Introduction: Raspberry Pi LoRaWAN Gateway

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About: Electronic and Computer Engineering student University of Limerick.

This project is a Raspberry PI iC880a-spi LoRaWAN Gateway. It was put together using various other tutorials online, and incorporates the best and what is working at present from those tutorials and are reference were necessary through out. The gateway uses software from Balena (formally Resin) and software from jpmeijers (ttn-resin-gateway-rpi) on GitHub.

Visit my blog for a full step by step walk through of the setup with pictures here.

Step 1: Note:

I made this tutorial a couple months back when Balena use to be called Resin. You will notice that some screenshot’s are of Resin and not Balena but the screen you should meet when following the tutorial will be similar so not to worry. I have changed Resin and referenced Balena were ever possible, were it has not been changed is in some terminal commands further on DO NOT CHANGE THESE. Other wise enjoy!!!!!!!.

Step 2: Hardware Used:

Using IMST iC880A-SPIconcentrator board and Raspberry Pi 1, 2 or 3.

1. iC880A-SPI – LoRaWAN Concentrator 868 MHz

https://shop.imst.de/wireless-modules/lora-produc...

2. SMA Antenna for iC880A-SPI, WSA01-iM880B and Lite Gateway

https://shop.imst.de/wireless-modules/accessories...

3. u.fl to SMA – Pigtail cable for iC880A-SPI

https://shop.imst.de/wireless-modules/accessories...

4. Raspberry Pi 1, Raspberry Pi Model B+ V1.2

https://ie.farnell.com/raspberry-pi/raspberry-mod...

5. OR Raspberry Pi 3, Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ (the same setup for Raspberry Pi 2)

https://ie.farnell.com/raspberry-pi/rpi3-modbp/sbc...

6. Power Supply, For Raspberry Pi 2A (might need 2.5A power supply for Pi 3 setup)

https://ie.farnell.com/raspberry-pi/t5454dv/psu-ra...

7. Micro SD card 4GB+

8. WiFi dongle for Raspberry Pi 1 or 2 (not needed for Pi 3 model B or B+ as WiFi is built in)

9. Female to female JUMPER WIRES

https://ie.farnell.com/adafruit/266/female-to-fem...

The choice of antenna is huge, pick any of your liking, as long as it is 1/2 wavelength and has 3dBi or higher.


Using a back-plane board instead of jumper wires is strongly recommended. Jumper wires can cause interference, and even thou the software will handle it, the performance of your gateway will be sub-optimal. See this link for more information on the above: https://github.com/ttn-zh/ic880a-gateway/wiki

Step 3: Making the Connections:

Connecting iC880A-SPI to Raspberry Pi 1,2 or 3 the connections are the same.

Connections are made following this link: https://github.com/ttn-zh/ic880a-gateway/wiki

Table image: connections for iC880A-SPI to Raspberry Pi 1,2 or 3.

The last connection in the table is different from the link provided above, as it is used in the iC880A-SPI quick start guide found at https://wireless-solutions.de/products/long-range... under the downloads tab.

Warning: Don’t power on the iC880A board with out the pigtail and antenna connected.

This is all we want to do from the ttn-zh github link above.