Let’s set up a grassroots LPWAN LoRa in Toronto & GTA. Have RN2903 and DRF1278DM ranging experiments in progress. Anyone want to be in on LoRaWAN gateway? We are 2 engineers with experience in RFID and telecom.
Hey Almarion,
I am interested. 30+ years experience in RF (military, AM/FM radio stations, HAM). I have a large building contractor who is interested in helping/sponsoring us.
HI Darren,
Thanks for responding … I was beginning to wonder about this great city of ours not being properly represented. I don’t know if you remember the Toronto Free Net. It was a volunteer grassroots movement to make Internet accessible in the earlier 1990’s. I was part of that group that established the modem pool and worked on software for the server. The current LoRa IoT movement seems to have similar possibilities.
Currently 2 of us are meeting every Saturday afternoon doing background work like range testing with antennas and begining a “DIY” simple gateway. Hopefully we will have this gateway up on my balcony to connect to a single mode in a few weeks. (Thornhill to Scarborough – 16 km range testing looks good so far).
It would be good to establish at least a gateway on a building in the GTA. A group purchase of gateway could be the next step. I was looking at the low cost Things Gateway that will be available soon, but I think it may be only be suitable for Europe.
Let’s continue this communication as I am sure you can share more and we could arrange a meeting soon.
Let’s put Toronto on the LoRa IoT LPWAN map!
73,
VA3IHS
Hi Al,
Thanks for responding back so quickly.
I too was wondering why no one had interest in getting Toronto started on the ThingsNetwork.
I’ve been playing around with Arduino’s, Raspberry Pi’s, GPS, GSM, HTTP, PHP, MySql, etc for the past couple of years.
I haven’t renewed by HAM license since 2003 when the internet “came alive”. My callsign then was VE1CFU when I live in Halifax.
I do remember hearing about Free Net when I moved here in 2003. I think it’s still running isn’t it? The website shows 2016 updates.
I live in a Penthouse Condo (8th floor) that faces south to downtown, Don Mills/Lawrence, and always thought it would be great place to put a gateway.
That’s a great range of 16 km (Thornhill to Scarborough).
Where do you live? Thornhill? Scarborough? Where do you usually meet?
Talk soon,
Darren
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Hey Darren,
Good to hear about your interests and enthusiasm!
I am looking southward from a 6th floor balcony in Thornhill near Yonge and south of Hwy 7.
Perhaps we could meet this coming Saturday afternoon and put some plan together.
Do you have an initial gateway location in mind? Could we meet at that location?
Anyone else you think might be interested?
Best,
Alan
Hi Al and Darren,
Firstly, it’s a pleasure to “e-meet” both of you.
I’m currently in Waterloo and go between Waterloo and Toronto a fair bit. A friend and I are interested in setting up gateways in both Waterloo and Toronto. I’ll likely be canvassing possible donors in the community to help cover the cost of gateways. It’s possible that once the Kickstarter gateway is released, a network can even be setup along Highway 401 to cover from KW to Toronto.
I’d love to speak with you both to hear about what you’d each like to do, and to try and work together wherever possible. I’ll send you each my cell phone number in your private messages and feel free to call on-the-fly or setup a time to chat.
I’ll also be reaching out to some of the clubs at University of Waterloo, the innovation centres, local LPWAN-based startups, etc. to see who else is interested in working together to build coverage. My company was also located in the Digital Media Zone last year in Toronto at Yonge and Dundas and I think they would be interested in supporting this and putting up a gateway there.
Darren, it sounds like you have a ton of experience in both the hardware side and radio side, that’s awesome! I’ve recently purchased a couple Pi’s and a bunch of peripherals. I’ve been reading a fair bit about LPWAN, LoRaWAN, TNN, etc. but don’t yet have much real-world experience. Do you feel confident enough that with some tinkering and messages to other TNN forum members you’d be able to setup a gateway? I’d be happy to help in whatever way possible, including offering Pi’s if a DIY solution is chosen. I was also thinking about reaching out to the people with gateways in Ottawa if in-person assistance is ever really needed. You also mentioned a large building contractor; does the person seem willing to sponsor the cost of a gateway(s)?
Al, it’s great to see you’ve already been doing some background work on the weekends! If you’re still doing this, is it possible to join you some weekend? Are you thinking of going with a “plug-n-play” gateway to begin with or go straight to a DIY Pi-based gateway?
Looking forward to working with you both, very exciting times!
Tim
Hi Tim,
I hope all is well, how are things?
I see that there are 2 gateways in Toronto, Parsebin and IoTSpeak.
Disappointing to see the TTN Gateway keeps getting pushed to the right.
Darren
Toronto
Hi Tim, Darren and Alan!
I just saw this old thread and thought I’d ask if you ever met and made any progress with a gateway. It appears that nothing happened. I find it surprising that Toronto seems to have almost no gateways and very little activity. We aren’t even and “Official” Community. With no activity here, I feel like my one gateway is an orphan. I can drive for 45 minutes with a tracker in my car and it never evan hits another gateway!
Let me know if any of you want to meet and figure out how to change this situation.
Mark
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I’m interested to get the Toronto community going, who is that contact ?
I’d say it needs a complete re-boot, it appears to be abandoned. It’s not even listed as an "Official " community!
There are more communies not ‘official’ but very active, see https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/start-a-community how to become official, in most cases its that last step, to organize an event.
I agree that this community seems ‘abandoned’… the initiator is no longer registered So for a takeover or startover I suggest to find a few people and contact TTN for ‘the keys’
They have to know who you are off course.
Hey BoRRoz,
MarkD and myself have gateways up and running in Toronto.
How do MarkD and I get the “keys” to revitalize this community?
DarrenO
Hi BoRRoZ,
Darren and I talk at least once a week, and I’ve made contact with another GW other who lives less than 5 km from me. His GW can see my nodes when they are inside my house!
I’ve stirred up some interest in TTN among some other people who I showed my T-beam to and they have even ordered some T-beams, and I should be able to talk one or two into putting up gateways.
Darren and I will have to figure out how to get those keys to the Toronto Community soon, nobody even responded to my question there a month back.
Have a look at Wednesday’s bicycle ride, most of my trip was picked up by another gateway. I’ve connected with that GW owner also…
https://ttnmapper.org/experiments/map.php?name=Toronto_T-beamBicycleRide17April
Hi Mark,
tnx for the update and interest in TTN and the Toronto community.
please contact @Rish1 now on how to move on
cheers
BoRRoZ
The Things Network Toronto meet up group is now formed and published. Within the first 48 hours of creating the Meetup we already have 20+ members.
If you’re from the Toronto/GTA area and are interested in exploring IoT with The Things Network Toronto, join the meetup group for meeting dates, etc.
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https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/community/toronto/
Although initiated in 2016 TTN-Toronto has some additional members, we’ve created Meetups both online and social.
We’re looking forward to collaborating, sharing, experimenting and more!!
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