What is the status of the TTN Gateway?

wienkegiezeman · April 12, 2017, 2:13pm

Very nice new title! (did not do it myself btw)

tibo · April 12, 2017, 2:42pm

Just a question. Do you checked prices for Pi Compute modules? And then realized they don’t have Ethernet nor WiFi on the board?

wienkegiezeman · April 12, 2017, 3:54pm

Love it like this. Let me get back to work now then

bluejedi · April 12, 2017, 9:23pm

Great! I hope you can soon respond to my antenna question.

arjanvanb · April 13, 2017, 4:57am

A post was merged into an existing topic: Is The Things Gateway open source?

shaitjema · April 25, 2017, 5:21pm

@bluejedi, This is answered here: The Things Gateway Design

It is a regular quarter-wave whip antenna, using one that works with both 868 and 915 MHz. The Uno and Node both have a custom pcb antenna, matched for 868 and separately for 915 MHz.

Champal · May 3, 2017, 1:04pm

Hi,

The PIC32 is a sad news.
Professionally I use PIC for 15 years. PIC16, PIC18 with external MAC/PHY, PIC18 with internal 10Meg MAC/PHY, PIC32MX and now PIC32MZ.
The last almost good combo was : PIC32MX / MPLAB IDE / MLA (Libraries, TCP/IP, USB, …)

After this all launch from Microchip is “catastrophic” : deprecated the old one before the new are operational

PIC32MZ “EC” : chip full of bug, end of life after 1 or 2 years ! now replace by PIC32MZ “EF”
MPLAB X : new IDE based on Netbeans, multiple years before somethings usable (still not accept space in filename in 2017 !)
Harmony : new “middleware”/“bloatware”, mandatory for USB or Ethernet because the hardware is not well documente. You can read this topic “Harmony Hell in a Hand Basket Rant.” on the Microchip forum : http://www.microchip.com/forums/FindPost/988424

Microchip is a very “closed” company, no discussion, hidden doc and source, compiler cost. The compiler is base on GCC but the “free” version is voluntary deoptimized, you have to pay 931€ (http://www.microchipdirect.com/ProductSearch.aspx?Keywords=SW006023) in order to have a decent compiler

Last but not least : Microchip bought Atmel early 2016, where is the coherence ? Microchip use Mips, Atmel use ARM. What future for MPLAB IDE vs ATMEL Studio ?
Microchip is incapable of making good supports and tools for ONE line of product, what happens with TWO different technologies ?

At work we are looking to escape from Microchip but for a small company and a lot product and history (15+ years) it’s very difficult. My escape line was IoT and ARM based solutions with a lot of chips suppliers but this news close this one.

This day is definitively sad

wienkegiezeman · May 4, 2017, 7:00am

Yes, we have encountered a few of the points you have described above. We relate to them and you describe them very well. But choosing a platform is not only the development environment. We have found a great partner in Microchip supporting us along the way and not the least keep the product affordable. It has brought challenges we have overcome.

Sandgroper · May 6, 2017, 2:32am

I also found Microchip a great company for providing support and access to engineering where there were product challenges. However I have to agree with Champal, regarding the last good combo. I still use the PIC24/dsPIC for 16 bit applications but no longer use the PIC32 family - in my case it was easier and ultimately cheaper to move to ARM.

glederer1 · July 5, 2017, 6:32am

Wienke,

Today is July 5th, the gateways are still not delivered and even the “Kickstarter Updates” are missing now for four weeks. Could you please inform us what is going on?

kersing · July 5, 2017, 10:36pm

You should have gotten a Kickstarter update today…

jrandomhacker · July 5, 2017, 11:49pm

Thanks for the update today, Wienke!

glederer1 · July 6, 2017, 7:19am

Yes, I have received it. With really sad news in it…

BoRRoZ · July 6, 2017, 7:23am

Quote:

Hello Everyone

We are moving forward one step at a time. The certification process for The Things UNO and the Node will be finished this week and by the end of next one we plan to get it done for the gateway too.

On the critical path to the delivery now are the gateway modules. A few weeks ago, we mentioned about a form factor error that we found in the gateway module by Microchip. The suggested workaround wasn’t satisfying enough to meet our standards and hence the modules had to be returned back to Microchip and are now being fixed. All of this took a lot of time. The current plan is to have these back at the factory post the certification.

Will keep you posted by the end of next week on the status.

Wienke Giezeman

nestorayuso · July 6, 2017, 11:10am

Now that Semtech released the Pico Gateway reference design with open source code inside the STM32 MCU,
does it make sense the intention of Microchip to release and sell the Mini-PCIe card with PIC MCU (the one inside TTN gateway)?

Will the Microchip card be compatible with the Pico_GW protocol over UART / USB-CDC

github.com

Lora-net/picoGW_mcu/blob/master/src/MAIN/cmdUSB.cpp#L169


/********************************************************/

/*   cmd name   |      description                      */

/*------------------------------------------------------*/

/*  r           |Read register                          */

/*  s           |Read long burst First packet           */

/*  t           |Read long burst Middle packet          */

/*  u           |Read long burst End packet             */

/*  p           |Read atomic burst packet               */

/*  w           |Write register                         */

/*  x           |Write long burst First packet          */

/*  y           |Write long burst Middle packet         */

/*  z           |Write long burst End packet            */

/*  a           |Write atomic burst packet              */

/*------------------------------------------------------*/

/*  b           |lgw_receive cmd                        */

/*  c           |lgw_rxrf_setconf cmd                   */

/*  d           |int lgw_rxif_setconf_cmd               */

/*  f           |int lgw_send cmd                       */

/*  h           |lgw_txgain_setconf                     */

/*  q           |lgw_get_trigcnt                        */

/*  i           |lgw_board_setconf                      */

What interface does the Microchip card use? USB, UART, SPI?

wienkegiezeman · July 6, 2017, 12:32pm

Apologies for the delayed updates. Lots happened with the malformed gateway modules. I was thinking pushing smaller updates to the comments section from now on. I can imagine with radio silence once can get worried what is going on.

kawillers · August 7, 2017, 5:59pm

Is there an update regarding availability/shipment of the TTN Gateway?

kersing · August 7, 2017, 7:14pm

Read the Kickstarter update sent last week…

BoRRoZ · September 12, 2017, 7:23am

good news… finally certification !

Epyon · September 24, 2017, 3:27pm

Inching closer. Maybe in time for Christmas?