The Things Uno Activation Problem

[itbecomesfluid]

Hi,

I’m having problems with activating The Things Uno.

I’m following the ‘Quick Start’ steps at:
https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/devices/uno/quick-start/index.html

I’ve got the Device EUI from the Uno by uploading a program to it and reading the output via the serial monitor in Arduino IDE.

I’ve added an application and my Uno device using the Device EUI from the board in the ‘CONSOLE’ section of The Things Network.

My problem is activating the device.

Instead of the device joining, I’m getting an error after a short delay each time:

Sending: mac join otaa
Join not accepted: denied
Check your coverage, keys and backend status.

The Things Network console status for the Uno device is ‘never seen’.

I wondered if the problem is caused by the gateway, but I have a different device, a Elsys ERS and that’s still working fine. FYI, the gateway is not my own. Instead it’s a community one installed by a local council in Norwich, Norfolk, UK.

Please find below the code from the IDE and a log from the serial monitor. I’ve changed the actual appKey for the forum post to CUTANDPASTED. The one used in the running code is the one from the console.

Any help would be very welcome. Thanks.

— IDE code —

#include <TheThingsNetwork.h>

const char *appEui = "70B3D57ED0040481";
const char *appKey = "CUTANDPASTEDFROMSOURCE";

#define loraSerial Serial1
#define debugSerial Serial

// Replace REPLACE_ME with TTN_FP_EU868 or TTN_FP_US915
#define freqPlan TTN_FP_EU868

TheThingsNetwork ttn(loraSerial, debugSerial, freqPlan);

void setup()
{
  loraSerial.begin(57600);
  debugSerial.begin(9600);

  // Initialize LED output pin
  pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);

  // Wait a maximum of 10s for Serial Monitor
  while (!debugSerial && millis() < 10000);

  debugSerial.println("-- STATUS");
  ttn.showStatus();

  debugSerial.println("-- JOIN");
  ttn.join(appEui, appKey);
}

void loop()
{
}

— LOG —

-- STATUS
EUI: 0004A30B001C1524
Battery: 3243
AppEUI: 70B3D57ED0040481
DevEUI: 0004A30B001C1524
Data Rate: 5
RX Delay 1: 1000
RX Delay 2: 2000
-- JOIN
Model: RN2483
Version: 1.0.1
Sending: mac set deveui 0004A30B001C1524
Sending: mac set adr off
Sending: mac set deveui 0004A30B001C1524
Sending: mac set appeui 70B3D57ED0040481
Sending: mac set appkey CUTANDPASTEDFROMSOURCE
Sending: mac save 
Sending: mac set rx2 3 869525000
Sending: mac set ch drrange 1 0 6
Sending: mac set ch dcycle 0 799
Sending: mac set ch dcycle 1 799
Sending: mac set ch dcycle 2 799
Sending: mac set ch dcycle 3 799
Sending: mac set ch freq 3 867100000
Sending: mac set ch drrange 3 0 5
Sending: mac set ch status 3 on
Sending: mac set ch dcycle 4 799
Sending: mac set ch freq 4 867300000
Sending: mac set ch drrange 4 0 5
Sending: mac set ch status 4 on
Sending: mac set ch dcycle 5 799
Sending: mac set ch freq 5 867500000
Sending: mac set ch drrange 5 0 5
Sending: mac set ch status 5 on
Sending: mac set ch dcycle 6 799
Sending: mac set ch freq 6 867700000
Sending: mac set ch drrange 6 0 5
Sending: mac set ch status 6 on
Sending: mac set ch dcycle 7 799
Sending: mac set ch freq 7 867900000
Sending: mac set ch drrange 7 0 5
Sending: mac set ch status 7 on
Sending: mac set pwridx 1
Sending: mac set retx 7
Sending: mac set dr 5
Sending: mac join otaa 
Join not accepted: denied
Check your coverage, keys and backend status.
Sending: mac join otaa 
Join not accepted: denied
Check your coverage, keys and backend status.
Sending: mac join otaa 
Join not accepted: denied
Check your coverage, keys and backend status.
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed
Sending: mac join otaa 
Join not accepted: denied
Check your coverage, keys and backend status.
Sending: mac join otaa 
Join not accepted: denied
Check your coverage, keys and backend status.
Sending: mac join otaa 
Join not accepted: denied
Check your coverage, keys and backend status.
Sending: mac join otaa 
Response is not OK: no_free_ch
Send join command failed

[descartes (Nick McCloud)]

How do I format my forum post? [HowTo]

The TTN forum is using Discourse, which supports several ways to format your post: Markdown BBCode HTML Any combination of the above Quite often you’ll need an empty line above specific formatting to make it work. You’ll also have to type blank lines to create proper paragraphs; just pressing Return once and then typing a new block of text right below a previous block only creates a so-called line break, which might be harder to read. Leaving one blank line between two blocks of texts nicely…

[descartes (Nick McCloud)]

This looks like a key mismatch. Did you enter the application EUI? Or use the one from the console.

Which console btw?

[bertrik]

A join is not actually actively denied, you simply get no answer from the network.
It could be that the radio path between your node and the gateway is not good enough, either the join not arriving at the gateway, or the join accept not making it from the gateway back to the node.

It helps a lot to have access to the gateway, to see your join message coming in.
That also makes it easier to see if you accidentally swapped the bytes in the device eui or app eui.
You can ask the gateway owner to add you as a collaborator on the gateway.

[itbecomesfluid]

@descartes Thanks for formatting my post. For the uploaded code, I cut and pasted the entries for appEui and appKey from the ‘Example Code’ section in ‘Devices’ at https://console.thethingsnetwork.org/

[descartes (Nick McCloud)]

As suggested above, the ideal would be to see what the gateway console says to check for actual transmission and then what the state of the join request is.

[itbecomesfluid]

It was a range issue. I travelled to be very close to the public gateway and the Uno activated. I plan to buy a gateway next so I can continue to use the Uno at home. Thanks for your help @bertrik and @descartes