Important Information
In order for your Helium LoRaWAN miner to function correctly, you should always update your antenna details whenever changing antennas or changing the height at which your antenna is mounted. The Helium network uses several anti-gaming measures to combat cheating hotspots which are not revealed to us for security reasons. Due to these measures, if your RF transmit or receive strength does not match up with the details asserted for your antenna, this may result in PoC activity being discarded as invalid.
NOTE: There is a fee of 55,000 Data Credits ($0.55 USD) which is charged each time antenna details are updated. This is a network fee which must be paid, and is not charged by Bobber. HNT in your wallet will automatically be burned to provide the 55,000 DC if you do not have sufficient Data Credits in your wallet - there are no additional steps needed for this burning process.
NOTE: At current, hotspots belonging to new 24-word Helium wallets are not able to be managed by the Bobber App. This functionality is coming soon, so stay tuned! In the meantime, if you need to manage a hotspot owned by a 24-word wallet, you will need to use the Helium CLI wallet to transfer ownership to a 12-word wallet which can then be managed by the Helium Hotspot App or Bobber App. For details on this process, refer to this Nova Labs resource on the topic.
The Bobber App will allow you to update the antenna details of any brand of Helium LoRaWAN miner, not just Bobber!
Updating Antenna Details
To begin, download the Helium Hotspot App (Android / iOS) and ensure you are logged into the wallet which owns your hotspot with the correct seed phrase.
Download the Bobber App (Android / iOS) and link your Helium wallet to the Bobber App by tapping Link Helium Account
Tap on the Hotspots tab at the bottom, then tap on the hotspot you wish to update, then tap on the gear wheel icon
Tap Update Hotspot
Tap Update Antenna if not already selected. Tap Select Antenna and choose either Bobber (All) for the default antenna that comes with your Bobber Miner, or choose Custom Antenna to enter the gain manually
Enter the Antenna Gain if using a custom antenna then enter the Antenna Height in Meters and tap Update Antenna
Confirm the details are entered correctly then tap Submit - NOTE: There is a fee of 55,000 Data Credits ($0.55 USD) which is charged each time antenna details are updated. This is a network fee which must be paid, and is not charged by Bobber. HNT in your wallet will automatically be burned to provide the 55,000 DC if you do not have sufficient Data Credits in your wallet - there are no additional steps needed for this burning process.
The Helium Hotspot App will open and instruct you to sign in using your PIN or fingerprint authorization. The app will present a summary of the transaction. To sign the transaction and approve the changes, tap I Confirm
NOTE: The gain shown for the antenna is always displayed 10x larger than the dBi rating. For example, if you entered an 8.3dBi antenna, it would show as 83 gain on the transaction summary.
You will see an "Updating Hotspot Information" message. Tap Got It! to dismiss the message. Wait approximately 30 minutes to allow time for the blockchain to process the transaction and update Helium Explorer. Check your hotspot's Activity tab on Helium Explorer for the Location Transaction to view details and verify it processed correctly
Troubleshooting Issues
If there are any issues regarding functionality of the Bobber App, please refer to this basic troubleshooting process. If still experiencing issues, submit a ticket here and we'll be happy to help.
If there are issues regarding the blockchain, status of transactions, duplicate transactions, the Helium Hotspot app, or anything not related to Bobber App functionality please contact Nova Labs (the Helium developers) via support@helium.com or the Helium Official Discord to make them aware of the issue.