I am aware that no single channel forwarders should be used for lorawan, I just want to use the gateway to test some custom code for a node with a rfm95 (Dragino lora shield). It will not be used permanently!
I try to forward packets via the LG01-N. My node firmware is able to send and receive data via lora with 2 nodes, so the transmission itself works.
But in the logread of the gateway no received/forwarded data is displayed. the transmission parameters are selected according to the settings of the gateway:
It should not be used at all. Every minute it is running connected to TTN you are causing potential issues for other TTN users. So switch it off, install Chirpstack on a system and run your own private LoRaWAN network for these experiments.
Keep in mind LoRaWAN is a lot more. Your data needs to conform to the LoRaWAN packet, you need to be able to handle downlink MAC messages, switch frequencies and spreading factors (which you can’t because your receiving hardware doesn’t handle those packets)
LMIC is a large code base because LoRaWAN is quite a bit more complicated then Lora is.
I echo Jac’s comments wrt use on TTN and would add that by definition - even if you get it working on LoRa only implementation and or a Subset of a private LoRaWAN network all your traffic will be concentrated on one channel rather than being randomly (evenly?) distributed over 8 chanels hence you will will be over burdening that one channel and indeed one that is amongst the 3 key channels used ofr LoRaWAN in the EU868 range…please therefore move your system around the spectrum and if you can move to a channel not used for the standard LoRaWAN activities - still within the legal range permited in the local ISM Band. That would be the socially responsible thing to do
Thank you for your answer, i will try Chirpstack and avoid connection to TTN. Yes, i’m aware of the LoRaWAN MAC Protocol, but in this case it shouldn’t matter since for now i only want the gateway to receive and forward LoRa packets. The Gateway is not supposed to interpret the payload as e.g. a Join Request right? So if i understand correctly it should at least receive and display any packets that are send on the right channel.
A gateway will not process a LoRaWAN packet, however depending on the software running it might silently dismiss packets that are obviously not LoRaWAN compliant.
For a lab setting (vs a field install) pi-based gateways have a lot to recommend them since it’s easy to make changes, write extra code to analyze things right there, etc.
But if the same box then needs to go in the field look at one of the 8-channel Dragino’s or the RAK competitors - both based on a far simpler OpenWRT Linux and not dependent on the SD card a pi uses for its gigantic Linux install.
