can you please suggest me a cheap and simple (=run out-of-the-box, without fiddling around) gateway to get a connection from my apartment in 10th floor to the mailbox in 3rd floor?
For the mailbox I already bought a Dragino LDS02 door sensor, but can not get a connection with the indoor gateway TTIG.
Would be the MikroTik LoRaWAN - wAP LoRa8 be a good choice for me?
I could put it outside on a window bench and maybe 30 meter opposite building will reflect the signal back to the floor where my mailbox? Both buildings are ferroconcrete and do contain apartments and offices.
Will depend on the building! - construction - size, materials used, layout, building contents, etc. You now have a TTIG, which was developed as part of a business and deployment model of âbuild outâ rather than âbuild inâ - put small GWs inside buildings to achieve deep coverage rather that try to surround and penetrate from outside, so should be off to a good startâŚ
Note: most ants are vertically aligned and designed to connect at range vs when vertcally stacked so depending on node placement wrt gw position YMMV - if you find dead spots at extreme floors try relocating - perhaps to 1/3rd of building length away from centre line etc.
Note: I see a trend here across your various questions and the threads you have engaged in and where e.g. Nick has provided answersâŚappreciate you are ânewâ having only joined in last day or two, but many of your questions suggest you have not done what we respectfully ask of ânewbiesâ and done some background reading and research yourself - many of the issues and questions you ask - or atleast the egeneral principles have been asked and answered many times so please spend some time reading the TTI/TTN documentation and searching/reading through the forum - there is nearly 7 years of history and experience spread out thereâŚasking qâs may be easier for you but you will learn less if handed answers vs reading up yourself
Possibly five per floor - one in the middle and one at each corner.
At extreme, one for each room.
Taking your own TTIG and doing a mini-survey by moving it & your device around to measure signal strength is the only sure fire way and is in fact exactly what weâd do in the first instance. If you put the TTIG on the middle floor and then go to the top & then the bottom of the building, youâd get an answer in minutes. Almost everything else is just advanced guess work.
Ok, so which LoRa Gateway would you suggest?
It should be cheap cheap as possible and run out of the box. If I can get no connection would be good with external antenna port.
Just try with your TTIG - youâve got it plugged in - itâs as simple as you going downstairs and trying it out.
And as @LoRaTracker says, no one here can make a suggestion based on the information you have given and even then, probably not at all because, as I said, weâd do a site survey.
Any which make use of the core Semtech GW chipsets! (SX1301+2xSX125x, Sx1308+2xSX125x, SX1302+âŚ, SX1303+âŚ) ie they are all much of a muchness with only minor variances based on build standard, components, temp range and environmental targets! and how well they follow or increment from the original Semtech reference designs and layoutsâŚI repeat
Main issue is if relative position (GW directly above door sensor) is correct then the polar plot of the ant (any ant - even external ones) will show relative nulls directly above or below, reducing sensitivity - hence suggestion to offset relative position if possible. Given your new/added info above showing another building in close proximity as Stuart suggests reflections may be your freind! The only way to be sure is JFDI! ('scuse the French) - deploy and test, anything else per Nick is speculation and educated guessingâŚI had 1 UK client years ago who deployed to an office block in Florida US - GW and main sensors were in basement (Plant room!), with last minute need to add another spare sensor to plant room attop the escalator shaft at top of buildingâŚsome 20-25 stories above! They got signal through - but suspicion was it wasnt by direct through floor connection or even signal propogation down stairwells or elevator shaft but rather by reflection from other tall office blocks a couple of kilometers away! Such conditions difficult to predict on a forum postingâŚ
Now, as it happens, I was testing this just yesterday.
With a LoRa device in a small sweet tin and transmitting at SF12, BW 125Khz, 14dBm, LoRa reception in my Shed was marginal when the transmitter was in the tin on a table in the house about 10M away.
Its not something I have measured as such, but I recall I was doing (receiving signals from a LoRa device in my fridge\freezer) to measure the frequency drift of the SX126X devices that can operate at bandwidths down to the 7800hz minimum as they use TCXOs.
But I guess it would be useful to know how many dBm a fridge will absorb, watch this space.
SF7 - typically -72â78dbm aro SNR8.5-11, with GWs 2 rooms away - 7-12m with 2 walls/internal windows/doors
All three fridges are monitored here. See similar values across them all (BTW all are âbuiltâ in types so behind cupboard doors alsoâŚ) Worst gives typically -82 to -88dbm - they are in different rooms/locations.
It was partly a joke back to Nick after his question, however, since you ask - A couple of data points below out of the fridge (and in open room) similar distance from closest GW (a TTIG) - tends to be the main receiver reporting relevant RSSI, one floor below a Mikrotik (approx 45deg up angle from node similar horizontal distance to the TTIG, 2 floors below test LPS8, iMST Lite & TTN KSGWs! The others capture/report RSSI if TTIG busy or misses and RSSI range is typicall -73 to -91 across the test GW suite
â2nd floorâ contradicts the â3rd floorâ in the title.
Mailbox on the second floor (instead of basement or first floor). Does that mean the mailbox is located more deeper inside the building and not on the outside?
Below the buildings is a shopping mall which has ~2 floors. So donât care about it, cause both buildings have same ground level. Mailbox is not deeper inside the building.
