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  • Author Author: Jan Cumps
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Bumpy Road? : Connecting an Arduino MKR1310 WAN to The Things Network

Jan Cumps

Here's my first experience with the Arduino MKR1310 and The Things Network (TTN).

A (failed) attempt to follow the tutorial and connect to TTN.

I'm using a Arduino MKR 1310 WAN, tested with two different 868 MHz antennas, in an area known to be covered by TTN.

imageimage

 

I'm following the tutorial step by step.

  • installed the latest board support: Arduino SAM Boards version 1.8.7
  • and latest MKRWAN lib, 1.0.12

 

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Made an application on TTN:

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Loaded the FirstConfiguration sketch to my board:

 

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Ran it:

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Registered my device using the Device EUI:

 

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Selected OTAA, and entered the APP EUI and KEY.

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No success. The board returns "Something went wrong; are you indoor? Move near a window and retry", and TTN console says there was no contact.

 

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image source: the things network

 

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image source: ttn mapper. I live uphill, one of the highest parts of the city called "Litlle Hill". In a beam.

 

Any advice?

Parents

  • I was never able to make a TTN connection when I lived in Seattle. I have two MKR1310s and they communicate OK between each other.  Possible causes for my problems:

    • TTN stations were sparse in my area and maybe not active when I tried though shown on the map
    • Terrain and/or buildings blocking signal

    I tried driving closer to the nearest station and then to the top of a hill but no luck.  Between the two units I have it works better indoors and nearby than WiFi but at distances over several hundred meters I found direct line of sight was often required with my antennas.  Trees and houses attenuated the signal greatly.

  • in reply to fmilburn

    Correction: mine are MKR1300, not 1310.  I looked back at my notes and the furthest successful transmissions with my antennas was under a kilometer and that was unobstructed line of sight. 

  • in reply to fmilburn

    Functionally, the 1310 is similar to the 1300. Arduino optimised the power consumption.

     

    So did I image. When I get a MKR board and want to run low power, I disable the ON LED.

    In the past I did that by desoldering the LED. But that's destructive. These LEDs don't like heat and it's very hard to get one off the PCB intact.

    These days, I remove the series resistor. That one can just be pushed off by pressing a hot chisel type solderering iron against it.

    Less risky and easy to revert.

     

    image

Comment
  • in reply to fmilburn

    Functionally, the 1310 is similar to the 1300. Arduino optimised the power consumption.

     

    So did I image. When I get a MKR board and want to run low power, I disable the ON LED.

    In the past I did that by desoldering the LED. But that's destructive. These LEDs don't like heat and it's very hard to get one off the PCB intact.

    These days, I remove the series resistor. That one can just be pushed off by pressing a hot chisel type solderering iron against it.

    Less risky and easy to revert.

     

    image

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