'lora out' node

[Tom Yantek]

I have been following the “Conduit AEP:LoRa Communication and Node-Red” tutorial to connect my mDot to my Conduit and I have been able to TX from my mDot and RX on my Conduit successfully and observed on the ‘debug’ node.

However when trying to TX from my Conduit to my mDot, I haven’t had any success. I’ve attached a ‘lora out’ node as described in the tutorial, however it doesn’t give any more detail. I’ve read the info and inserted the EUI of my mDot in the node, however it still doesn’t TX to my mDot. When I insert the EUI do I need to provide quotes around it? Do I need to provide the colons, or just the bytes? I’ve tried many ways, still without success.

The info describes that the the data will “only be sent to the mDot in one of the two receive windows that open after receiving a packet”. Could someone elaborate more on this? Should I receive the “payload” back on my mDot after I TX from my mDot?

Or do I need to put my mDot into a continuous RX mode?

Thanks,
Tom

[Brandon Bayer]

Tom,

You don’t need surrounding quotes for the EUI, but it’s good practice to include the colons.

Yes, the downstream flow is:
1. Queue downstream packet by sending data through lora out node
2. Transmit packet from mDot (can be empty by just issuing AT+SEND)
3. If a packet was received by the mDot, the payload will be printed

(You don’t need continuous RX mode).

-Brandon

• This reply was modified 8 years, 12 months ago by Brandon Bayer.

[Tom Yantek]

Hi Brandon,

Thanks for the quick response. I have tried doing the AT+SEND (without data), also the EUI with colons and I still don’t RX any data.

I’ve also tried having the ‘lora out’ node both connected and disconnected from the ‘lora in’ node to see if that has any effect and it did not.

Is there perhaps a step I’m missing on the ‘Node-RED’? Or perhaps am I missing something for the configuration on the mDot?

Thanks,
Tom

[Brandon Bayer]

Tom,

Here’s some debugging tips:

• Look to see if the downstream data is being queued by the server in /var/log/messages
• Enable logging on the mDot with AT+LOG=6 and look at the logs using the virtual USB COM port

If you can’t get it figured out, open a support case where someone can give you more focused assistance.

-Brandon

[Tom Yantek]

Brandon,

Thanks for the tips, I was able to use the logs to determine that I was receiving the entire time.

What I was confused about is that the payload was always the ‘echoed’ payload of the original message from my mDot, NOT the payload in as set in the ‘lora out’ node of Node-RED, which the ‘info’ on that node describes.

Does this make sense? My guess is that it’s an ACK. However is there a way to send a ‘new’ message as a response from the Conduit or is this how the system works?

Thanks,
Tom

[Brandon Bayer]

Tom,

Great! And ah, yes, good catch. As the below quote from the Node-RED info states, the fields in the msg object will override the popup window settings.

Note: These fields may be set in the user interface. If defined in the message, the user interface values will be overriden by message values.

So you are not receiving an ack. The payload the mDot is receiving is a new packet with the same payload.

To send a new packet to the mDot, disconnect the lora in node from the lora out node. Then add an inject node and connect it to lora out:

[inject] -----> [lora out]

Make sure the lora out node settings has the correct EUI and desired payload. Deploy. Click inject. This will queue a new packet for the mDot. Then send an empty packet (AT+SEND) and you should receive the packet you queued by clicking inject.

Make sense?

-Brandon

[Tom Yantek]

Hi Brandon,

Yes, it makes total sense now.

And I have tested it and it works. If you set the payload in ‘inject’ node it will send that payload. However if you leave it blank in ‘inject’ it will send the payload from the ‘lora out’ node.

Thanks for all your help. I’ll now be able to begin my range testing.

Thanks,
Tom

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