Gateways and other ambiguous topics

  1. Some PDF docs say that module can be configured as Tag or Anchor or Gateway and some say that Raspberry Pi is required as a Gateway…
    All I am trying to do is to instrument one room so initially I though buying 6 modules: 4 for Anchors and 1 for a Tag and 1 for a Gateway. Now I am not so sure as DWM1001-DEV_Product_Brief indicates that Raspberry Pi is a Gateway… At the same time MDEK1001_Quick_Start_Guide indicates that: “Each RTLS anchor, a tag, a listener or a bridge node (allowing to create gateways)”. What is the “listener” - the Gateway? My goal is to deliver the location of the tag to the PC Server that has both BT and WiFi.
    The So what is the right thing to do?

Another thing is that the same document indicates that “Location Computed on Tags”. So how the Tags propagate the information to the Gateway? Through Bluetooth? Is it always the case? So how the Tags deliver the info to Gateway, via Bluetooth?
…and if this is a “Listener” (which I am not sure if this is another dev-board) how the info is delivered to listener? over UWB or BT?

Believe it or not but I am trying to make a purchase decision between MDEK1001 which is not FCC certified and has no firmware on the board and between 5 DWM1001-DEV boards that hopefully has latest firmware on them and are FCC certified…

Hi,

your understanding is correct. In order to setup a minimal RTLS system and getting the data on the Server you need:

  1. 4 Anchors
  2. 1 Tag
  3. 1 Gateway - which consists of a Raspberry PI and DWM1001-DEV

So in total 6 DWM1001-DEV.

Listener is a mode which allows you to display positions of multiple Tags via Listener’s shell or via its BLE. It was introduced in the Release 1 which did not have Gateway function. The Gateway function is a more complete server solution which was introduced in the Release 2:
https://mailchi.mp/2e29a06be75f/728wi51rzu?e=[UNIQID]

Location and IoT data are collected by the Gateway via UWB. See this post for more details:

You can configure any DWM1001 with PANS to the Listener mode, the same as Tag or Anchor. If Gateway function is used, the control over the DWM1001 is done by DWM Linux Kernel Module, DWM Daemon and DWM Proxy. You need to use MQTT interface in that case.

What you can do is to purchase 6 modules. Setup first the 4 Anchors, 1 Tag and 1 Listener network (without Raspberry/Gateway function). Test it with the DRTLS Android Manager. Then plug the Listener to the Raspberry and turn it into a Gateway.

In the first phase the DWM1001 were shipped with PANS Release 1 which were not certified. Then certified DWM1001C modules were shipped and then PANS Release 2 was introduced. In general if you use PANS Release 2 it should be FCC/ETSI certified for both DWM1001 and DWM1001C. But better check it with Decawave.

Cheers,
TDK