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Gateways are LilyGO T-SIM7080G-S3 devices that listen for ESP-NOW broadcasts from Raven beacons and forward them to Forager over LTE-M. Each Gateway covers an area of roughly 50–80 meters line-of-sight indoors (walls reduce range).
Gateway firmware setup and registration requires IT or super-admin access. See Gateway Firmware Setup for initial provisioning steps.

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How Gateways work

A Gateway self-registers with Forager on first boot using Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP): it sends its hardware MAC to the gateway-claim endpoint and receives a cryptographic API key, which it stores in non-volatile storage (NVS). No manual key entry is required. Once claimed, the Gateway:
  1. Initializes ESP-NOW immediately on boot to capture Raven broadcasts during LTE attach
  2. Connects to the cellular network via the Hologram SIM
  3. Batches incoming Raven check-ins in a ring buffer
  4. Uploads all buffered check-ins to Forager every 5 minutes over LTE-M

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Gateway Fleet screen

Raven Fleet → Gateways tab shows all registered Gateways for your company:

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Signal quality guide

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Placement guidelines

  • One Gateway per floor is usually sufficient for most facilities. Add a second if the floor has large concrete sections or RF-blocking server rooms.
  • Mount at a central point on the floor, elevated (above false ceiling tiles works well).
  • Keep the LTE antenna unobstructed — avoid metal enclosures.
  • Power via USB-C wall adapter or PoE injector with USB-C adapter. The Gateway has no battery — it requires continuous power.
  • The Gateway needs cellular coverage. Check Hologram’s coverage map for your address if signal is poor.

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LED status

The Gateway has a single status LED on GPIO 12:

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SIM management

Gateways use Hologram eUICC SIMs on the Global-3 plan. Manage SIMs at dashboard.hologram.io:
  • Connected — Gateway is active and has a data session open
  • Idle — SIM is active but no current data session (normal between uploads)
  • Deactivated — SIM needs to be reactivated
Data usage is minimal — each upload batch is under 2 KB. A fleet of 20 Ravens uploading every 5 minutes uses less than 10 MB/month per Gateway.

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Troubleshooting

Gateway shows Offline in the fleet view
  • Check the SIM status in Hologram dashboard
  • Confirm the LTE antenna is attached
  • Connect via USB and check serial output (115200 baud) — SHOW_SIGNAL shows live RSSI
Ravens not appearing on Gateway
  • Both Raven and Gateway must be on WiFi channel 1 — this is locked in firmware on both sides
  • The Gateway initializes ESP-NOW before connecting to LTE. If Ravens broadcast before the Gateway has finished booting, reset the Raven manually once the Gateway serial output shows [gw] ESP-NOW receiver ready
  • Check serial output on the Gateway — incoming ESP-NOW packets print [gw] rx mac=...
Upload failures (HTTP error in serial)
  • HTTP 401 — API key mismatch. The Gateway may need to be re-claimed: clear api_key_hash in the database and power-cycle the Gateway to trigger ZTP again
  • HTTP 500 — Edge Function error. Check Supabase function logs
  • Connect error — cellular issue. Run SHOW_SIGNAL and check SIM status in Hologram dashboard