Search results for:

Microchip is coming out with a new LoRa module in May that will sell for $10.90 in 1,000+ unit quantities. Maybe not so maker friendly, and it will definitely be more expensive for us mere mortals…

DASH7 is another interesting alternative. It's a particularly good fit for telemetry with its event based BLAST (Bursty, Light, Async, Stealth, Transitional) design, low power use and good range outdoors and indoors. It's a pretty nifty protocol! I especially like the query functionality.

It's also got an open source implementation, OSS-7, which as it happens has already been implemented for STM32L. Which means it's not too hard to port it to Espruino, right? I don't know the compiled size of OSS-7, but the protocol stack of DASH7 is said to be small.

There's also OpenTag, but it looks stale and is not supported by DASH7 Alliance (OSS-7 is).

@LawrenceG Thanks for sharing the diagram, Konekt looks like a great platform when you see it all together like that! It's really worth it just to have all that abstracted away for you, and you get to focus on the fun stuff.

@Gordon Lisa sells for just €43.99 here, and you can get Sara for €10 less. (Nice names for modules, but that sounded a bit odd.)

Btw, I got an answer from Konekt. They'll let backers pick which variant of Sara they want, meaning which region the Dash should work in. (Dash Pro is worldwide though.)

I just noticed some specs for the chip: "Cortex M4 1MB, 16 MHz, 32.768 KHz, Sleep Timer". Does that offer you any clues? They also say:

It works like an Ardunio and can run Wiring, Python, ARM assembly or whatever code you'd like to use. It's open source, and infinitely hackable, so you can easily adjust and build the Dash into any of your own projects

You're right about SIM900, but it's only 2G, which is already being phased out in the US and Australia, and possibly other regions to follow soon. So SIM900 isn't really an option for me, at least not if you're creating a product to be used in various countries.

(Makes you wonder how long 3G has left..)

Dash uses u-blox Sara which is 2G+3G, but it has variants for either Americas or Europe/Asia and I don't know which one it is (I just asked on Kickstarter). Dash Pro uses u-blox Lisa which is 3.75G and works just about all over the world. One thing is certain, the world of mobile networks is messy.

There's also the conspicuously similar Spark Electron:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spa­rkdevices/spark-electron-cellular-dev-ki­t-with-a-simple-data?ref=users

But it's not dual 2G/3G, it's monthly rates are 3 times as high as Konekt's, and it's not active in as many countries. No thanks.

Hm, the Dash has a Cortex M4, 12 analog inputs and 31 GPIOs. Doesn't say which exact chip it has, but "it works like an Arduino". Should be possible to run Espruino directly on the module right..??

This one just came out:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kon­ekt/konekt-dash-cellular-dev-kit-free-gl­obal-data-plan/

Cellular modules are getting cheaper! The Dash is just $49 for early birds, and their global SIM is much cheaper than SparqSIM. $1/1MB/month is pretty nice, or even $0.55/500K/month!

Incidentally, Konekt is what SparqSIM actually uses behind the scenes. I guess the Konekt guys saw the interest around SparqEE and thought they could do it even cheaper and better.

I'd be interested in learning what product that is, if you can share that with us? :)

One alternative for 2G/3G connectivity is SparqEE CELL, it seems pretty easy to work with over UART:
http://www.sparqee.com/portfolio/sparqee­-cell/

It comes with a SparqeeSIM card, and their plans are actually very cheap if you send very little data. And unlike a few other solutions, it works almost everywhere (with increasing price though):
http://www.sparqsim.com/

Clever! Sounds like this is something I could run on my own machine if I want to do things from the terminal, right?

In node.js, each module has its own top-level scope, but they all have access to the global object. Although, the use of global variables is frowned upon (bad for testability and various other reasons) :)

http://nodejs.org/api/globals.html#globa­ls_global

I think the same would make sense for Espruino, each module having its own scope and the ability to access the global global object for shared state.

Great answer, thanks! Looks like I'll be buying an EZ-Key anyway, and see what I can get out of it.

Is it at all possible to use a Bluetooth module to pair and act as a keyboard (HID)? Bluetooth's HID profile "is a lightweight wrapper of the human interface device protocol defined for USB" (Wikipedia). As USB HID is already being added to Espruino, maybe I could build on that?

Adafruit's Bluefruit EZ-Key is an option, but it would be great to be able to do this with Espruino only.

Possible?

China is a huge market, so I think it would be great for Espruino if you could somehow collaborate around the official Espruino. Cloning/copying the original leads to fragmentation, and the loss of profit for the original Espruino project will only harm Espruino's future development.

I think it's wonderful that Espruino is getting picked up in China! But everybody wins if we all pull in the same direction and help fund Gordon's continued work on Espruino.

@Gordon That looks really nice! (Not your soldering, understandably, but the board overall.)

Thanks for the detailed answer. Really looking forward to holding one some day.

I'm not sure which is most important, 1 cm smaller or 12 more pins.. It would be small enough for my needs if it was like in the photo.

@Gordon How's it going with the smaller board? How many pins will it have? Is it too early to say something about its price?

I really like the prospect of a tiny "plug-and-play" Espruino board. I think a printed USB connector is a great idea, and the smaller form factor is perfect for a couple of projects I have planned.

If one still wants a board on a wire (like a drunk in a midnight choir?), one could always use an extension USB cable.. I see no downsides to this, and plenty of advantages!

Not natively, no. I know it's a lot to take on. I did look into Apple's new language Swift (much easier than Objective C!) for interfacing with BLE, but couldn't figure out how difficult it would be.

But I was actually thinking of using a Raspberry Pi as the bridge between my BLE sensors and the Internet. I could then much more easily write a web app to interface with my sensors, and it would work on all platforms. At least that's the idea.

Edit: True about BLE manufacturers and projects not addressing the issue. I know of one crowdsourced BLE project that do though – Wimotos. They sell their own bridge device (with its own sensors) and also mention Raspberry Pi as an alternative – perfect for DIY-ers like me.

Hm, good point. I'm a programmer so I'm thinking of doing it that way myself, but not everybody can do that. I see how manufacturers would need a standard protocol to communicate with bridges before anything like that would become a reality on a commercial scale..

Even smaller! It seems to have about 50 meters TX range, and the only power measurement listed is 70 mA during active RX.

There's some more info on their blog, apparently they're also building a router-on-a-chip that supports OpenWRT.

Sorry for slanting off topic here, but considering the power needs of wifi, is it really the solution to the Internet of Things? Isn't BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) coupled with a bridge to the internet a more efficient and elegant solution? I'm just thinking out loud, don't want to sidetrack the discussion :)

Power measurements from https://nurdspace.nl/ESP8266#Power:

The following data are based on a 3.3V power supply, ambient
temperature 25C and use the internal regulator measured. All
measurements are made in the absence of the SAW filter, the antenna
interface is completed. All transmit data based on 90% duty cycle,
continuous transmission mode in the measured.

802.11b, CCK 1Mbps, POUT=+19.5dBm 				215 mA
802.11b, CCK 11Mbps, POUT=+18.5dBm 				197 mA
802.11g, OFDM 54Mbps, POUT=+16dBm	 			145 mA
802.11n, MCS7, POUT =+14dBm 					135 mA
802.11b, packet size of 1024 bytes, -80dBm 		60 mA
802.11b, packet size of 1024 bytes, -70dBm 		60 mA
802.11b, packet size of 1024 bytes, -65dBm 		62 mA
Standby 										0.9 mA
Deep sleep 										10 mA
Saving mode DTIM 1 								1.2 mA
Saving mode DTIM 3 								0.86 mA
Shutdown 										0.5 mA

Nice!

Would this suit low power devices with intermittent connectivity needs?

Power down leakage current of <10uA
Standby power consumption of < 1.0mW (DTIM3)
Wake up and transmit packets in < 2ms

Doesn't say how much it draws when in use though..

Thanks a lot! Works great, for my current ambient pressure at least. It will do the trick until the underlying problem is fixed :)

Sorry if this is the wrong thread, but I'm also getting bogus readings from the BMP180 as reported in comment #12. For example -29363 Pa. Tested using both 1v69 and the 1v70 build from yesterday, with the same result.

Is there something I can do to work around this in the meantime, or should I wait for a fix?

I just commented on an old thread about this (woops!), but yes, I'm also very interested in this.

Like I said in the other thread, the Teensy lets you use Raw HID to communicate directly with your custom app, and also has easy functionality for interfacing as a keyboard, mouse and joystick, as well as (only on the Teensyduino?) MIDI and flight sim controller(!).

I'd be happy with Keyboard and Raw HID..

(Sorry for bumping this old thread..)

I ended up buying a Teensy only because it can register as a USB keyboard while the Espruino can't.

If the upcoming smaller Espruino gets an "inline" USB connector like the Digispark USB Development Board (I've heard rumours), it would be perfect for these kinds of things.

In addition to registering as a keyboard, the Teensy can also register as a mouse, joystick, MIDI device or even flight simulator controls(!). Also normal USB serial data, and Raw HID to communicate with your own Mac or PC apps. Lots of interesting uses!

Edit:
I just read your comment from this morning on the related issue, I actually hadn't seen it :) I'm cross-referencing this comment to the thread where the discussion is happening now..