Hello - I’m looking to create a standalone lorawan gw. It seems most of the cards for sale are OEM cards for Dell or lenovo - are there any concerns with using them in a linux build ?
Use case here is lorawan gw with lte / ethernet link redundancy in case of loss of WAN.
Any pointers on best ngff / m2 adaptor / similar setups would be appreciated.
–Adrian
Hi @aterranova
Lorawan gw with lte / Ethernet is not mentioned in EM7455 datasheet.
You can refer to the link below for more information.
https://techship.com/products/sierra-wireless-em7455/
Hi Donald - will the em7455 support m2m ip gateway with an m2 based mpcie adaptor - I’m adding in the lorawan antenna to my apu with another mpcie card and antenna (nfuse).
This depends on where you look to buy. You might get that impression on eBay and AliExpress because all the offerings there are from unofficial sales channels. Start at https://www.sierrawireless.com/how-to-buy/ to locate official distributors.
As for your question: The OEM cards will work. The hardware is most likely the same, unless you are unlucky and end up with an engineering sample or a fake device. The OEM versions are just configured with other defaults in NVRAM, resulting in different device IDs and some laptop specific settings like MBIM and FCC authentication. None of this will be an issue wrt using the cards in Linux, since Linux support these cards when used in the laptops they are made for.
The main difference will be your access to support channels. The OEM cards are obviously meant to be supported by Dell or Lenovo, and not directly by Sierra Wireless. This means that Sierra Wireless will refer you to Dell or Lenovo for support, and they will probably want to know the serial number of your laptop before they let you open any support case. If you buy a module via official channels then you will get support there too