Hardware Notes

RAK Gateway

Working

A RAK WisBlock running Meshtastic firmware with MQTT module enabled. Bridges mesh traffic to a Mosquitto broker for cloud storage and dashboard display.

This is not a product for sale. These are notes on the gateway setup used in this project.

RAK Gateway

Hardware Used

Core ModuleRAK4631 (nRF52840 + SX1262)
Base BoardRAK19007 WisBlock Base
WiFi ModuleRAK13300 (optional ESP32)
Antenna915MHz LoRa + 2.4GHz WiFi
PowerUSB-C (always on)

Data Flow

📡
Mesh Nodes
LoRa 915MHz
🌐
RAK Gateway
MQTT Module
☁️
Mosquitto
MQTT Broker
📊
Dashboard
InfluxDB + Web

MQTT Topics

Meshtastic publishes to standard MQTT topics. The gateway service subscribes and processes incoming messages.

msh/+/json/+/!nodeId

JSON-formatted messages from specific node

msh/+/json/LongFast/!nodeId

Channel messages with telemetry

Terminal
$ mosquitto_sub -t "msh/#" -v

msh/US/json/LongFast/!a1b2c3d4 {
  "type": "telemetry",
  "payload": {
    "deviceMetrics": {
      "batteryLevel": 85,
      "voltage": 4.1
    }
  }
}

Configuration Notes

  • Meshtastic MQTT Module: Enable in device config. Set broker address, username, password, and root topic.
  • JSON Mode: Enable JSON output for structured messages instead of protobuf.
  • Encryption Key: Must match other nodes on the mesh for decryption to work.
  • WiFi: Gateway needs reliable WiFi connection to MQTT broker. Static IP recommended.

See It Working

The dashboard shows live data from the gateway.

View DashboardAll Hardware