Helium IoT Data Only Hotspot Forwarder

[RideMyByte]

Hello everyone,

I have now read several times that the Lorix One is also compatible with the Helium network. However, I can't find a way to connect the Lorix to Helium. It seems to require the gateway-rs on the other hand, the Lorix OS changelog mention Helium as a forwarder from time to time.

I am running 5 Lroxi One and would like to migrate to Helium. Preferably even use both LNS. Apparently Helium will only use ChirpStack instead of (open)LNS in the future?
Very confusing...

Have any of you got this up and running yet?
Best regards and many thanks :)

[mullerch]

Hello RideMyByte,

Helium is not officially supported at this time on LORIX OS.

However, gateway-rs is available as a development opkg package in the LORIX OS feeds:

sudo opkg update
sudo opkg install helium-gateway

Here is a sample pmonitor file to run helium-gateway along other forwarders for dual network usage (only use one network for downlinks to respect duty-cycle):

    concentratord:
        description: LoRa concentrator daemon
        boot-order: 0
        process:
            run-mode: exec
            program-path: /opt/chirpstack-concentratord/chirpstack-concentratord
            program-arguments: -c /etc/opt/chirpstack-concentratord/00-concentratord.toml -c /etc/opt/chirpstack-concentratord/10-gateway.toml -c /etc/opt/chirpstack-concentratord/channels/channels.toml
            delays:
                start: 5000
                term: 5000
                restart: 5000
    gateway-bridge:
        description: Gateway Bridge receiveing the cocnentrator daemon packets and sending them to the ChirpStack Network Server
        boot-order: 1
        process:
            run-mode: exec
            program-path: /opt/chirpstack-gateway-bridge/chirpstack-gateway-bridge
            program-arguments: -c /etc/opt/chirpstack-gateway-bridge/10-general.toml -c /etc/opt/chirpstack-gateway-bridge/20-backend_concentratord.toml -c /etc/opt/chirpstack-gateway-bridge/30-integration.toml -c /etc/opt/chirpstack-gateway-bridge/40-filters.toml
            delays:
                start: 1000
                term: 1000
                restart: 5000
    helium-gateway:
        description: Helium Gateway packet forwarder
        boot-order: 2
        process:
            run-mode: exec
            program-path: /opt/helium-gateway/helium-gateway
            program-arguments: -c /etc/opt/helium-gateway/settings.toml server
            delays:
                start: 5000
                term: 10000
                restart: 5000
    udp-bridge:
        description: Bridges the concentratord to the Helium Gateway
        boot-order: 3
        process:
            run-mode: exec
            program-path: /opt/chirpstack-udp-bridge/chirpstack-udp-bridge
            program-arguments: -c /etc/opt/chirpstack-udp-bridge/00-concentratord.toml -c /etc/opt/chirpstack-udp-bridge/10-udp-bridge.toml -c /etc/opt/helium-gateway/chirpstack-udp-bridge/20-servers.toml
            delays:
                start: 5000
                term: 10000
                restart: 5000

You must also configure the several software in their config to connect together:

               ┌────udp-bridge────────gateway-rs
concentratord──┤
               └────gateway-bridge

Gateway registration by CLI in the Helium network was a bit painful, maybe they've improved.

Gateway often goes on deny list for rewards (even if data-only), as the sensitivity is "too good" and seems suspicious to their rules (typically when receiving beacon from a non LOS hotspot).

Here is an example of one of ours : https://heliumtracker.io/hotspots/226828

[RideMyByte]

hello and thanks for the answer!
I was able to install gateway-rs via opkg :)
unfortunately only the following paths are available:

/opt/helium-gateway/helium-gateway
/opt/chirpstack-gateway-bridge/chirpstack-gateway-bridge

the others are missing.
The settings.toml is also missing, for example...

It would also be enough for me to use the Lorix gateway explicitly only for Helium...

Do I understand correctly that I should configure the Lorix as a Semtech UDP packet forwarder and gateway-rs then picks up the UPD packets and sends them on to Helium?

Best regards and many thanks :)

[mullerch]

You can see which files are installed by the package using:

sudo opkg files helium-gateway

The other forwarders and their files are already installed on the default image.

The pmonitor file has to be installed at /etc/pmonitor/services-available/cscd-csgb-csub-helium.yml and enabled with a symlink in /etc/pmonitor/services-enabled/ (cscd-csgb-csub-helium.yml -> ../services-available/cscd-csgb-csub-helium.yml). Then sudo pmcli services reload.

I did forget about it, but there is also a package to install the configuration files to make it work out of the box (without ChirpStack). Install :

sudo opkg install pmon-helium-csub-concentratord

Check the files with sudo opkg files pmon-helium-csub-concentratord

Do I understand correctly that I should configure the Lorix as a Semtech UDP packet forwarder and gateway-rs then picks up the UPD packets and sends them on to Helium?

Correct. gateway-rs does not access the LoRa concentrator. Only a Semtech UDP protocol socket of a forwarder (e.g. Semtech UDP Packet Forwarder, ChirpStack UDP Bridge).

It would also be enough for me to use the Lorix gateway explicitly only for Helium...

Just omit the gateway-bridge service from the pmonitor config file (as the pmon-helium-csub-concentratord file does).