We’ve previously covered several products from RakWireless, with a Realtek WiFi IoT board, a WiFi camera board, and a Amazon Alexa compatible audio board. The company has now launched RAK831, a LoRaWAN gateway board powered by Semtech SX1301 base band processor, and working with their RAK811 LoRa node or other compatible nodes.
RAK831 LoRA gateway board specifications:
- Connectivity
- Semtech SX1301 base band processor with LoRa concentrator IP
- Frequency bands – 433, 470, 868, or 915 MHz
- Sensitivity – Down to -142.5 dBm
- Maximum link budget – 162 dB
- Output power level – up to 23 dBm
- Emulates 49 x LoRa demodulators
- 12x parallel demodulation paths
- 1x (G)FSK demodulator
- 2x SX1257 Tx/Rx front-ends high frequencies
- 2x SX1255 Tx/Rx front-ends low frequencies
- Range – Up to 15 km (Line of Sight); several kilometers in urban environment
- GNSS – Optional GPS support
- Host Interface – SPI
- Expansion – 24-pin 2.54mm pitch “DB24” header with access to SPI, 5x GPIOs, radio related signals, and +5V / GND
- Misc – Status LEDs
- Power Supply – 5V
- Dimensions – size 80.0 x 50.0 x 5.0mm
The board can be used for various applications such smart metering, wireless star networks, home/building/factory automation, wireless sensors, wireless alarm & security systems, and so on. The guide start guide found in the documentation page, explains you’ll need a USB to SPI adapter board, for example based on FT2232HL chip,connected to an Ubuntu computer, or instead a board with an SPI interface running Ubuntu, or other Linux distribution. Finally, you’ll need to install the software found in RAK831_LoRaGateway Github repository. 
The company has also sent beta samples to several testers, and one of them – Naresh Krish – wrote a guide to use RAK831 with Raspberry Pi 3 board, registering the WiFi <-> LoRa gateway with TheThingsNetwork, and connecting to a RAK811 node.
RAK831 gateway is for $120 and up on Aliexpress for 433 MHz, 868 MHz or 915 MHz frequencies, or $125 if you want to add the acrylic case shown above. You may find additional details on the product page.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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