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Flash Opensource Firmware to M2 Gateway

The SenseCAP M2 gateways represent a cost-effective solution for LoRa gateways, powered by the mature hardware solution MT7628 and the Semtech SX1302 baseband Long Range chip. The specific models are distinguished by the factory-set frequency band (EU868/US915/AS923/AU915), optional module (4G/GPS) and supported LoRa network (LoRaWAN®/Helium network)

This wiki will guide you on how to flash open source firmware for your M2 gateway. Based on the open source firmware, you can deeply customise your M2 gateway, such as adding additional features or changing the operating band (antennas need to be adapted to the band)

Warning

After flashing the open source firmware, you CAN NOT revert to the factory firmware.

Seeed studio is NOT responsible for any damage to the device caused by the user using open source firmware or third party firmware.

Supported Products List​

Prepare the firmware​

Download the pre-built firmware​

If you want to experience open source firmware at your convenience, we provide some compiled firmwares. You can download from Seeed-Solution/LoRa_Gateway_OpenWRT/Release

Note

Check the suffix of the .bin file to verify that the firmware is compatible with your M2 gateway

E.g. the openwrt-...-EU868-4G.bin firmware is compiled for M2 gateways operating in the EU868 band with a 4G module

Build your firmware​

If your gateway does not compatitate with our pre-built firmware or if you want to develop it further, you can build your own firmware as follows

To build your own firmware you need a GNU/Linux, BSD or MacOSX system (case sensitive filesystem required). Cygwin is unsupported because of the lack of a case sensitive file system

Step 1: clone the source code from Seeed-Solution/LoRa_Gateway_OpenWRT

git clone https://github.com/Seeed-Solution/LoRa_Gateway_OpenWRT.git

Step 2: Install prerequisite packages refer to Build system setup

Note

Please perform the following steps with a non-root user.

Step 3: Go to the source code folder, Run ./scripts/feeds update -a to obtain all the latest package definitions defined in feeds.conf / feeds.conf.default

Step 4: Run ./scripts/feeds install -a to install symlinks for all obtained packages into package/feeds/

Step 5: Run cp diffconfig-sensecap-general .config to use SenseCAP diff file, and run make defconfig to expand full config

Step 6: Run make menuconfig to select your SenseCAP Hardware information

  • SenseCAP Hardware->Have 4G ( Whether it contains 4G Hardware)

  • SenseCAP Hardware->Have GPS ( Whether it contains GPS Hardware)

  • SenseCAP Hardware->REGION (select your default REGION)

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Step 7: Run make to build your firmware

This will download all sources, build the cross-compile toolchain and then cross-compile the GNU/Linux kernel & all chosen applications for your target system

After compiling, you can find the firmware named openwrt-21.02.0-ramips-mt76x8-sensecap_wm7628n-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin in the <prj>/bin/targets/ramips/mt76x8/ directory

Flash the firmware​

You can flash the firmware into your gateway in one of three ways

Flash firmware via Luci​

Login Luci and navigate to System > Backup/Flash Firmware

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Scoll down and navigate to Local upgrade and click Flash image...

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Browse folders and upload firmware

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When the upload is complete, confirm that the uploaded firmware information is correct and click Continue.

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After that, the gateway will start installing the firmware and the LED will enter the orange slow blinking state until the installation is completed.

Flash firmware via TFTP​

Before you begin, you will need to install the TFTP server tool on your computer and place the firmware in the appropriate directory.

Step 1: Use a Type-C cable to connect the device to the computer, and use a network cable to place the device and the computer in the same LAN.

Step 2: Connect to the device using the serial port called USB-SERIAL CH340 with baudrate 57600.

Step 3: Restart the device. When the device enters uboot, select command 2 to enter the system update.

Step 4: Enter device ip, where the device ip network segment must be the network segment of your own network; enter server ip, which is the IP of your computer, and enter the name of the firmware to be flashed (the file suffix must be included).

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Step 5: Wait for the firmware update to complete. The gateway will start installing the firmware and the LED will enter the orange slow blinking state until the installation is completed.

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Flash firmware via Serial​

tip

Before you begin the following step, we recommend download the lastest version of TeraTerm as the following operations in this wiki are all based on TeraTerm.

Step 1: Use a Type-C cable to connect the device to the computer.

Step 2: Connect to the device using the serial port called USB-SERIAL CH340 with baudrate 57600.

Step 3: Restart the device. When the device enters uboot, select command 0 to enter the system update.

Step 4: Switch the buadrate to 230400, then press ENTER. The device will then prompt Ready for binary (kermit) download to 0x80100000 at 230400 bps...

Step 5: Upload the firmware using kermit protocol. Teraterm has provide kermit transmit tool. you can refer to the image upload firmware below.

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Step 6: Wait for the firmware to finish uploading, after which the device will prompt Switch baudrate to 57600 bps and press ESC.... Follow the device prompts. Then device will automatically install the firmware and reboot.

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Login into Console​

After the firmware is installed, the device will automatically open an AP hotspot, name SenseCAP_XXXX

Use your phone or computer to connect to the hotspot, no password

Enter 192.168.168.1 in the browser to enter the LuCI interface

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Login into console with username root and no password

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Resources​

Tech Support​

Having trouble with open source firmware? Feel free to discuss it with community members via the Discord link below.

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