Conduit AEP: LoRa Use With Third-Party Devices

The AEP version of Conduit (MTCDT-xx-210A) supports OTA (over-the-air) joining by third-party LoRa devices as of version 1.0.33 (If you need to upgrade, refer to the Upgrading Firmware section in the mPower Conduit Software Guide ).

AEP 1.4.16 and above

Devices can be added using Key Management for OTA devices or Device and Session tables for ABP devices.

See the LoRaWAN section in mPower Conduit Software Guide for more details.

AEP 1.4.3 and below

OTA Join Setup

Go to the LoRa Network Server setup page on the Conduit and configure the following settings:

  • Enable Public mode
    • This changes the join response time from 1 to 5 seconds and the sync word from 0x12 to 0x34
    • NOTE: Public mode must also be enabled on mDots in order for them to remain compatible (e.g. issue the command AT+PN=1)
  • Set Network ID dropdown to EUI (when set to Name, the EUI will be automatically generated from the name)
  • Enter an 8 hex byte EUI into the EUI text field.
  • Set Network Key dropdown to Key (when set to Passphrase, the Key will be automatically generated from the passphrase)
  • Enter a 16 hex byte Key into the Key text field.
  • Click Submit to save changes

Third-party LoRa devices should now be able to join the Conduit’s LoRa network using OTA join.

 

Manual Join/Activation by Personalization

  1. SSH into the Conduit (default IP: 192.168.2.1, user -defined device credentials) 
    # ssh admin@192.168.2.1
  2. Then run this command to start a LoRa server configuration console 
    # nc -u localhost 6677
  3. Add a node 
    node add [DevAddr] [APPEUI] [DEVEUI] [NwkSKey] [AppSKey]

See also: lora-query utility

 

Example:

# nc -u localhost 6677
node add 00000005 0011223344556677 8811223344556677 2b7e151628aed2a6abf7158809cf4f3c 2b7e151628aed2a6abf7158809cf4f3c
NOTE: While this should get your sensors working using personalization, you’ll only receive, on average, 1 out of 8 sensor transmissions if your third-party device uses 64 channels, since the Conduit can only listen on 8 channels. The “sub-band” setting on the LoRa config webpage determines which 8 channels it’ll listen on (1-8, 9-16, …).