HELP - RTLS Network setup with 8 anchors in open field

Wireless Connectivity Ultra-Wideband
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1

Hello everyone,

I am currently looking for the best solution for my setup.
Context:
I have a UWB network based on the MDEK1001 kit and I want to track a 50-meter by 10-meter area in a large open space. My current setup includes 8 anchors, 2 listeners, and 2 tags. I have already set up and positioned the anchors and I am able to retrieve the positions using my listeners. Currently, my listeners are connected to Raspberry Pi 4b, which acts as a serial to Ethernet bridge and I am using external code to manage this.

My questions are as follows:
I want to set up a gateway to use the server and take full advantage of the UWB configuration possibilities. I only have Raspberry Pi 4b and to keep costs low, I would like to buy only one Raspberry Pi 3b. Is it possible to have only one gateway and send/receive IoT on a 50m x 10m network? If not, is it possible to use a gateway to manage the network and a listener/Raspberry Pi 4 to transmit location information that is out of the gateway’s UWB range?

I understand the benefits of having multiple gateways when the system does not have line-of-sight or the spaces are separated. In my case, with only one large open space, what would be an appropriate solution? Is it useful to have multiple gateways?

Also, is it possible to transfer the location information to one of the anchors, which would then transmit it to an anchor within the range of my gateway?

Thank you in advance for your help and regards,

Pierre

2

Hi @Pierrot
the bridge/gateway have the same range as Listener/AN/TN so if you are now fine with two listeners you need to replace them with two gateways. There is no workaround for this.

Re mixing gateway with listener) No that is not possible.

Re anchor as UWB hop) No that is not possible.

So the only one solution is two listeners or two gateways.

Cheers
JK

3

Thanks a lot for your answer.

I have some more questions, but they are not directly related to my previous requests, tell me if it is better to create a new one.

  1. For an application in a large network with several rooms, I will use 8 gateways.
    Can the DRTLS Web Manager manage several rooms and create separate MQTT Topics?
    For example, if my tag is in room 1, send coordinates for room 1? Or will I have only one big room and coordinates for 100m x 100m?

  2. If not, my other option would be to add a MQTT “divider” on top of the previous one to split datas with the coordinates of my rooms.
    I understand that PANS is not open-source, but is the source code of the WebApp available?
    Is it possible to modify the MQTT Topics ourselves or it belongs to the “closed” part of DRTLS?

Thanks for your work and time,

Cheers,

Pierre

4

Hi @Pierrot

re 1) You will have it as one “big room” there is no separation in it.

re 2) Actually I dont recall it and Im not a web guy 8-). But if I recall it correctly the code was written in HTML + Java script and all it is “stored” in the Apache web folder in the RPI image. I believe that there are almost everything you need for the web interface, just you might need some code refactoring to make it nice.

Side note: The web interface just receive MQTT messages so Im not sure if it will help you or not. The easiest way is to hook up on the MQTT broker and do you magic right over the MQTT interface.

Cheers
JK

5

Thanks a lot,

I will work on that and see where it goes.