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Register a Gateway and a Device

Installing the software gets ChirpStack and the concentrator running, but nothing joins the network until a gateway and at least one device are registered inside ChirpStack itself. This part isn't scriptable — it's done through the ChirpStack UI, the same way regardless of which FIBER variant is running it.

  1. Log in to ChirpStack (http://[TARGET IP ADDRESS]:8080/, admin/admin or whatever you changed it to). A default tenant named ChirpStack already exists — use it, or create your own under Tenants.

  2. Under Gateways, click Add gateway:

    • Gateway ID — copy this from the Concentratord logs (sudo journalctl -fu chirpstack-concentratord), printed once the concentrator connects.
    • Name — anything descriptive.
    • Region — must match one of the enabled_regions in /etc/chirpstack/chirpstack.toml (e.g. eu868 for Europe).

    Once saved, the gateway's detail page shows a Last seen at timestamp that updates periodically if the concentrator → MQTT forwarder → ChirpStack chain is actually working.

  3. Under Device profiles, click Add device profile. At minimum set:

    • Region — same region as the gateway.
    • MAC version — match what your test device (e.g. STICKER, CHESTER) actually speaks (LoRaWAN 1.0.x for most HARDWARIO devices; check the device's own documentation).
    • Regional parameters revision — leave at ChirpStack's default unless your device needs a specific one.
    • Join type — OTAA for typical HARDWARIO devices.

  4. Under Applications, click Add application to group devices under.

  5. Inside that application, click Add device:

    • Device EUI — the DevEUI printed on the physical device or its documentation.
    • Device profile — the one created above.
    • Device name — anything descriptive.

    After creating the device, open its OTAA keys tab and set the Application key (AppKey) — and Network key (NwkKey) if the device profile is LoRaWAN 1.1 — to match what is programmed into the physical device. These must match exactly on both sides or the join will silently fail.

  6. Power on the physical LoRaWAN device. Watch the device's LoRaWAN frames tab (live view) in the ChirpStack UI — a join-request followed by a join-accept should appear within seconds if the gateway is in range and everything above is configured correctly. If nothing appears at all, re-check the gateway's Last seen at timestamp first — no traffic reaching the gateway means the problem is on the radio/concentrator side, not the device registration.