LoRa Indoor Gateway 868 MHz, WiFi: Instructions&First Steps

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Summary

The Things Industries 868MHz indoor gateway is designed to be a fully compliant, ultra low-cost LoRaWAN gateway, with Wi-Fi as the backhaul. It comes with a wall plug and can be powered over USB-C on 900mA, making the gateway even suitable for applications that require dynamic coverage.

Features and Benefits

  • LoRa-Indoor-Gateway

  ➥ An 8 channel LoRaWAN indoor gateway

  ➥ One of the first gateways to support the state-of-the-art

  ➥ Basic station Protocol

  ➥ Supports LBT.

  ➥ Simple setup steps taking lesser than 5 mins.

  ➥ Can connect to any network backend of choice.

  ➥ Setup and Connectivity over WiFi.

  ➥ Built-in omnidirectional antenna for indoor use.

  ➥ EU868, US915, AS923 and CN470 versions available.

  ➥ Security via a range of modes.

Specifications

  • LoRa-Indoor-Gateway-Specs

LoRa:

 Chipset   Semtech SX1308
 Channels   8/1 multi/high data rate
 Transmit Power   upto +27 dBM

WiFi:

 Modes   802.11 b.g.n
 Frequency Bands   2.4 Ghz
 USB Port   USB Type-C (900 mA)
 Security   WPA and WPA2 personal

Setup

Activate your gateway in less than 5 mins

Note: First of all, Press the reset button (small button at the back of the gateway next to the USB-C port) for 5 seconds until the LED blinks rapidly GREEN ↔ RED for a couple of times.

1. Hold the SETUP (button at the top of the gateway, next to the LED) for 10 seconds until the LED blinks rapidly in RED.

  • LoRa-Indoor-Gateway-10sec

2. The gateway now exposes a WiFi AP whose SSID is MINIHUB-xxxxxx where xxxxxx is the last 6 digits of the gateway ID.

  • LoRa-Indoor-Gateway-MiniHub-xxx

3. The password for this network is printed on the back panel of the device under WiFi PW.

4. After connecting to this network go to 192.168.4.1 using a web browser to access the WiFi config page.

  • LoRa-Indoor-Gateway-2-MiniHub-settings

  ➥ Select the WiFi network and enter the password if it’s a closed network.

  ➥ Select the “Save and Reboot” option.

5. If your config is right:

  ➥ The gateway will blink GREEN for a few seconds while it connects to this network.

  ➥ Then, it will blink GREEN ↔ RED for a few seconds while it connects to the CUPS endpoint and fetches the necessary
    information to connect to the LNS traffic endpoint.

  ➥ If your configuration was successful, the LED will be solid GREEN which means that the gateway is connected to the LoRaWAN network
    and is ready to handle packets.

Operating Modes

Configuration Mode (CONF)

In this mode, the device acts as a WiFi AP to which users can connect and configure a WiFi network(s) to which the gateway will connect to during normal operation. The device cannot route LoRaWAN packets in this mode.

Gateway Mode (GW)

In this mode, the device acts as a gateway to route traffic between the LoRaWAN Device and the Network. The WiFi AP for configuration is not available in this mode.

LED states

 Color(s)  Illuminating Pattern  Operating Mode  Meaning
 GREEN   Blinking (freq 1 sec)  GW  WiFi not connected (or trying to connect)
 GREEN  Blinking (freq 1/4 sec)  GW  Connected to WiFi, connected to LNS backend, listening for Packets
 GREEN   Solid  GW  Connected to WiFi, connected to LNS backend, listening for Packets
 GREEN/RED   Alternate Blinking (freq 1/4 sec)  CONF  Scanning WiFi networks, setting up Config AP
 RED   Blinking (freq 1/4 sec)  CONF  Config AP Active

Button Actions

There are three possible button actions on the TTIG:

 ➥ SETUP Button pressed for 10s:

  • Switch to CONF mode if in GW mode.

 ➥ SETUP Button pressed for 5s:

  • Reboot if in CONF mode, do nothing in GW mode.

 ➥ RESET Button pressed for 5s:

  • Factory reset (wipe out WiFi and LNS credentials, though CUPS credentials are retained).

Used Hardware

 ➠ TTN Indoor LoRaWAN Gateway 868 MHz, WiFi, LoRa

References

 ➠ https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/gateways/thethingsindoor/