5 min read IoT

Integrating the Rakwireless RAK7268V2 with Datacake IOT Platform

RAKwireless RAK7268 Indoor Gateway black in colour. Showing rear ports and antenna.
RAKwireless RAK7268 Indoor Gateway

I recently read the Unboxing the RAK7268 WisGate Edge Lite 2 LoRaWAN Gateway article from the Datacake team. It is a great post and it explains that you can connect a LoRaWAN IoT Device straight to Datacake without having to use networks like The Things Network (TTN), Helium or Loriot. While I am very supportive of these networks and communities, I can find it adds an extra layer of complexity that doesn't suit all projects - especially when rapid prototyping.

I went ahead an bought the Rakwireless RAK7268V2 WisGate Edge Lite 2 for proof-of-concept IOT project I am working on. I was keen to try the scenario of using the RAKwireless built-in network server instead of an external third party LoRaWAN network server (LNS). However, even after looking deep into the Rakwireless documentation (ususally market leading) I was no wiser on how to configure and integrate this setup. The documentation explains other Supported LoRa Network Servers but not the local inbuilt network server.

In this post I will share with you exactly how to configure the Rak7268V2 LoRaWAN gateway with the Datacake. Datacake has done some great IOT device integrations with kickass support, making it my favourite IOT platform out there. Rakwireless has a solid LoRaWAN offering with outstanding documentation, so I think the Datackake and Rakwireless products are going to be a great match.

RAKwireless gateway, Datacake and LoRaWAN IOT Device Prerequisites

In order to perform this setup, you are going to need a Rakwireless LoRaWAN gateway that supports the full inbuilt LNS otherwise known as the WisGate Edge line.

WisGate Edge consists of the following indoor and outdoor gateways:

Rakwireless RAK7268V2 Indoor LoRaWAN Gateway
💡
Note that there are 2 model numbers for WisGate Edge Lite 2: RAK7268V2 and RAK7268CV2. Both are an 8 channel indoor LoRaWAN gateways, but the RAK7268CV2 includes the optional 4g communications module as an addtional backhaul connection to the Internet. You must also select the correct model for your area of the world.

I purchased the RAK7268CV2 in black (it also comes in white) directly from the Rakwireless store.

The second thing you will need to do is register with the Datacake IoT platform for free. Datacake is fully featured for unlimited users, unlimited workspaces and you can register 2 devices for free and no credit card. This is perfect for small projects getting started that want to setup a rapid IoT prototype environment.

💡
Checkout my detailed visual guide on how to sign up to the Datacake IOT Platform and add an IOT Device

Finally, you are going to need some sort of LoRaWAN IoT device (sensor) to collect and send data from. In this guide, I will be using the Seeed Studio SenseCAP S2100 Data Logger. I will use this to send captured pulses to the Datacake dashboard.

RAKwireless Gateway Setup Guide for Inbuilt LoRaWAN Server

Activating and configuring the integrated LoRaWAN Network Server (LNS) is fairly straight forward process. The RAKwireless gateway is accessed via a web interface and is intuitive, modern and responsive. The RAK7268 Quick Start Guide excellently explains how to access the gateway.

Complete the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Configuration menu. By default the gateway is already configured as a Build-in Network Server and should be selected for the Work Mode
  2. Make sure the Frequency Plan is set to your country and region
  3. Navigate to the Applications tab and select Add Application
  4. Enter the following settings:
  1. Click the Save button
💡
Note: The datacake-api-guid is the HTTP Endpoint URL value retrieved from the device configuration tab within Datacake
WebUi step for RAKwireless bultin network server setup

To add a device complete the following steps:

  1. Navigate to the End Devices tab (withing the Application configuration) and select Add End Device
  2. Enter the following settings (leave others as default):
  • Activation Mode: OTAA
  • End device (group) name: Sensecap
  • Application Key: app key from device
  • LoRaWAN MAC Version: v1.0.3
  1. Click the Save button

If things are configured correctly, the following payload should be recieved by the Datacake http API endpoint.

{"applicationID":"1","applicationName":"Datacake","devEUI":"XXXXXXXXXXXXX055","deviceName":"sensecap","timestamp":1680939413,"fCnt":2,"fPort":3,"data":"3110010002904080000000","data_encode":"hexstring","adr":true,"rxInfo":[{"gatewayID":"XXXX0XXXXXXXXb33","loRaSNR":13.3,"rssi":-35,"location":{"latitude":0.000000,"longitude":0.000000,"altitude":0}}],"txInfo":{"frequency":924200000,"dr":2}}

In Datacake, you should now be able to decode the payload, save the data fields and present on a dashboard.

Datacake dashboard displaying data values
Datacake dashboard

Take a look yourself at the live dashboard: https://app.datacake.de/pd/ce699a98-378e-42d3-9957-b1b0187b18e6

Have you used the built in network server on a RAKwireless gateway? or do you prefer to use a different network provider? Leave a comment below.

Bruce