Atom DTU Lora Wan connection to helium network



  • Hi everyone,
    Got my Atom DTU a few days ago and have been trying to connect to the helium network with no success, code used below:
    0_1643751877661_1067ad90-e73a-471a-9b87-16f15f8625cb-image.png

    The controller goes through the whole process really well but doesn't manage to connect, i believe it may be something to do with the settings, having researched into it there seems to be a issue usually with endians, can someone give me a "nudge" on the right direction?

    Kind Regards



  • Hello @MDCB

    I have never used the Helium network. I have some experience with TTN though. In case of TTN a LoRaWAN device connects to a TTN LoRaWAN gateway which in turn talks to the TTN backend. The hierarchy is probably similar for the Helium network. Have you verified a suitable Helium LoRaWAN gateway is close by?

    Thanks
    Felix



  • @felmue said in Atom DTU Lora Wan connection to helium network:

    I have some experience with TTN though.

    Hi Felix,
    There are a number of gateways nearby, Helium is very similar to TTN in terms of providing all the gateway info in their interface: Console 2.

    this could be a question of tweaking channel values, data rates... Unfortunately i am don't know what documentation to read so i can learn what to do, any help is appreciated.



  • Hello @MDCB

    ok, you made me curious, so I've setup a Helium account and was able to join with a COMX.LoRaWAN868 module using a couple of AT commands. Unfortunately the COMX.LoRaWAN868 module has a different AT command set than the Atom DTU LoRaWAN base so the AT commands I used won't help you much. Also the COMX.LoRaWAN868 module is not covered in UiFlow which means I had to send the AT commands using the UART blocks. Essentially I had to choose LoRaWAN, OTAA, set DevEui, AppEui and AppKey (all three copied verbatim from the Helium Console) and then issue a Join command.

    However what I can share is the output of the COMX.LoRaWAN868 module when I switch it over to LoRaWAN mode:

    Copyright @2019-2020 Heltec Automation.All rights reserved.
    AT Rev 1.3
    +AutoLPM=0
    +LORAWAN=1
    +KeepNet=0
    +OTAA=1
    +Class=A
    +ADR=1
    +IsTxConfirmed=1
    +AppPort=2
    +DutyCycle=15000
    +ConfirmedNbTrials=4
    +ChMask=0000000000000000000000FF
    +DevEui=0123456789012345
    +AppEui=0123456789012345
    +AppKey=01234567890123450123456789012345
    

    From that I think you might want to try a different class (A instead of C) and a different channel mask (0xFF instead of 1).

    Thanks
    Felix