LoMAB

LoRa@FIIT Multi-armed Bandit Firmware for ESP32 within Arduino framework

End-device installation manual

• Download Visual Studio Code
• Install PlatformIO in Visual Studio Code
• Install necessary extension atmel-avr for PlatformIO.
• Install FT232RTL driver for Windows
• Clone repository LoMAB-ESP
• Into the lib clone LoRaFIIT-ESP
• In "lib/src/lora.h", look for the "MAB_UCB_ENABLED" and "CAD_ENABLED" macros. If needed, set them to 0.
• In "lib/src/RH_RF95.h", look for the "DEVICE_ID" macros. Set all of these macros to the hexadecimal value of your end-device. (e.g. if your end-device has device ID set to "E", set all of these macros to "0xEE")
• Import your preshared key into the DH.H in hexadecimal value
• Build the solution to verify that the necessary dependencies are installed. If not, install the missing ones.
• Upload the code to the end-device and start the serial monitor.

 

After completing the steps above, your device should connect to the AP, provided you have a working AP with a suitable configuration. Successful connection can be verified by the "Registration successful, netconfig recieved" message in the serial monitor.

Another indicator of a successful end-device registration is seeing the application data from your end-device in the LoRa AP (LoAP) or LoRa Network Server (LoNES) logs. These data should be labeled as "app_data" and you can list them by issuing the following commands:

• for LoNES, move to the directory where your LoNES Dockerfile is, and run the "docker logs -n 50 <container_name>" command
• for LoAP, use the "sudo journalctl -u packet_converter -n 50" command

Application data should be visible in both of these devices, altough you may find them encoded with base64. If the app_data value is the same as the appData value in the "src/main.cpp" source code (inside the loop() function), your connection is fully functional and your end-device is now ready to send any required data.

Possible issues

1. Your MIC throws error

• If you are seeing the "Bad MIC" error, start your diagnostic by verifying that you have the PRESHARED_KEY value set correctly in your .env file in LoNES.
• Don't forget to export your .env file after every modification.

2. The registration process keeps failing and restarting

• Similarly to the previous point, first try to verify the PRESHARED_KEY value.
• If it is set correctly, try to restart the LoNES and LoAP devices.
• Check the log messages on LoNES and LoAP devices and verify that both of your devices are receiving at least some LoRa@FIIT messages. If it does, the connectivity is not an issue.
• If none of these recommendations work, there is a possibility that one of your devices (either LoNES, LoAP, or device) are malfunctioning.

3. The device upload process failed

• In case of the upload process failing, analyze the errors shown on the Visual Studio Code command line.
• Since there may be various errors encountered during the upload process, it is difficult to create a universal troubleshooting guide. Try to fix the issue by browsing the Internet and looking for different solutions.