Co-host setup

Overview

The co-host provides continuous health monitoring for your SenArch ARCH-1 LoRaWAN Gateway through an independent LoRaWAN connection. It reports solar, battery, temperature, and humidity status continuously, operates independently with backup battery power, and enables remote commands through LoRaWAN when LTE connection fails. The co-host also includes tamper detection sensors that trigger immediate alerts when the gateway enclosure is opened (PIR sensor) or falls (accelerometer).

Prerequisites

  • Active LoRaWAN network server
  • Gateway physical access for key retrieval

LoRaWAN registration

Find the LoRaWAN keys (DevEUI, AppEUI, AppKey) on the sticker attached to your gateway enclosure:

  1. Access your LoRaWAN network server
  2. Create a new device registration
  3. Name the device using the gateway serial number (arch-xxxx) or cohost serial number (ch-xxxx) to identify the device
  4. Enter the keys from your gateway sticker:
  • DevEUI: Device identifier
  • AppEUI: Application identifier
  • AppKey: Security key
  1. Set device profile to LoRaWAN 1.0.4
  2. Set device region frequency.

The co-host operates as a standard LoRaWAN Class A device.

Data monitoring

The co-host transmits health data in structured LoRaWAN payloads containing solar panel voltage and current, battery charge level, internal temperature and humidity, gateway operational status, and tamper detection alerts. When tamper sensors activate, the co-host wakes outside of its scheduled transmission cycle to send immediate alerts.

SenArch dashboard: Contact SenArch for a pre-configured application server with real-time monitoring dashboard.

Custom integration: Use the payload specification below to implement monitoring in your existing system.

Payload specification

The co-host transmits a 48-byte binary payload with little-endian byte order:

Field Name Offset (bits) Size Type Units
Solar Bus Voltage 0-31 4 bytes float LE V
Solar Current 32-63 4 bytes float LE mA
Solar Load Voltage 64-95 4 bytes float LE V
Battery Bus Voltage 96-127 4 bytes float LE V
Battery Current 128-159 4 bytes float LE mA
Battery Load Voltage 160-191 4 bytes float LE V
System Bus Voltage 192-223 4 bytes float LE V
System Current 224-255 4 bytes float LE mA
System Load Voltage 256-287 4 bytes float LE V
Temperature 288-319 4 bytes float LE °C
Humidity 320-351 4 bytes float LE %RH
PIR Event Detected 352-359 1 byte uint8 boolean
Fall Event Detected 360-367 1 byte uint8 boolean
Cohost Battery Charge 368-375 1 byte uint8 %

Next steps