Kompressor Demo

We will demonstrate building a Helium Hotspot using a Kompressor Secure Concentrator card, Raspberry Pi 4, and RAK 2287 Pi HAT. You will also need a JLINK debug probe (note: the education/non-commercial one works just fine).

Build Kompressor Firmware

$ git clone https://gitlab.com/nlighten-systems/firmware
$ cd firmware
$ make fullimage.bin

Plug in the jlink and connect tag-connect to the Kompressor board. Then flash the full image firmware:

$ make flash_full_image

Build pkt-forwarder

Secure Concentrators Cards use an extended version of the Semtech GWMP protocol. Therefor you must use Nlighten’s fork of the pkt-forwarder project:

$ git clone https://gitlab.com/nlighten-systems/pkt-forwarder
$ cd pkt-forwarder
$ git submodule init
$ git submodule update
$ cargo build

Now copy the pktfwd binary and config file to the raspberry pi.

$ scp target/armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf/debug/pktfwd <user>@<rasp_pi_ip_address>:/home/<user>/
$ scp conf.json.kompressor.US915.SPI <user>@<rasp_pi_ip_address>:/home/<user>/

SSH into the raspberry pi and start the pktfwd app.

$ RUST_LOG="info" ./pktfwd --config conf.json.kompressor.US915.SPI
paul@raspberrypi:~ $ RUST_LOG="info" ./pktfwd --config conf.json.kompressor.US915.SPI 
[2022-11-17T00:26:08Z INFO  pktfwd] Starting pktfwd
[2022-11-17T00:26:08Z INFO  pktfwd] resetting concentrator micro...
[2022-11-17T00:26:09Z INFO  pktfwd] waiting for micro to boot...
[2022-11-17T00:26:29Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 0 freq: 903.9MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:29Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 1 freq: 904.1MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:29Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 2 freq: 904.3MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:29Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 3 freq: 904.5MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:29Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 4 freq: 904.7MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:29Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 5 freq: 904.9MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:29Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 6 freq: 905.1MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:29Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 7 freq: 905.3MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:29Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 8 freq: 904.6MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:29Z INFO  loragw_hw::secure_concentrator] SX130x: v1.2
[2022-11-17T00:26:31Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] SX130x model: SX1303
[2022-11-17T00:26:31Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] using precision timestamp
[2022-11-17T00:26:32Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] LoRa Service modem: configuring preamble size to 8 symbols
[2022-11-17T00:26:33Z INFO  loragw_hw::secure_concentrator] Loading AGC firmware for SX1250
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] ARB fw loaded
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] ARB: dual demodulation enabled for all SF
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] ARB: dual demodulation disabled for all SF
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  loragw_hw::secure_concentrator] gateway eui: 00:16:C0:01:FF:1E:40:3C
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 0 freq: 903.9MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 1 freq: 904.1MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 2 freq: 904.3MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 3 freq: 904.5MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 4 freq: 904.7MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 5 freq: 904.9MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 6 freq: 905.1MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 7 freq: 905.3MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  loragw_hw::hardware::sx130x] Channel 8 freq: 904.6MHz
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  loragw_hw::secure_concentrator] gateway eui: 00:16:C0:01:FF:1E:40:3C
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  pktfwd::gwmp::client] GWMP Client bind: 0.0.0.0:9000
[2022-11-17T00:26:49Z INFO  pktfwd::gwmp::client] GWMP Client connect: 127.0.0.1:1680

toyserver

toyserver is a test binary used to connect to pkt-forwarder and print out incoming packets. You can copy toyserver from target/armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf/debug/toyserver onto raspberry pi. Run the toyserver from the raspberry pi and it will automatically connect to pkt-forwarder on port 1680. If you press the s key it will transmit a packet on 920.6 Mhz using SF12BW500 modulation. see src/toyserver/src/main.rs for more info.

Build gateway-rs

$ git clone https://github.com/dinocore1/gateway-rs
$ cd gateway-rs
$ git checkout secure_concentrator
$ cross build --target=armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf --no-default-features
$ scp target/armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf/debug/helium_gateway <user>@<rasp_pi_ip_address>:/home/<user>/
$ scp config/default.toml <user>@<rasp_pi_ip>:/etc/helium_gateway/
$ cat <<EOF > config/settings.toml
keypair = "/home/paul/helium_gateway_key.bin"

[log]
level = "debug"
timestamp = false

[update]
enabled = false
platform = "nlighten_zen"
EOF
$ scp config/settings.toml <user>@<rasp_pi_ip>:/etc/helium_gateway/

Now you can ssh into the raspberry pi and run the helium_gateway. Follow the instructions to setup a Helium Data Only Hotspot.

Run the helium gateway service with:

$ ./helium_gateway server