Pi Zero RAK831 Adapter board
This shield has been created to help wiring between Raspberry PI Zero and RAK831 LoraWan concentrator Gateway and to be able to put the whole thing into a enclosure..
Then I decided to add some funky stuff like:
Major updates in V1.5a
Minor tweaks in V1.4
Minor tweaks in V1.3b
Since V1.3
Tiny GPS breakout board, buy there
Tiny Adafruit RTC board, buy there
No specific documentation for now, it's just a kind of wiring helper, please see Gateway section on TTN Learn and also on TTN Forums for more information on these gateways.
You can power the board with 5V going to Raspberry PI USB power directly or connecting 5V to the terminal blocks named VIN/GND, in this case use a descent 5V power supply.
You can also use a Murata DC/DC Step down (see BOM), in this case you can power the board from DC 7V to 36V, this is what I do each time. To use this feature you need to cut the trace on bottom side of PCB that connect VIN to 5V (vout).
Since V1.3b+ the trace is not connected anymore. This means that Vin and Vout are not connected anymore. So if you don't use DC/DC and powering with 5V, you need to put some solder on the pad to connect vout to vin (5V).
The push button is connected between 3V3 and GPIO17. GPIO17 has a 10K pull down to ground so when pressed GPIO17 become High. The button can be soldered on board, or connected to the Terminal Blocks if you want to put an external one if you have the board in a closed enclosure for example.
Push button management is done my the monitoring service installed by the setup below
Led management is done my the monitoring service installed by the setup below
Please follow the installation documented on the dedicated repository to install all needed and functionnal software:
Top side
Bottom side
Top side
Bottom side
You can order the PCB of this board at PCBs.io
Please not that there is special PCB version (not released yet) that fit in an indoor enclosure like the ones you can find on ebay. Search on ebay for 100x68x50mm IP66 Waterproof
or 100x68x50mm IP66 Waterproof clear
to find them.
PCBs.io give me some reward when you order my designed boards from their site. This is pretty good, because I can use these rewards to create and design new boards and order boards for a discounted price, so if you don't care about PCB manufacturer please use PCBs.io.
With the samtec connector you can put the PI Zero on top or bottom, depending on your choice, just solder the sametec connector to the PCB side you need. You can also avoid connector soldering the PI directly on the board.
And here it is near to The things node.
Click on image to see the video
Nothing fancy, all components are 0805 and/or PTH and can be ordered almost anywhere (digikey, mouser, radiospare, ...). use only what you need dependings on what you want to do. You can find lot of components on ebay or aliexpress, but since vendors are often ephemere, I put for reference the BOM on well known providers.
Here is the octopart BOM
If you have good reference for standoff like this, just let me know.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
If you want to do commercial stuff with this project, please contact CH2i company so we can organize an simple agreement.
See news and other projects on my blog