Bharat Electronics Bel-lwcc-915 Lorawan Concentrator Minipcie-spi User Manual

BHARAT ELECTRONICS BEL-LWCC-915 LoRaWAN Concentrator miniPCIe-SPI

Introduction

The BEL-LWCC-915 LoRaWAN Concentrator miniPCIe-SPI card is a gateway front-end module based on Semtech SX1302 Corecell Design in Mini PCIe Form Factor. It enables system integrators to build high-performance, certified LoRaWAN gateway solutions. The module acts as an air interface at the 915MHz band for data collection from sensors. The BEL-LWCC-915 in conjunction with a computing element can transmit and receive data with LoRa standard and perform remote data collection. The LoRa modem in the module can give wireless remote access with low time-on-air links with longer battery life of the system. The LoRa module needs very less power in transmit mode owing to the higher sensitivity of the receive modems. It can also sense multiple spreading factors simultaneously thereby reducing collisions on the air and better response times.

Features

• Frequency band: US915
• Operational Frequencies: 902-928MHz
• Channels : 72 Uplink + 8 Downlink
• Modulation: LoRa Chirp Spread Spectrum
• Maximum Data rate: 21.9Kbps
• Supply voltage: 3.3V
• Data Interface: PCIe 52 pin
• RF interface: Single u-FL connector
• Antenna Interface: Omnidirectional with RP-SMA connector
• Antenna Type : Omni Rubber Duck Antenna
• Antenna Gain(typical) : 3dBi +/-0.5dB
• LED indications: Config OK, TX status, RX status
• Dimensions : 51mm x 30mm x 4mm (LxWxH)

FCC Compliance Statement (USA)

FCC ID: 2A9HG-BELLWCC915
Compliance Statements: This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions:

1. This device may not cause harmful interference.
2. This device must accept any interference received, including, an interference that may cause undesired operation.

Caution Statements: 

• Any changes or modifications not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the user’s authority to operate this equipment.
• This equipment should be installed and operated with a minimum distance of 20 cm between the radiator and your body.

INFORMATION TO THE USER

NOTE: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
• Increase the separation between the equipment and the receiver.
• Connect the equipment to an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.
• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.

Hardware Information

The BEL-LWCC-915 LoRaWAN Concentrator miniPCIe-SPI card works on an SPI interface. The interface signals and the power supply for the card is embedded on 52 pin mini-PCIe connector. The module works on 3.3V DC supplied through the mini-PCIe connector. The 52 pin connector details are as given below in Table 1. The electromechanical details of the mini-PCIe connector may be found in the PCI Express ® Mini card Electromechanical Specification Revision 1.2 released by PCISIG.

Table 1. Pin details of the mini-PCIe connector

This module needs commands to be given on SPI interface by a host processor. Based on the configuration data given by the host processor the module changes state. The data is also been given through the same interface. There is an onboard temperature sensor used for monitoring and it communicates on an I2C bus which also is routed through the mini-PCIe interface.

Hardware Instructions to Module users to comply with FCC Certification 

The BEL-LWCC-915 when used with a host system has to comply to the following conditions to ensure the certification is valid

1. The Antenna has to be same type and the gain can’t be larger than typical gain in manual.
2. The FCC ID for BEL-LWCC-915 is 2A9HG-BELLWCC915 which need to be displayed on the outer surface of the Host with Contains FCC ID: 2A9HG-BELLWCC915.

Firwmare Information

The firmware for the module should reside on the host processor communicating with BEL-LWCC-915 LoRaWAN Concentrator miniPCIe-SPI card. The source code for the same is available at https://github.com/Lora-net/sx1302_hal. The basic configuration for the radio modules in the BEL-LWCC-915 is available in a .conf file at github. The screenshot for the same is shown in Figure 1.

For the BEL-LWCC-915 module global.conf.json.sx1250.US915 is the configuration file to be used. This configuration file can be edited with various parameters for the user to set up measurements as available in the documents section of github or M/s Semtech’s developer portal. The successful configuration will enable the LED indication on the board. Further there are two more firmwares which can test transmit mode and receive mode separately.
For transmit testing the source code is available at https://github.com/Lora-net/sx1302_hal/tree/master/libloragw/tst.test_loragw_hal_tx.c is the source file for transmit test. The various parameters for editing will be available once it is executed. The screenshot for the same is shown in Figure 2.

For receive testing the source code is available at https://github.com/Lora-net/sx1302_hal/tree/master/libloragw/tst.test_loragw_hal_rx.c is the source file for transmit test. The various parameters for editing will be available once it is executed. The screenshot for the same is shown in Figure 2.
To use this module as a packet forwarder which is a typical test case where the module works as gateway and gives data to an end server packet_forwarder application is available at github. The Source code is available at at https://github.com/Lora-net/sx1302_hal/tree/master/packet_forwarder. The screenshot for the same is shown in Figure 3.

Firmware Instructions to Module users to comply with FCC Certification

The BEL-LWCC-915 when used with a host system has to comply to the following conditions to ensure the certification is valid

1. The firmware shouldn´t be modified in such a way that the power delivered is more than that specified in the test report.

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