RAK811 how use class C?

LPWAN Modules / EVBs RAK811
1

Dear all,

i’m using RAK811 firmware v2.0.2.2 EU868
all work as expected using TTN and class A mode.

but i can’t successful use the class C. TTN announced that stack v3 is working with class C.

the only think i do to use class C is : “at+set_config=class:2”.
when i send a frame from TTN to my device, the frame stay “scheduled” and is used after some minutes, exactly same as class A !

please what did i wrong ?
did i need to config anything more on TTN console ?
or did i miss something on the RAK811 side ?

thanks, regards

2

Hi Phill,

I am not completely sure, however TTN V3 is not functional in the Community Network.
Thus in order to use it you need to compile the repo with Docker for example.
It matters not if your device supports Class C, because TTN doesn’t at this point.
When they release it on the public network than we can play and see :slight_smile:

3

By the way loraserver.io has support for both Class B and Class C.
So if you want to make tests with class C, at this point I would recommend you use LoRaserver instead of TTN.

4

Hi Hobo,

thanks for the tips about loraserver.io …
i will try to test it ! but i’m not sur to know how to do it !
i have some RPI3, some local server and a LAIRD RG186 gateway only

are you sure that TTN class C is not usable now ? that was announced in the V3 stack, which is now released !?
what do you mean by “TTN V3 is not functional in the Community Network” …? not available for free ? or i need to compile myself the stack and run on my own server ?

thanks, regards

5

mm yes :frowning:
i’m finding this on the TTN forum :slight_smile:

See LoRa Classe C (and the community version does not use V3 yet).

but see that too (october 2018) :

Not yet. We currently support only Class A downlinks. Support for Class C and Class B was pushed to our next major version (v3).

6

Precisely what I thought. Both comments state that V3 is not commercially supported yet. They have been promising it for a long time, however is going to take a while, probably it is quite complex to do.
Thus for now your best bet is loraserver.io. I can help you with running it if you decide to go this route.
I hope you have a RAK gateway you can use for the setup? I myself am running loraserver.io on a RAK831 together with a mate of mine (he is the technical brains I am the idea guy). So perhaps I can help?

7

no doubts you can help !
i just have a look to loraserver.io … i’m not comfortable with all that stuff :frowning:

i can find a free PC and install an DEBIAN or UBUNTU server, but after that, Linux and commands lines are not my friends !

but i don’t have a RAK831 gateway… only a LAIRD RG186

8

Ok so things are as follows:
We only have 2x RAK831, so the Gateway you have used we have no experience with. My more tech savvy mate will take a look at the documentation tomorrow and we will know more. At this point it looks as it runs some king of custom UI over Linux so we need to find out how we can access the CLI interface. It should be possible with some reading and trial and error.
However bare in mind you will eventually have a Gateway with a packet forwarder and a separate LoRa Server on a PC. The gateway will not be able to route packets unless the PC is always on. This is not an optimal setup. This is the nice thing about the RAK831, it has a Raspberry Pi 3B+ built-in, which can run the whole LoRaServer stack and always be on.
Will let you know how things go tomorrow, hopefully we got good news :slight_smile:)
@Fomi @velev

1 Like
9

understood !
i can eventually order a RAK831 system too.

but my final requirement is not to have a lora server at home !

sleep on it, back tomorrow !

thanks

10

Hi, @phil31

There is a tutorial about how to use RAK2245/831 to connect with loraserver.io and TTN server, you can refer to it:
http://docs.rakwireless.com/en/LoRa/RAK2245-Pi-HAT/Application-Notes/Get_Start_with_RAK_LoRa_Develop_Kit.pdf

11

Also, there is a image of ubuntu which has a built in loraserver.io, i think you can use it directly on a PC or virtual machine.
https://www.rakwireless.com/en/download/LoRa/LoRa-Server-OS

12

./ttn-lw-cli end-devices create --device-id test4 --supports-class-c , I test TTN_V3 .classC is support

13

Hi @phil31 ,

For now using class c is a bit tricky :D, not impossible.

Your Gateway, the LAIRD RG186 comes with LoRa Gateway-bridge preinstalled after version 93.7.2.9. You can read more about it here LAIRD Lora Gateway-bridge. This means you only need to connect it to the MQTT broker.

As @Fomi mentioned there is an of Ubuntu with loraserver.io built-in. You can find it here LoRa Server OS

In case you really want to try working with the TTN V3 stack, at least for now you have to do it on a local server (the cloud platform does not support it yet). You can find the repository for it and a tutorial in this link TTN V3

And as you can probably already see, that is why the RAK831 is so popular. You can run it all locally since it uses an RPi at its core. You can have the servers (LoRa or another type), we also run our database (we use InfluxDB as it is compatible with loraserver.io), graphical tools (we use Grafana), etc.

So lots of options to choose from. I myself went with everything on the gateway, perhaps you go another route and share your experience.

1 Like
14

well thanks all guys for your reply

i just see on TTN :

“I think V3 PCN clusters become available in preview in May.”

until that i will try to play with the loraserver in a VM

regards

15

this image is only for RAK devices ? or i can use it with my RG186 gateway ?

16

It is for anything supported, Linux based in general. Actually there is official support for your exact gateway.
https://www.loraserver.io/lora-gateway-bridge/gateway/laird/
This is the official page guide. All the instructions apply for your gateway :slight_smile:
Take a look, give it a try and if you get stuck we will try to help :slight_smile:

17

i just download twice the image file …
it seem corrupted ! can’t open it … that start good ! :smile:

18

What platform are you trying to install it on ?

19

i’m using Windows … the rar file seem corrupted, i can’t extract the image file !

20

You mean the *.rat.gz. I just downloaded it, used 7 zip to extract it and ran it in the CLI.
It runs, except that it can’t find the MQTT broker, which is expected as I have not installed one on the machines, as I mentioned my setup has all components on the Gateway.
Are you sure you downloaded the right archive?