Install ChirpStack Concentratord

This section installs and configures the ChirpStack Concentratord for the LoRa concentrator module. The hardware path is different between the two variants, so pick the tab below that matches your device:

FIBER (CM4)

Connects via USB, the standard ChirpStack Concentratord configuration.

FIBER Lite (Pi 5)

Connects via SPI through a RAK2287 HAT, a different install path.

USB (FIBER, CM4)
SPI via RAK2287 HAT (FIBER Lite, Pi 5)

Download and install the ChirpStack Concentratord binary:

curl -sL https://artifacts.chirpstack.io/downloads/chirpstack-concentratord/chirpstack-concentratord-sx1302_4.5.3_linux_arm64.tar.gz | sudo tar -xzf - -C /usr/bin --no-same-owner chirpstack-concentratord-sx1302

Create the configuration directory with proper ownership:

sudo install -o chirpstack -g chirpstack -m 0750 -d /etc/chirpstack-concentratord

Create the configuration file with proper ownership and permissions:

sudo install -o chirpstack -g chirpstack -m 0640 /dev/null /etc/chirpstack-concentratord/chirpstack-concentratord.toml

Write the Concentratord configuration file:

cat << EOF | sudo tee /etc/chirpstack-concentratord/chirpstack-concentratord.toml > /dev/null
[concentratord]
  log_level="INFO"
  log_to_syslog=false
  stats_interval="30s"
  disable_crc_filter=false

  [concentratord.api]
    event_bind="ipc:///tmp/concentratord_event"
    command_bind="ipc:///tmp/concentratord_command"

[gateway]
  antenna_gain=0
  lorawan_public=true
  region="EU868"
  model="rak_5146"
  model_flags=["USB"]
  time_fallback_enabled=true
  gateway_id=""

  [gateway.concentrator]
    multi_sf_channels=[
      868100000,
      868300000,
      868500000,
      867100000,
      867300000,
      867500000,
      867700000,
      867900000,
    ]

    [gateway.concentrator.lora_std]
      frequency=868300000
      bandwidth=250000
      spreading_factor=7

    [gateway.concentrator.fsk]
      frequency=868800000
      bandwidth=125000
      datarate=50000

  [gateway.location]
    latitude=0.0
    longitude=0.0
    altitude=0
EOF

Create the systemd service file for Concentratord:

cat << EOF | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/chirpstack-concentratord.service > /dev/null
[Unit]
Description=ChirpStack Concentratord
Documentation=https://www.chirpstack.io/
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=chirpstack
Group=chirpstack
ExecStart=/usr/bin/chirpstack-concentratord-sx1302 -c /etc/chirpstack-concentratord/chirpstack-concentratord.toml
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Add the chirpstack user to the dialout group for serial port access:
```
sudo usermod -aG dialout chirpstack
```
Reload the systemd daemon to recognize the new service:
```
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
```

Enable and start the ChirpStack Concentratord service:

sudo systemctl enable --now chirpstack-concentratord

Check the service logs to verify successful startup and obtain the gateway ID:
```
sudo journalctl -fu chirpstack-concentratord
```
tip
Copy the Gateway ID from the log output. You will need it to register the gateway in ChirpStack.

The FIBER Lite concentrator is the same RAK5146 LoRaWAN concentrator card, but seated on a RAK2287 Pi HAT connected via SPI, a different hardware path (SPI device + GPIO reset pin) than the USB-connected variant above.

tip

You do not need RAKwireless's SX1302 HAL installer. ChirpStack Concentratord bundles the HAL and ships a vendor profile for this hardware, which supplies the pin mapping (reset on gpiochip0 line 17), the RSSI offsets and the TX gain table.

Enable SPI and confirm the HAT is detected. dtparam=spi=on ships commented out in Raspberry Pi OS:
```
grep spi /boot/firmware/config.txt   # expect: dtparam=spi=on (uncommented)
ls /dev/spidev*                       # expect: /dev/spidev0.0 and /dev/spidev0.1
```
If dtparam=spi=on is commented out, uncomment it (or append it) in /boot/firmware/config.txt and reboot. If no /dev/spidev* device appears after that, the HAT is not seated. Do not continue until it is.

Download and install the ChirpStack Concentratord binary. ChirpStack does not publish Concentratord in its apt repository or as a GitHub release asset, only as a tarball on the artifacts server:

curl -sL https://artifacts.chirpstack.io/downloads/chirpstack-concentratord/chirpstack-concentratord-sx1302_4.7.1_linux_arm64.tar.gz | sudo tar -xzf - -C /usr/bin --no-same-owner chirpstack-concentratord-sx1302

Create the configuration directory:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/chirpstack-concentratord

Write the Concentratord configuration file:

cat << EOF | sudo tee /etc/chirpstack-concentratord/chirpstack-concentratord-sx1302.toml > /dev/null
[concentratord]
  log_level="INFO"
  log_to_syslog=false
  stats_interval="30s"

  [concentratord.api]
    event_bind="ipc:///tmp/concentratord_event"
    command_bind="ipc:///tmp/concentratord_command"

[gateway]
  antenna_gain=2
  lorawan_public=true
  region="EU868"
  model="rak_2287"
  model_flags=[]
  gateway_id=""
  time_fallback_enabled=true

  [gateway.concentrator]
    multi_sf_channels=[
      868100000,
      868300000,
      868500000,
      867100000,
      867300000,
      867500000,
      867700000,
      867900000,
    ]

    [gateway.concentrator.lora_std]
      frequency=868300000
      bandwidth=250000
      spreading_factor=7

    [gateway.concentrator.fsk]
      frequency=868800000
      bandwidth=125000
      datarate=50000
EOF

warning

The [gateway.concentrator] channel plan is mandatory. The vendor profile supplies only the pin mapping, RSSI offsets and gain table, but it does not supply a channel plan. Without it every radio comes up enabled: false at frequency 0 and the daemon blocks indefinitely on Opening SPI communication interface with no error message, which looks exactly like a wiring or detection fault but is purely a configuration problem.

note

model="rak_5146" works here too. The two profiles share the same reset pin and neither drives a power-enable pin; they differ only in the SX1261 configuration used for Listen Before Talk, which EU868 does not use.

Create the systemd service file for Concentratord:
```
cat << EOF | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/chirpstack-concentratord.service > /dev/null
[Unit]
Description=ChirpStack Concentratord
Documentation=https://www.chirpstack.io/
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/chirpstack-concentratord-sx1302 -c /etc/chirpstack-concentratord/chirpstack-concentratord-sx1302.toml
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
Group=chirpstack
UMask=0007

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
```
warning
Group=chirpstack and UMask=0007 are load-bearing. Unlike the USB variant, this service runs as root so it can reach the SPI device and the GPIO reset pin, which means the ZeroMQ IPC sockets it creates in /tmp would default to root:root mode 0755. The MQTT Forwarder connects to them as the unprivileged chirpstack user, and connecting to a unix socket requires write permission, so it would be refused. These two lines make the sockets root:chirpstack mode 0770 instead. Both services will report active either way. The only symptom is that no uplinks ever reach MQTT.
Reload the systemd daemon to recognize the new service:
```
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
```

Enable and start the ChirpStack Concentratord service:

sudo systemctl enable --now chirpstack-concentratord

Check the service logs to verify successful startup and obtain the gateway ID:

sudo journalctl -u chirpstack-concentratord | grep 'Gateway ID'

A healthy start looks like this. Frame received lines appear on their own from any LoRaWAN traffic within range, before you register a device of your own:

INFO [libconcentratord::reset] Triggering sx130x reset
INFO [...::concentrator] Configuring radio, radio: 0, enabled: true, center_freq: 867500000
INFO [...::cmd::root] Gateway ID retrieved, gateway_id: "0016c001f13999e8"
INFO [...::handler::uplink] Frame received, freq: 868100000, bw: 125000, mod: LoRa, dr: SF7

tip

Copy the Gateway ID from the log output. You will need it to register the gateway in ChirpStack.