The most useless board I have ever had

  • I bought four pieces from Lopy4 and Pysense2 but neither lorawan nor sigfoxon works.
    If anyone wants to fight him for free I will post all four of them and buy something as you can work.

  • @rholas the point is really: can you see the gateway antenna from the device antenna?

    It’s a bit more complex than that as there’s the Fresnel zone which requires quite a bit of clearance above ground, and on the other hand you can actually get through a few obstacles, but the essence is there: each obstacle you have to go through is the equivalent of kilometres of free space (how much exactly depends on the material, thickness, etc.).

    This is the reason why having the gateway antenna as high as possible helps (that’s why cellular antennas are always on masts or on top of buildings): the higher you are the less chances for obstruction on the way.

    Be aware that some omni antennas with high gain have a limited vertical opening angle which may be counterproductive in some scenarios, so take that into account before going that route.

  • @rholas I expect that. Please place the device such that they have an unobstructed view, and consider connecting an external antenna. Do the set-up while the device are close together.

  • If I bought Gpy + Pygate + Vodafone Nb-Iot this system will work with my Lopy4-s from 3 km-s away in open area?

  • @rholas 10 km is definitely possible in the right conditions, and actually a lot more, there have been many reports of hundreds of km.

    But like all radio technologies, it is affected by obstacles between the two endpoints. That’s why line of sight makes such a difference, and why height of either of both ends helps so much with that.

    I’ve had links over 10 km without even trying (outdoors, with a gateway on a high point and the device quite high as well), and others not even reaching a few hundred meters (indoors).

    With LoRaWAN having your own gateway helps you control those parameters, as TTN is just a community effort with very variable coverage. In the case of SigFox, you’d have to take that up with them.

  • @rholas said in The most useless board I have ever had:

    10 km range with Lorawan and Sigfox technology.

    This is a kind of marketing speach. In my test where I drove around my neighborship, I could get that with an almost clean area between sender and receiver - just a few trees, and send and receiver high positioned. Other test points failed with just a few 100 m between sender and receiver, with high buildings in between. So it's very much a matter of the actual situation.
    I do not know which setting you tried, but at DR=0, which is the slowest, you have the best reach. If you can install an own gateway closer to your bee colonies, than you can optimize the setup for that.

  • @robert-hh Thanks, I dont understand why lying about 10 km range with Lorawan and Sigfox technology.
    I planning to try with Nb-Iot with Fipy.

  • Another advise. Before you say something doesn't work, please get as close as possible to the nearest Gateway. For instance, If I'm next to the Gateway and see that I can't send a payload, then I would do the next step to see if it is a coding issue.

    Always start with simple examples.

    Kind regards,


  • @robert-hh Ah, didn't about those maps. Indeed not quite representative of reality! Like, at all.

    @rholas 9 km away, unless the gateway is outdoors with a good antenna on a pretty high point (how high it needs to be depends on where you are and the topography between you and them), it's quite unlikely anything will ever go through.

    You can check on TTN Mapper what they say, though this depends a lot of activity in the area to get a decent map.

    You can also try tools such as to map the path between the gateway and your device.

  • @rholas If the coverage is for the city, than sigfox will mos likely also no choice. It is too restricted by the same frequency/power rules as LoRa. Then one choice would be so set up your own gateway with LTE as communication means.

  • @robert-hh Im 9kms away from Lorawan gateway.
    But what about Sigfox coverage? Im 9 km away from cities.

  • @jcaron said in The most useless board I have ever had:

    There's coverage map for TTN? Where is that? I only know of the map which shows the location of the gateways,

    If you look at the the web page of the TTN users group of you region, you'll see a map with gateway locations and circles around them, which I understand as the coverage of each gateway.

  • @robert-hh There's coverage map for TTN? Where is that? I only know of the map which shows the location of the gateways, and the TTN Mapper project.

    @rholas Do you know where the closest gateway is? Do you have line of sight to it? If you don't, don't expect more than a few hundred meters range, sometimes much less depending on local topography. A few gateways have good outdoor antennas placed quite high (on a pole on top of a building on a hilltop) and have coverage spanning kilometres/miles, sometimes dozens of km. Many are indoor gateways with very very limited coverage (if they are even on, connected, and at the location shown on the map).


    Checked sigfox and lorawan coverage maps.

    These are not reliable, especially for TTN. Because that relies on information provided by the operators of the gateways and is not checked at all. Also, the gateways may be very different, from simple indoor units with a weak antenna to sophisticated ones with a high gain rooftop antenna. The coverage of these two is very different, but TTN does not make a difference in their coverage map. They always assume a 2 Miles (~3km) radius around a gateway, which is simply not valid. To be sure, you have to either set up your own gateway.

  • Checked sigfox and lorawan coverage maps.

  • @rholas How did you check the TTN and sigfox coverage? Is there a gateway for either service in reach? Depending on the set-up and environment, the distance between the node & gateways can vary a lot, between a few 100 m to several km.

  • I used the Lopy4s to monitor bee colonies with it. The four devices are mounted in separate locations in the middle of the field.
    I checked the ttn and sigfox coverage all right.
    But neither sigfox nor lorawan is not connecting. Since there is no wifi so data transmission does not worked to aws.
    In Sigfox backend Lopy4s never connected, PyBytes devices never connected.

  • @rholas You don't explain the problems. Other users have used LoPy4 as LoRaWan nodes for months, without any problems. So, if you want, you can ask for advice, solutions for your issues.

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