RAK Hotspot

Thank you for choosing RAK Hotspot in your awesome IoT Project! 🎉 To help you get started, we have provided you with all the necessary documentation for your product.

• Quick Start Guide
• SD Card Backup
• Troubleshooting
• Datasheet
• RAK Hotspot Outdoor Case Assembly Guide

Helium Network Reference Sites

• Helium Status
• Helium Engineering
• Helium Discord

Product Background

Hotspot Details

• Efficient for mining Helium (HNT) cryptocurrency
• Complete set-up in minutes using a smartphone
• LongFi technology maximizes range and battery life without Wi-Fi, cellular or Bluetooth
• Low Power – only uses about the same amount as an LED light bulb (5 W)
• Easily manage Hotspots and tokens from the mobile app
• LongFi™ Technology

Helium LongFi is a technology architecture that combines leading wireless technology, LoRaWAN, and the Helium Blockchain. LongFi is optimized for miles of range, and long battery life for IoT devices.

RAK Hotspots earn Helium when devices connect and for validating wireless coverage provided by peers. Through a system called Proof-of-Coverage, RAK Hotspots earn more Helium when they are within range of other RAK Hotspots, provided they are at least 300 meters apart.

The range depends on the environment: in rural areas, it can reach up to 10 miles or more, while in dense urban areas, it is typically up to a mile. A single RAK Hotspot earns less because it can only issue Challenges over the internet and cannot participate in Proof-of-Coverage.

• Provide coverage across many square miles with a single RAK Hotspot.
• Based on initial testing, only about 50 to 100 RAK Hotspots are needed to provide complete coverage for an entire city.

• Create a new global network for billions of devices
• Any IoT device can be made Helium-enabled using readily available off-the-shelf hardware components, software, and an open-source reference design that anyone can enhance.

Product Features

• Computing with Raspberry Pi4 (Linux)
• 2 GB on-board RAM
• 32 GB SD card
• Based on the LoRa Concentrator Engine: Semtech® SX1302
• Built-in Heat Sink for thermal heat dissipation management
• Supports 5 V/ 3 A power supply
• IP30 housing
• TX power up to 27 dBm, RX sensitivity down to -139 dBm @SF12, BW 125 kHz
• LoRa Frequency band support: RU864, IN865, EU868, US915, AU915, KR920, AS923
• Includes Pi ready 'ID EE PROM', GPIO setup, and device tree can be automatically configured from vendor information
• Supports a fully open source LoRaWAN server