As a moderator on Helium’s discord, I get asked a lot of questions about which hotspot is best, and what helium hotspot people should buy.
The first thing to note about helium hotspots is that they all run the same software. If you had any of the 3rd party Hotspot in your hands and put them on the same antenna you should get the same rate of earnings.
Things like signal strength & PoC timings are all set in the software, no 3rd party can develop a feature to change this — One change to the Rak software would mean a change to any Hotspot on the network. No Hotspot is better than any other.
So if you buy a RAK, Bobcat, Nebra, or Syncrob.it Hotspot, and put any of them on the same antenna, they should earn the same.
The main things that separate Hotspots are usability features. Rak currently does not offer PoE, Nebra offers both an indoor unit and an outdoor unit. Vendors are also offering different monitoring and management platforms.
Most use Raspberry Pi’s, but Bobcat (and the new Syncrob.it hotspots) use RK based single board computers to power their Hotspots, all of that is about the availability of parts in the world.
There is no “Best Hotspot”, but there is probably the best Hotspot for you.
But what about the Bobcat? That comes with a 4dBi Antenna, doesn’t that mean I’ll get better range?
No. A higher gain antenna does not necessarily mean more range. Line of sight gives you the best chance of range. It’s likely your understanding of how best to optimise your earnings is wrong, and you should read this guide:
https://kyk13.com/a-rough-guide-to-helium-hotspot-placement/
I want to place my Hotspot outdoors, that means I need a Nebra outdoor right?
No. Any Hotspot can be an outdoor Hotspot with the right waterproof case. Check out Helium’s discord and the #enclosures-and-offgrid channel, there are plenty of “indoor” Hotspots using custom cases mounted outside.
Rak sells an outdoor enclosure for their miner too it can be purchased from their website.
Syncrob.it is currently including an outdoor enclosure when you purchase their device — check with them before your order to confirm.
Which Hotspot manufacturer ships the fastest?
The simple answer is 3rd parties are so new, they either have huge delivery delays or are offering unreasonable expectations on delivery dates. This isn’t targeted at any manufacturer, and is based on personal experiences of 3rd parties bringing products to life — it will get better.
It’s a harsh pill to swallow but you’ll need to just join the queue and pick the manufacturer you like the most and wait on average 2–4+ months for delivery.
Most vendors are consolidating orders into batches of large quantity deliveries shipped at the same time so a couple of days delay between when you decide to order can result in weeks difference in when you receive your delivery. Pay attention to the vendor order pages or discord channels for these batch order cut off days.
There is currently a huge backlog of orders to get through and more 3rd parties are coming on board, this will get better but demand is very high at the moment.
If you want my honest advice on how to get a Hotspot the quickest, keep an eye on new 3rd party manufacturers and get an order in when sales go live.
Which frequency should I buy for my Country?
Most countries have an approved frequency that helium hotspots & sensors are allowed to use legally. Check this list to see if your country is listed, and what frequency you should buy. The first frequency listed is usually the one vendors produce for your country.
https://docs.helium.com/lorawan-on-helium/frequency-plans/#frequency-plans-by-country
TheThingsNetwork also has a version and the LoraWan Alliance has a map of countries with a Lorawan Standard on their main page.
If your country isn’t listed, it could mean the document needs updating and you will need to provide links to the relevant laws to update this page.
Some countries ban all unlicensed broadcasts. Whilst efforts are being made to allow it in some countries, it’s not currently possible to run helium hotspots everywhere legally.
And remember just because a frequency is listed does not mean that all if any vendors will supply it to that country. There may be import rules and approvals needed to supply and import.
Abbreviations you may see.
- US/NA = American Continent
- AU = Australia/NZ
- EU = Europe/UK&I — only difference is the power plug
- CN = China
- AS = Most of Asia but not China
- RU = Russia
- IN = India
- KR = South Korea
Can’t I just buy the hardware and make a Hotspot?
This is asked daily. To keep it short, because of fraudsters trying to game the system, control of who issues the security keys that allow a hotspot to mine, and secured hardware is needed.
This gave birth to HIP19 and 3rd party manufacturers, and the list is growing all the time. 3rd parties are approved by the community, not Helium themselves and new applications can be seen here:
https://github.com/helium/HIP/pulls
You can currently only buy a Hotspot from a 3rd party if you wish to earn HNT.
