Weak RSSI using HTCC-AB01 und Dragino Hat

Hello everybody,

I’m using the CubeCell HTCC-AB01 as a node and a raspberry pi 4 with the Dragino pi Lora/GPS hat as a gateway.

I successfully can communicate between these devices, but after around 100 m in an rural region I cant receive any message because of the weak RSSI.
I doubt that it’s the software, because I’m using the LoRaSender Sketch on the CubeCell and running rx_const.py (from the pysx127x github repo) on the pi without any changes except the following settings (on both sides of course):

  • Frequency: 868.5 MHz
  • SF: 10
  • Coding Rate: 4/5
  • Bandwith: 125kHz
  • Output Power: 14 dBm
  • Antenna: the orignal one of both devices

If they are next to each other the RSSI is around -50dBm but changes dramatically only 5 m further away (around -70 to -80 dBm).
This continues til I cant receive any message around 100 m away with an RSSI of -110 dBm.

I already read some posts with similar issues but there was never a correct answer. Can someone help me with this problem? Or could it “only” be a damaged hardware?
I would be really thankful for any advice.

One thing I’m not sure about is that the lowest RSSI I can get is around the -110 dBm, but it should be possible to receive messages even with an lower one or am I wrong?

1 Like

Do you have an antenna installed?

What do you mean with installed?
I connected both orginale antenna to their outlet.
See the image below.

Do you have other nodes or gateways? Cross-try it to determine where the problem is.

No not yet.
I want to have more CubeCell nodes in future.
But I ordered another one today, so i will start troubleshooting as soon as it arrives.
If I can solve the problem, I will let you know.

I decided two buy 2 new CubeCell Devices (HTCC-AB01).
I did cross-try every option.
And even with the 2 new CubeCells and the standard pingpong sketch i can’t get further away then 200 meters.
I seriously got no idea where something could have gone wrong.

Is that a single channel gateway you war using?

Where is the gateway installed?

What is the LOS like?

test the connection between two HTCC-AB01 (using ABP mode). turn off the dragino while doing so…
also i believe that dragino is a single channel since it is based on SX1276

hopefully you can pin point if it’s the gateway or something else.