Starter kit
What you'll need to run a gateway.
One USB dongle does the work: a Bluetooth® radio that hears packets on the street. Location is set once in the setup wizard, no GPS hardware needed for a stationary gateway. Pick the path that matches what you already own.
You have an Umbrel Home or a Pi.
Both have USB-A ports. Dongles plug straight in. No adapters, no fuss.
Order this:
- Sena UD100 Bluetooth dongle, around $40
If your Pi firmware is bare, install umbrelOS first (see umbrel.com/umbrelos), then come back here.
You have an Umbrel Pro.
Pro has two USB-C ports and no USB-A. The Bluetooth dongle is USB-A, so you'll add one small powered USB-C hub to your cart. Everything else is the same.
Order these two:
- Anker 4-Port USB-C to USB-A hub , around $15. Plugs into either USB-C port on the Pro.
- Sena UD100 Bluetooth dongle
You don't have an Umbrel or a Pi yet.
Two options. Buy a pre-built Umbrel and skip the assembly, or build a Raspberry Pi server yourself for less money but more steps.
Option 1: Pre-built Umbrel Home , recommended
- Umbrel Home from umbrel.com , $599. Ships with everything, plug it into power and ethernet, you're done.
- Plus the Bluetooth dongle above (USB-A, no adapter).
Option 2: Build a Raspberry Pi 5 yourself
- Raspberry Pi 5, 8GB , around $200 from any Pi reseller (Adafruit, Canakit, PiShop)
- Official Raspberry Pi 27W USB-C power supply, around $15
- NVMe SSD or fast microSD, 128GB+, around $20
- Active cooling case, around $15
- Plus the Bluetooth dongle above (Pi has USB-A, no adapter)
Pi 5 uses USB-C only for power. The four data ports are USB-A, so the dongles plug in directly. After assembly, flash umbrelOS following umbrel.com/umbrelos.
Why the Sena UD100, specifically.
A gateway listens far more than it talks, so antenna gain matters more than transmit power. The UD100 takes an external antenna, which gives you real range improvements over the $15 dongles bundled with most kits. Linux recognises it without any driver work.
Location goes into a setup form, not a dongle. The first time you open the gateway dashboard, you enter the lat/lon where the Pi lives (right-click Google Maps to copy it). The worker stamps every forwarded packet with that coordinate. Most operators set it once and never touch it again.
Push range further: swap the antenna.
The UD100 ships with a 2 dBi stock antenna on an RP-SMA female connector. Unscrew it, screw on a higher-gain 2.4 GHz omni, and you'll roughly double your usable range. No soldering, no driver changes, no firmware flashes. The dongle treats any compatible antenna identically.
What to look for in the listing:
- Connector: RP-SMA Male (not regular SMA, not female)
- Band: 2.4 GHz, or dual-band 2.4/5 GHz (you only use the 2.4 part)
- Gain: 9 to 12 dBi. Above 12 dBi the marketed numbers stop being honest at consumer prices.
- Pattern: Omnidirectional
Two that work:
- 9 dBi 2.4 GHz RP-SMA male omni , around $10. +7 dB over stock, roughly 2× range. Direct screw-on, no cable in the RF path.
- 12 dBi 2.4/5 GHz dual-band RP-SMA male , around $8. +10 dB over stock, roughly 3× range. Narrower vertical beam, so mount it pointing straight up; tilted sideways it can underperform the stock antenna.
Placement multiplies the upgrade:
Pair the new antenna with an active USB 2.0 extension cable (around $12; look for "active" because passive cables over 3m drop packets) to move the dongle from behind the Pi to a window. A 2.4 GHz signal loses 10 to 20 dB passing through interior walls and Low-E glass; getting the dongle window-side often buys you more range than the antenna upgrade alone.
BLE scanning is receive-only, so antenna gain isn't regulated and you can stack what you like. Mount the antenna vertically (pointing up), as high as practical, and as close to a window as your cable run allows.
Gateway on the move? Add GPS.
If the gateway moves (vehicle-mounted, mobile asset, anything that won't sit still), the fixed-location field won't cut it: every forwarded packet would carry yesterday's coordinate. Plug in a USB GPS dongle and the worker auto-discovers it on boot, no config required.
No soldering, USB plug-and-play:
- GlobalSat BU-353N USB GPS , around $35. PL2303 chipset, USB-A. Worker auto-discovers /dev/ttyUSB* and starts gpsd. Brick-shaped with a magnetic base.
- VK-172 G-Mouse USB GPS , around $15. u-blox NEO chipset, USB-A. Same auto-discovery via /dev/ttyACM*. Cheaper, smaller, slightly less rugged.
For integrated GPS (requires soldering):
- Adafruit Ultimate GPS HAT , around $45. Stacks on the Pi's 40-pin GPIO header. Takes an SMA-connected active antenna so the receiver lives inside but the antenna sees sky. You'll solder the included header and configure gpsd manually; not for beginners.
Either way, GPS needs sky view to lock. A cold start takes a minute or two outdoors and may never lock indoors. If your gateway lives by a window or outside, you're fine. If it sits in a basement or interior room, stick with the fixed-location setup.
Once it arrives.
Plug the dongle in, install the EE Gateway app from the Umbrel App Store, and paste your credentials. The full walkthrough lives in the docs.
Read the install guide → Start your gateway →