RAK7268 only connects to TTS in "Basic Station" mode, but now LoRa is not working

Hi! I am super, embarrassingly new to all things LoRa, gateway, end-nodes, etc. I’ve been struggling to set up my new RAK7268 at a University in Wisconsin to test some basic sensors before they’re deployed in the field.

After a whole lot of trial and error and swearing, I’ve finally got it connected to TTS in basic station mode, however, now the LoRa indicator LED is not lit up and the breathing LED is flashing red (abnormal), though I can see it’s connected in the TTS portal. I can see in the gateway’s portal (accessed via IP web browser) that there are some strange errors that I’m not quite sure what they mean. I quick google search was not very helpful, as I’m not well versed in the jargon.

I’ve tried reaching out to TTN but I don’t have a paid plan, and I can’t find anything specific to my situation in the forum there. Can anyone help me with this?

I have also connected a RAK7268 to TTS (TTS Cloud) with Basics Station so let me know if you need any help. Are you also using WisDM?

Regarding the breathing LED flashing red, I have the same problem at that is because the LED only works with the UDP packet forwarder - RAK7268 - WisGate Edge Lite 2 - Breathing LED issue

The green LoRa led is also not active on my gateway even though there is traffic on it. I expect it to be the same problem as above (does not work with Basic Station).

I really hope they will fix this in a upcoming firmware update (WisGateOS 2.0?)

Hello Jakob - thanks so much for your quick reply! It does seem that this is just a weird glitch, as today (of course) I am actually able to see the sensors are being “found” though I do not have them set up to send any type of data that makes sense to me yet. You’ll have to forgive my novice understanding of all of this, I am brand new and computer/tech/programming deeply confuses me.

I am not using WisDM - I wasn’t even aware of what that was (I just googled it thanks to your message) so I will set that up too. I did notice that check option in the IP portal, though. I have it enabled. In your experience is that a better place to start than TTS? Since I haven’t delved too deep into my sensor/device setup yet, I’m wondering if it would make more sense to do that there, if that’s even an option.

I have two little Dragino RS485 to LoRaWAN converters with humidity/temp sensors that will I’m hoping to get up and running. These are just learning modules so I can become familiar with LoRa tech in general. I will be building some buoys over the winter which will use LoRa instead of cellular telemetry to transmit our water quality data in near-real-time.

I’m not sure what you mean by found?

WisDM is a really good platform if you need remote access to your gateway, and don’t have physical access to it. You can have up to 3 gateways added for free. I’m still waiting for them to open up for the subscription, so you have get up to 50 gateways on the platform.

TTS = The software running on TTN (TTS CE) / TTI. You can pick whatever LoRaWAN Network Server you want, it depends on your use case and how often you need to up/downlink. TTN is free, but there is of course some limitations regarding how often you can send. It’s really user friendly and they have some great documentation and a good forum where you can get help.

The second option is to host the LNS your self using ChirpStack/TTS, but since you are new with LoRaWAN and probably don’t have a use case for it, I would not recommended this for now.

The last option is use the built in LNS on you gateway (I think it is also running ChirpStack), but since you are new to LoRaWAN I would also not recommend it unless you have a use case for it.

You can find the documentation here Home | The Things Stack for LoRaWAN they also have a youtube channel with videos that shows you how to connect an end device and gateway.