Spark Electron - Cellular Data for Prop? Uses?
Keith Young
Posts: 569
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sparkdevices/spark-electron-cellular-dev-kit-with-a-simple-data?ref=category_popular
First, I don't see anything that makes this incompatible with the Prop, do you?
What uses can you guys think of that would use less than 1MB/month? It seems a bit laggy to control robots and the like. I can see how it could send data easily, but what are some creative interactive and realtime ideas you can think of? There are 8 days left on the Kickstarter so there should be plenty of time to decide whether this would be a good Prop peripheral.
First, I don't see anything that makes this incompatible with the Prop, do you?
What uses can you guys think of that would use less than 1MB/month? It seems a bit laggy to control robots and the like. I can see how it could send data easily, but what are some creative interactive and realtime ideas you can think of? There are 8 days left on the Kickstarter so there should be plenty of time to decide whether this would be a good Prop peripheral.
Comments
I don't want my "things" beholden to any particular company's system.
It's that kind of lock-in we have been trying to escape from in the desktop OS world for decades.
Do you know of a system that is more open, yet in the $50-75 price range?
Thanks for the heads up on that Heater. I wouldn't have thought of that.
I'm not sure that I do. We use 3G modems that are a lot more expensive. But what about this https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9533. I guess there must be others around.
Edit to add: No surprise it looks like T-Mobile would not accept such a project for the free data for life plan due to the TAC:
"If your tablet isn't receiving Free Data for Life, but you're on T-Mobile’s data network, we'd like to know. In order for us to add your tablet to our network, we need the first 8-digit portion of the tablet’s 15-digit IMEI number (the IMEI is a unique identifier for a mobile device). These first 8-digits are called a TAC (Type Allocation Code) and simply tells us the make and model of the tablet. "
And knowing how to find the hot end of the soldering iron, that little router can get some GPIOs too: http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wr703n/pcb
...or use USB to connect an arduino or propeller...
I'm going out on a limb here and saying that you probably can use other Sim cards with this. I think one of the "features" of buying into this was that they were going to provide a low data rate option that can be used with it.
I ordered one. We'll see how it goes... if and when I get it.
There is a 2G and a 3G version. I had thought 2G was being replaced as it is quite old - perhaps I am wrong. We are up to 4G and 4GX here in Oz, with 3G as the standard.
The radio module does this (see the metal cover).
The ARM has the code to drive the modem. If it is not open source, then most likely they will lock the SIM to their carrier so replacing it will not work. That's what they often do for phones.
For 1MB/month is 33KB/day. Might be fine for IoT devices, but unlikely to be enough for things such as robots. But then, why would you be controlling your robot via mobile?
Other than those issues, looks like a nice module for reasonable pricing.
They did say that in the US 2G will be phased out very soon and they suggest the 3G version.
Heater, excuse my ignorance. I looked at the datasheet and I cannot see anything that defines the unit as 2G or 3G. How do you establish the difference?
I looked too. I have no idea.
The gist of my argument is that one should not have to be locked into a single provider for such phone connections.
In the same way that I can buy service and get a SIM card from many providers and use it with whatever phone I happen to have.
A level above that I should be able to use whatever "cloud" servers I can get at the other end of the connection.
I have used the ublox sara, it's OK. I probably would gone with Telit GE866-QUAD as it's smaller and cheaper.
Thanks very much. Any more detail or links on the issue of 2G vs 3G identification would be greatly appreciated.
These modules are not cheap or easy to interface. To avoid waste you need to be sure they will work in the future 3G environment.
I found a web page that collects all the terminology on a single page. I'm familiar with the tech terms used in 2G/(2.5G)/first-gen 3G but that's it. This link has it all as far as I can tell: http://www.speedguide.net/faq/what-are-1g-2g-3g-and-4g-networks-365
BTW for future reference - if that link becomes unavailable you can find it in the wayback machine (archive.org), it wasn't there already so I added it. I've seen enough good links go off the 'net in the past, but this one is archived now.
-Tor
Looks like AT&T plans to have their 2g network sunsetted by 2017.
I wonder of they would make a board with out the arm processor. Then I would not have learn arm to use it.
I was also going to mention the Adafruit board.
I believe they plan to make a 3G board in the future since the 2G stuff is being phased out (I'm just repeating what I think I remember from one of their videos).
http://snootlab.com/lang-en/snootlab-shields/834-shield-airpi-v09-for-raspberry-pi-2g-3g-and-gps.html
Features:
Shield for Raspberry-pi A, B and B+
Raspberry-pi (26) GPIO on top of the shield
Chipset Sierra Wireless SL8082T with Open AT commands
GPS with patch antenna
Include a DC 5v 4A for the shield and the Raspberry-pi
Include a 10 cm Micro-USB - USB cable for 3G sync.
Audio I/o on jack
Chipset SL8082T GPIO accessibles
Bus 22C and SPI of chipset SL8082T accessibles
Status leds
========================================
AirPrime SL8082
https://source.sierrawireless.com/devices/sl-series/sl8082/