device may have chance to drop off during the transportation. We also believe the the COMMERCIAL product shall be high degree of quality and conformance. So, we already design a new LoRa concentrator card with new pcie form factor base on SX1301. pls see documents here for RAK2247:

The key improvement for RAK2247 is targeting to resolve the issue you mentioned of heat sink drop off during transportation.However, since it not fully pass the global certification, we still wait for final green light to use in all of our commercial product.
https://www.rakwireless.com/en/download/LoRa/RAK2247-Mini-PCIe

  • we use screw to fix the heat sink on top of the shielding.

  • •Improved thermal solution for better performance

•Increased sensitivity due to addition of SAW filter

•Improved max Txpower, up to 3x grater range.

Regarding the user manual, I think we should improve us to have a quick starter card inside gateway to help you fast use the product. Because now, we only have documents here:
https://www.rakwireless.com/en/download/LoRa/Indoor-Gateway-RAK7258

Do you mean we should have this getting start card or you think we should improve the documents in our website?

Your insight is very helpful for us to understand how we can make our customer like you satisfy the technology. Appreciate you can share more to us.

Let me give some examples, for you about the box now:

  • I turned it on, connect a ethernet cable but It don´t get a link confirmed at ETH LED

  • Why I am not seeing the product Wifi SSID?

  • As the product don´t come with a console cable, I am trying to see the boot process to understand what wrong it is happen. I don´t know what kind of console cable I need to plug in the RJ45 Console port.

  • Is the USB port availbe in the front panel a console cable? What kind of USB cable I need to use? A male-male?

  • Well in the end of the day, the only indicator the I have is the power on LED. I think that the box is dead, but I don´t have how to confirm without a console access.

I didn´t see in all manuals available in the site, nothing like a “quick start guide” neither a troubleshooting section.

I am taking with Kinson Chain about replace it but I´d rather make it work, if it is possible. The import process in Brazil is too painful

Could you help me?

Dear @crmrosa

You never said what happened after you plugged the cable into the DHCP server router. In the router interface were you able to see that the gateway was assigned an IP address?
I assume that you have checked and this was not the case, right ?
If so did you try a direct cable connection ?

Regards
Vladislav

Hi @Hobo Vladislav,

When I insert the ethernet cable in the RJ45 Gateway port, no ETH LED indication (green light) is showing to me that I have a Layer 1 connection. This way, I shoundn´t expect to have Layer 3 (IP) answer by the wireless router DHCP server.

First I would like to understand how to get local console to know what it is happenning during the boot process. The problem is that in all manuals that I did the download from RAK site, I couldn´t find a basic instruction about how to get access to console.

The product has a RJ45 Console port and a USB port but I don´t know how to use them and it don´t come with a console cable neither a manual how to build it.

Dear @crmrosa,

Taking into account the fact the the Power Led is on I would suggest to do the following:

  1. Plug in the Ethernet cable and ignore the fact that the LED on the port is dark.
  2. Plug the cable in your DHCP server capable Router.
  3. Log into the router UI and see if the DHCP server has assigned an address to the router, it should be named something like RAK7240 .

If this works and you see the device in the DHCP address list in the router than it might be just a LED issues, that is of course if you are sure your cable is not faulty. It this fails I recommend to Contact a RAK representative and ask for a replacement unit.
I am sorry, however I can not provide you with information about entering the console. This is not something I would do myself and thus I would not recommend it. The product should function as it is out of the box and it is highly likely that if it doesn’t it is a faulty unit.
Please consider my recommendation, I hope it is of some help.

Regards
Vladislav

@Hobo,

Well, I connect the ethernet cable in the swich and no link light in the switch side too. Even thought not making sense, I was looking for the DHCP Server the RAK7258 MAC entry, but as I was expecting, it wasn´t there.

For me, it seems as a dead device, but I can´t be sure about because I don´t have access to console.

I have 30 years in Telecomunication devices but for LoRa I am just in the begining (1 year) with LoRAWAN Academy Certified Engineer. I am trying to develop IoT in Brazil, where I live, but it is very hard because everything need to be imported. I already have a Laird LoRa Gateway and a TTN Gateway and both are working fine.

This RAK Gateway seems to me a good Indoor promisse, but now we are just in the begining… :slight_smile:

My Linkedin Profile

Hi @crmrosa,

It would seem it is as you suspected. I remember you mentioned the heat sink being loose. Well if we assume that it wasn’t when it shipped it must have been a bumpy ride to loosen it. So the force require to loosen the heat-sink is definitely enough to damage the board, in my humble opinion.
We are in Bulgaria and it is the same here. We are trying to make LoRa popular and available for everyone. Import taxes are high, customs taxes are high. People are not interested, they do not care to provide funding. honestly it is so backward and terrible I do not want to talk about it.
But I digress. To get back to your case. I think it is best to talk to a RAK representative, if it would be possible to get another unit. The console cable is not such a big Issues you get get one easily, however the documentation for what comes next might take more time to get than shipping a new Gateway.
This is my recommendation, ans as such it is not the official RAK statement. I wish you luck.

Regards
Vladislav

@Hobo

Thank you, I am already in touch with the RAK support @kenyu and @kinsonchan

Have a good weekend.

Claudio

@kenyu

I am writing to @kinsonchan to replace by the new product when it is available.

I undertstood that the heat sink, as you explained, is much better that the RAK7258 has today.

Hi @crmrosa,

Ah so you have the old RAK833. I thought you had the RAK2247. Yes it supposedly a lot better. We have the RAK2245 which has similar design with the new heat-sink line. It is indeed a lot cooler than the old RAK831 so I expect the same will be true for the RAK2247 ovet the RAK831 :slight_smile:
And as soon as I have some docs about the console interface I will let you know. I have a First Time Setup document for the RAK7258, however it is safe to say that at this point it will not be of much use to you.

Regards
Vladislav

PS. Keep us posted on LoRa development in Brazil, as a fellow LoRa proponent, that is struggling I am happy to help if I can.

@Hobo

I have to different fronts with LoRa:

  1. One is related with the Vale a Multinational Brazilian Mining Company. By Vale i was in Amsterdan where I knew @kinsonchan in the TTN The Things Conference. At Vale we are develop large Industrial Environments with LoRa.

  2. A personal research to help Brazil and my state Rio de Janeiro, to develop IoT. I work with a group called Serratec.org to develop Smart Cities with IoT

You already have my Linkedin Contact, and every time that I can, because I have 3 childrens to take care :slight_smile: , I am writing some articles to encorage people to go by IoT way.

Have I nice weekend

yes, we will switch a new one for @crmrosa and avoid same thing happen again. !

Hi @kenyu ,

Thank you by your support. Now I waiting instructions from @kinsonchan / @Nancy.wang to make to replacement process.

Cláudio

Hi @Hobo ,

@kinsonchan and nancy, they sent a new gateway. Now it is working fine.

Did you already publish the RAK7258 Guide? I am not finding any instruction how to join the RAK7258 the TTN.

Could you help me?

Regards,

Cláudio

Hi Claudio,

I think you can refer to the same document I sent you last time:

It should be in the folder in the above link
If I am not mistaken there are the instructions for TTN. It is a very straightforward process really. You just need to copy the EUI from the lorawan tab in the web interface and use it when registering the gateway with ttn. Everything else is just standard.

Regards
Vladislav

@kenyu and @Hobo, Guys I need your help again

New RAK7258 installed but the connection can be stablished to the TTN.

I did a Ping test, and the IP routing process is working, I mean the GW can reach some destinations at Internet.

I already tried to change the TTN router, but no connection

Did you check the box for the legacy packet forwarder when entering the gateway eui in TTN. It should be right below the field

Yes, I am using a legacy Packet Forward. This is the reason for the name formation law is using “eui-60c5a8fffe74d380”,

This legacy mode has some limitation, one of them is that I can´t work with Gateway Key.

Any ideias?