I got it working! Unfortunately some soldering errors on the Arduino Nano made it smoke, but luckely the RN2383 was not damaged. After some ‘correctional’ wiring it started to send out the test packets, received by my Gateway and send to the TTN network.
Node:
Gateway:
TTN MQTT Packets:
Thanks @jpmeijers for the help today!
Good to see you got everything working. Hope to see your gateway online soon.
For those of you who want to replicate the board we built in Enschede on Saturday (last two photos in my first post), you can get all the components at the following locations.
Little yelow box, another node ready for driving 
As I have already destroyed two RN2483s with my terrible soldering skills (molten the connector of the antenna connection from the RN2483) and still have no working node, it’s time to ask for help from the experts:
I think i have connected the wires properly to the arduino and the RN2483 and uploaded the last version of the code. The blinking on the arduino is however not (as described) ‘on except for 200ms every 5 seconds’. It keeps on blinking on-off-on-off.
Do you have any idea what this could be?
Does it matter to which ‘GND’ on the Nano I connect the GND from the 2483?
There is an additional wire on pin 12 in the first picture of JPMeijers, which is not mentioned anywhere. Should I connect that one as well?
If you mean pin 12 of the RN2483 module, it is not necessary for prototyping. It is just another 3.3V connection. All the 3.3V and all the GND pins are connected internally on the module.
On an Arduino a constant quick flashing normally means the Arduino is stuck in its bootloader. Try programming the Arduino again or pressing reset. Similar to this: bootloader - Arduino Nano not responding with yellow led blinking fast - Arduino Stack Exchange
How does your Arduino respond to other sketches? And when you program the code from my github repository, what do you see on the serial monitor?
Edit: You might also find it useful to use the Arduino example code for software serial. Change it to run at 57600 baud on pins 10 and 11, and see if you can communicate with the RN2483 from the serial monitor on your computer.
Yes I meant pin 12 on the RN2483. So not necessary to connect to the 3V3 from the arduino as well.
When I upload the ‘blink’ example, it works as it should. I have built two of the Arduino RN2483 combinations now and both have the same problem. So perhaps it is my wiring?
Connected as follows.
Arduino nano RN2483
D10 PIN 6
D11 PIN 7
D12 Pin 32
GND GND
3V3 VDD
And some pictures to illustrate.
Will try the serial communication that you mention later today !
Do I have to connect anything to pins 10 and 11 when I do it according to your edit?
Probably some too basic questions in here indicating that I should read some manuals first 
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EDIT:
I am now getting the following feedback through the serial monitor. This means that communication between Arduino and RN2483 is working, correct?
The registration of my application I have done through “https://staging.thethingsnetwork.org/” instead of the ttnctl app. It was mentioned that I have to add the parameter “–relax-fcnt”. Is this required for receiving packages? I am not sure where I could add it in the mentioned website.
Will drive around today with my node and then see if I can receive some messages on the website.
Thanks again for helping out!
Startup
When using OTAA, register this DevEUI:
0004A30B001B4219
RN2483 version number:
RN2483 1.0.1 Dec 15 2015 09:38:09
TXing
TXing
TXing
When I turn on the serial monitor with the original code, I get the following, (where ÿ means -1, meaning something isn’t correct I think.
ðÿñþüÿÿü�ÿâýýÿÿÿÿÿ
Ñþÿþþÿÿÿÿÿüýÿÿÿþÿüýÿÿÿÿÿÿüÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿüýüÿþÿÿÿÿÿÿÿþÿüÿÿüÿÿþÿüýÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿüýüÿþÿþÿÿÿÿÿþÿþÿþÿþÿüÿÿÿüýüÿÿÿÿüÿÿÿÿüÿüÿÿ
When I run the SoftwareSerial example (https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/SoftwareSerialExample) (only USB plugged into the arduino and the RN2483 connected as it was), I do not get the ‘Goodnight moon’ message that I would expect (looking at the example code).
This indicates something isn’t good, or am I misinterpreting the functioning of the serial monitor?
EDIT 13-06:
I am now getting the following feedback through the serial monitor (by changing the baud rate in the serial monitor). This means that communication between Arduino and RN2483 is working, correct?
Startup
When using OTAA, register this DevEUI:
0004A30B001B4219
RN2483 version number:
RN2483 1.0.1 Dec 15 2015 09:38:09
TXing
TXing
The registration of my application I have done through “https://staging.thethingsnetwork.org/” instead of the ttnctl app. It was mentioned that I have to add the parameter “–relax-fcnt”. Is this required for receiving packages? I am not sure where I could add it in the mentioned website.
Will drive around today with my node and then see if I can receive some messages on the website.
Thanks again for helping out!
Edit 14-06:
Drove around the Hague and Amsterdam with my node on, but no messages in my TTN Dashboard yet unfortunately. Any ideas?
This happens when the serial baud rate is not correct for some reason. Try to play around with it a bit. Serial.begin(9600) might work.
abpel: which type/clon of arduino do you use? means: what is the quarz frequency on it?
Do you use the correct type in the Board menu?
Some radio silence, but several steps forward:
I am now seeing the ‘TXing’ message in the serial monitor of my Arduino at baud rate 57600. So that seems to be working.
I have also built the following gateway, based on Raspberry Pi:
The gateway looks to be running fine.
However, I am not receiving any packages on the gateway. Gateway and node are placed indoors, maybe 10 meters apart.
Is there some fundamental mismatch between the two devices / software that I am missing?
It looks like you are using a LoRa gateway, now a LoRaWAN gateway. LoRa is just the radio protocol used for LoRaWAN. Maybe you should look into using the components to build a single channel gateway (there is plenty of information on that subject available on this forum)
I made a small node with 5 wire-welding and modified pins mapping in the code.
Got my node and gateway working as well!
Gateway based on RPI and SX1272
Node based on Arduino nano and RN2483:
Looks awesome!
Do you mind sharing how you made the connections between Arduino and the RN2483?
looks great. I’m very interested in more details
Well, it’s sort of working. Gateway is receiving packets, but cannot see it in the TTN Dashboard, even after adding the following to my gateway main.cpp
https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/new-backend-how-to-connect/1983/108
Anyone an idea?
As far as details go: I just followed the instructions from this topic and the instructions for the gateway in my link above.
Did not do any testing of range yet, but will do so this weekend.
