Hi, I just embarked on the journey with TTN and have been successfully using a Sensecap T1000 via the Sensecap TTN network and wanted to move direct to TTN and bypass Sensecap completely which in theory is possible as the device supports TTN direct. I ran into issues joining the T1000 onto TTN - I have good TTN coverage in my area however the T1000 will not join to the TTN everything seems to be setup OK but it just does not connect to the TTN Stack.
Any pointers or someone out there who has done this?
Thanks for the question. I somewhat presumed the coverage as when I use the Sensecap on the TTN network my device connects in seconds and is transmitting via the TTN network - I have constant updates every 15mins. The issue arises when I reconfigure to use TTN only. I am contemplating adding my own gateway but did not want to go that route until I confirmed I can roam and stay connected via TTN.
What is this? Seeed configures their devices to work out of the box with the Helium network.
The instructions, as far as I recall, say you need a gateway on TTN for coverage.
Roaming in the GSM sense of connecting to available networks is not possible with LoRaWAN without some serious brain surgery on the software on the device.
Having a device that moves is possible but has limitations on TTN for how often you can uplink so real time tracking isn’t feasible - ‘where’s my asset’ is fine.
As the T1000-A allows direct connection via TTN and watching TTN videos there did not seem to be a need for me to have my own gateway on TTN. This TTN Youtube clip added device which connected before any gateway was added to the specific TTN Stack application https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Par4-Gio8po&t=207s
Maybe I need my own gateway but that does seem counter intuitive based on the TTN instruction video referenced above.
The key idea is that you do not need your own gateway, but there needs to be a TTN-enabled(/peering) gateway within reach of your device. It may be the case that there is no gateway nearby that receives messages from your node, requiring you to add a gateway to the network. Which in turns adds coverage for all TTN-enabled nodes in the neighbourhood, not specifically yours.
Ah this may be the missing link is there any map out there which may identify a TTN-enabled(peering) gateway. Happy to get in my car and drive to a location tat would allow peering. Any ideas?
I have only one option in the device AU915 and yes AU915 chosen in either SenseCap TTN or TTN I wonder if I am just not close enough to a gateway for initial setup. I’m located in Ermington, Sydney and no gateway is particularly close but as SenseCap for TTN was working I presumed coverage is OK. My Office is in North Ryde so will attempt from there in the New Year.
I think Piet_Pillay is on the money. Need to make sure your are set for Sub Band 2. BTW I have the 2 gateways on the map shown as Gladesville 1 & 2. Both are set for AU915 sb.2 If I remember correctly(on one of my other SenseCap devices) I couldn’t find the Sub band 2 setting and had to choose ‘Other network’ and then sub band 2. I have a few SenseCAP devices( all sensors and never a T1000) and in almost every case had to get help from Seeed support to get them working in AU. Sometimes it was a new firmware that they sent me to get them connecting. Maybe at a pinch my gateways may receive your device from North Ryde. Good luck.
The only thing I don’t like about them is that they use confirmed uplinks. So for you to be compliant with the FUP you can only sent 10 downlinks per day, as for every uplink you send a downlink. And there are no option to turn this feature off. I have spoke to their main SW engineer and he cant see the problem with confirmed uplinks.
Mine have been laying on the desk turned off now for months.
@johan another ignorant software engineer that needs straightening out. You contacting the vendor worked like a charm with the other vendor years ago, can you insert some sense into Seed Studio engineering? (Or tell them to remove the TTN option from their software as they force users to violate the FUP?)
The more I read the more I do not like this device or Seeed… It was an experiment which I’m thinking may get parked under worth a go but in the long term not worth the legwork
It is curious that many of these devices are developed in isolation - no apparent request for end-user feedback or research in to what’s needed or required. I suspect that if you are in or local to China you can get lots of something made and see if it’s sells and still make a healthy margin, so no need to find out what would be useful
Hi Simon, I have this device, and yes its useless IMO. It’s meant to upload historic tracking data once it does connect to a gateway, but I’ve never seen it do this. I’ve been talking to Seeed about it, but really no explanations or deep analysis. I’ve tried Sensecap for TTN (BTW this only works for Seed sensecap gateways, no other gateway support this), Sensecap for Helium (no better), and then tried connecting to TTN but no success. Did you ever get anywhere or did you just bin it ?
@flyfly I do use it but it certainly is mostly useless. I had visions of being able to use TTN and tracking the device - I had no success at all. I then switched to using the SenseCap for TTN network with my own gateway - this works well when the device is in range of my gateway, when the card is outside the range of my gateway roaming works very intermittently as example in January I was in Ballarat (I live in Sydney) the device picked up a random SenseCap TTN gateway and started working about 2% of the time and on return to Sydney another random gateway was picked up near Campbelltown (40-50kms from home).
Reality is I have given up and stopped trying to get this functioning as I envisaged it could. Every now and then I think about having another attempt and run into the same roadblocks
Yes sounds like my exact experience. I was the same, its meant to be useable for asset tracking, for which its not going to work. It would’ve been more useful had it been to successfully upload the historic locations, which would at least give you a lot more intelligence about where the asset has been. I’ve had feedback from 2 Seeed engineers trying to help, the only thing they say is because some of my connections have a low RSSI, that the device cannot upload any historic data, only the current position. I dont think this is the case, as I’ve tried several gateways where I sit for many minutes which should have a strong signal - still no historic data (its meant to cache 1000 points). Once I got some good tracking along a freeway in Melbourne, but only that once and completely dissappeared once I left that strong gateway. Even when in contact with that gateway, zero historic points upload even though I’ve travelling 100km before the connection. Think I will bin it or flash mestastic on it just for a toy.
is there any map out there which may identify a TTN-enabled(peering) gateway. Happy to get in my car and drive to a location tat would allow peering. Any ideas?
