Hi there, just a few (practical) remarks here after installing a Mikrotik :
mounting of the gateway together with the recommended antenna TOF-0809-7V-S1 on the same pole the 1m provided antenna (1m) is a bit too long, which means bending/folding and which is not recommended.
the enclosure of the RBwAPR-2nD&R11e-LoRa8 has breakouts for the leads, which is ok for RJ45 but not for the antenna cable, which is thin and thus leaves room for moisture etc. Fixed that with some hotglue but it always feels nasty to resort to that
one thing i (really) do not like is finding out (on the roof) that a crimped RJ45 is not ok, so I prefer a keystone module and running with a prefabbed rj45 short length patch cable. I hoped I would be able to snug it in the enclosure, but its just too small, leaving me with an extra box outside. Somebody knows a solution for this? Are there any keystone->Rj45 male?
The leds on the RBwAPR are not helpful in the sense that at least id like to check at least PoE visually while looking at the unit, which is not possible afaik.
I know you can find it out yourself doing the Mikrotik docs, but getting people on track with this nice gateway the quickstart guide should provide some guidance on how to allow management from the WAN side (read ethernet/PoE) which is blocked by default, in order to allow it to be plugged in just like any device on your LAN (DHCP client on WAN)
suggestion : allow for webfig access when deployed within existing network needs specific firewall rules, some guidance from mikrotik would be helpful since it is not a default CPE/AP setting, and new users could possibly get lost in the config jungle
Missing in the instruction is how you would config it with a wifi backhaul , i.e. just have the thing with power only over PoE and have it use the packet forwarder over Wifi.
So far so good, i like the Lora interface on it, with filtering on device idâs, and so far it behaves nicely, consistent, gateway setup as such was easy and without problems so congrats Mikrotik for delivering a reasonably priced and easily to be configured gateway.
Suggestions are intended to help adaptation in the sense that you either just plug it in your home network and have it do its lora forwarding, with the possibility to either use it with Ethernet PoE, ethernet + power supply, wifi+power supply setup, without bothering about the specifics. Since there is no such wizard or preset yet, setting up a gateway might be experienced to be difficult.
This would be indeed very usefull, but combined with how to configure it on a wifi guest network (read a wifi network that blocks internal device to device traffic.)
For anyone else from The Netherlands looking to purchase one of these, might want to look at https://www.telemetrieshop.nl/shop/producten/gateways/mikrotik-wap-lora8-kit/ as their a little bit cheaper, ordered a little while ago and everything was perfect! As i understand this store is somewhat related to wimood, but i dont know much about that to be honest.
Hello. I have just bought one of these (Lora9 version). I noticed it has a SIM slot, but I havenât found anything on the web to suggest that there is a cellular modem inside (maybe they are just re-using the same housing as another product). I donât have a SIM for this device yet, so I canât test it yet, but does anyone know if I can put a SIM into it and use 3G/4G to connect to the internet?
Ok. I got it set up. The SIM slot is indeed non-functional in this configuration (Lora9). The same enclosure is used for other devices which do use a SIM.
Mikrotik recommend RBLtAP-2HnD (https://mikrotik.com/product/ltap) for a device that can accommodate a LoraWAN gateway and a cellular modem in a single box.
Anyway, I have my gateway connected to TTN through wired Ethernet on my home network, on the AU915 band (Iâm in New Zealand), and I have a node (Ursalink UC1122 analog node) also configured for AU915.
The gateway appears in my TTN âGatewaysâ console. My node appears as a device in my TTN âApplicationsâ. My node joins my gateway (there arenât any others nearby). The node sends a payload! So far so good, but there are some oddities. Should I post messages here looking for help, or under another topic?
Specifically, I think my Node should be sending its state every minute (for testing), but my Gateway doesnât receive all of them even though itâs only 10 metres away. The gatewayâs internal log is showing a lot of CRC errors and low RSSI (around -110db) for the node. Successful packets have RSSI of around -60dB and no CRC errors.
This is all quite new to me, so Iâd appreciate advice on how to proceed.
I think itâs my frequencies, in the gateway, and in the node. Iâm not sure how much leeway I have for editing them. All I did was choose âAU915â from the configuration options in each device. So, thatâs where Iâm at.
Did you connect an external antenna to the gateway? Or connect the internal one? By default the internal antenna is not connected to the concentrator board so an external antenna is required.
Yes. I have an external antenna. It is the Mikrotik 6.5dB LoRa antenna. I connected the supplied cable from the connector on the gateway to the connector on the antenna. I did not open the enclosure to see if the internal antenna was or was not connected, but it is supposed to be supplied disconnected.
Sometimes the same node is received with better RSSI, but nothing has changed. The node is on my desk. The gateway is in the garage, about 10m away.
I think so. I just configured mine for AU915 and these are the frequencies it decided to use - they are AU915 but not subband 2 (which TTN uses) which are 916.8 - 918.2
I donât know how to fix this, other than using the custom option but I canât see how to define the channels when I select that (on the mobile app) - just found a forum post. Needs a bug with Mikrotik I think [raised one]. AS923 seems to match the TTN frequenciesâŚand you can use that in NZ as well (Spark use it)
I have also configured Forward to be Valid (so only valid CRC packets get forwarded), but thatâs just me. If you have anything else around making any noise then youâll get seemingly valid but completely spurious nonsense packets. I canât see a reason to leave it onâŚready to be corrected though.
Hello. Thanks for that. Your list of frequencies in that screenshot matches my list precisely (unsurprisingly). I also had found that forum post discussing the matter. I will contact Mikrotik and suggest they add an entry in the drop-down list for âAU 915 Sub 2â which they could configure with the correct frequencies.
I am using Webfig. When you select LoRa -> Devices -> (Gateway) there is no option to select a custom band, nor do I see where to define it anyway. I can only select from the prepared list: AS 923, AU 915, EU 868, IN 865, KR 920, RU 864, US 915 Sub 1, US 915 Sub 2.
There is a later firmware for the gateway. As supplied, mine is running 6.46.1. The latest âstableâ release is 6.46.6, but the release notes donât mention AU 915 plan. There was a change for Russia in 6.46.3.
The next issue is to check and confirm the same settings in my Ursalink device. It also has a preconfigured AU915 plan, but I donât know for sure if itâs right. Iâll post that in a different topic.
Ok, I used the details in that forum post (https://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=155803) with the MikroTik terminal on the gateway to set the channel plan to âcustomâ and load up the TTN AU915 frequencies.
My channels now look like this:
Is that right?
Before this I edited my Ursalink UC1122 channel plan to match what I think it should be for AU915, and it stopped communicating (which is what I expected as there was no longer any overlap in frequencies).
After this, the Ursalink node appeared again. But, itâs supposed to be sending every minute, and Iâm not seeing that. Iâm only seeing occasional messages. Will look deeper.
