Orange Belgium Gpy

[hadjidgr]

Re: NB-IoT support

Good afternoon to all,

I am currently doing an internship in belgium, working on nb-iot. First, i had to program an arduino board so that it could send specific data using Orange Belgium network. It took me a while but since the arduino board had been developed by Orange, most of the AT commands necessary in order to connect to the network had already been programmed by Orange engineers.

Following that first step, i was asked to program the same thing using a Pycom Gpy. However, i do not know for sure if Orange Belgium is one of pycom's partners.
If yes, could anyone tell me the band and cid number required? If not, do you know if by using AT commands, i could successfully connect myself to their network?

Thank you to anyone who might have an answer.
Cheers,
Gregor

[mp]

Hello all,

Finally I manage to make it works.

The problem wasn't in the software, but hardware.

I don't use a expansion board, I use a ttl converter like this one https://www.ebay.com/itm/5V-3-3V-FTDI-FT232RL-USB-to-TTL-Serial-Converter-Adapter-Module-Arduino-Mini-Hot/182736917146
With this converter 3.3V is not enough to power on stably the board, so, I used it in 5V mode, but it seem that 5v for serial communication is ok for the python REPL, but have problem when flashing the modem or use the LTE modem. Finally, I changed my design by using another 5v power source, and use the ttl converter un 3v3 mode with common ground. And then it just works fine ;)

Thank you for you support

[mp]

Hello all,
I use 40343, but it was painful to flash the firmware, is it possible that the firmware is corrupted? If upgrade success the firmware have to be ok?

Yes i let it connected many minutes, and the antenna is connected. I dont use this anthena https://pycom.io/product/lte-m-antenna-kit/ but another nbiot antena (https://shop.sodaq.com/sodaq-sara-ubee-n211.html)
I will retry this Sunday

Thank you for you help

[johanbrichau]

@mp I have my Gpy connecting to Orange NB-IoT. I’m using latest dev firmware and modem firmware. See https://github.com/jbrichau/TrackingPrototype/blob/b3c5ec0cd3a7cd434fb6cec64c85c206d8d3277e/Device/main.py#L75 for my code.

What is the firmware you are using?

[Lonefish]

@mp My solution was making sure the SIM cards are still activated. That was it, the code just works. I suspect you have the antenna connected?

I have to say tho, the first time it seems to take a while to connect (like a few minutes even) but after that it just 'flies' through. Have you let it sit for a while? Like during lunch?

EDIT: Have you updated the firmware to the latest version?

[peterv]

Still works for me on 1.20.0.rc4/NB-IOT firmware 40343:

>>> import sqnsupgrade
>>> sqnsupgrade.info()
<<< Welcome to the SQN3330 firmware updater [1.2.1] >>>
>>> FiPy with firmware version 1.20.0.rc4
Your modem is in application mode. Here is the current version:
UE6.0.0.0
LR6.0.0.0-40343

and

>>> from network import LTE
>>> lte = LTE()
>>> lte.send_at_cmd('AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","nbiot.iot"')
'\r\nOK\r\n'
>>> lte.attach(band=20)
>>> lte.isattached()
False
>>> lte.isattached()
True
>>> lte.connect()
>>> lte.isconnected()
True

Still no DNS:

>>> socket.getaddrinfo('www.pycom.io', 80)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
OSError: -202

[mp]

Does anyone can help to figure out what going on ?
It start to be frustrating ....

[mp]

Hey,
I still have trouble to connect to nbiot :s
Always stuck in lte.isattached loop.

I checked my sim card with the allthinktalks modem and the card is still activated.
I've tried the solution of peterv, annoguy, and in the official doc.
@Lonefish which solution did you tried ?

[Lonefish]

The current state (22 Januari) of the Orange LTE-CAT M1 is this according to Orange B2B:
Only in Antwerp and around 20 sites it's available. The network is ready, but still waiting to activate it because of a few reasons apparently.

[Lonefish]

@mp Apparently the SIM cards were deactivated, they deactivated the SIM cards after 3 months, and we didn't know. They are activated again and now it works again (firmware 40343)

I also heard the news that CAT M1 should be deployed, will test that out later this week.

[mp]

@Lonefish Do you find a solution?

Anyone else have some track to debug when the code is stuck in the isattached loop?

Or have the 35351 firmware?

[mp]

My flash succeed!

In the first test device attache and connect quite quickly ( with csq = 16), but now with the same code it didn't work again (csq = 99,99). Strange, will test again later

[rskoniec]

@mp Here in Poland Orange also deploying pilots with Cat-M1.

[mp]

@lonefish said in Orange Belgium Gpy:

40343

I will test once i success in flash the nb firmware.
By the way, I heard that LTE catM is being deployed on Orange

[Lonefish]

@peterv Do you have any news on newer firmware? With your code it started to work at some point on firmware 40343 without any changes that I know of. 2 days later, not changing anything, it stopped working..

[Filip]

OK, it does work for Orange Belgium using the instructions @peterv provided (thx for posting them), but ONLY using NB-IOT firmware NB1-37781, not using the more recent NB1-38729.

Cheers,

Filip.

[Filip]

This post is deleted!

[Filip]

Any update on this one ?
Tried all the above using my GPY and an Orange Maker SIM Card, but no luck : can't get the LTE attached.

Apparently different APN's in use (cfr https://docs.allthingstalk.com/networks/use-orangebe-nbiot/ ):
You purchased an Orange NB-IoT Rapid Development Kit and SIM card: starter.att.iot
You purchased an Orange NB-IoT SIM card:
Maker: att.iot
Light: nbiot.iot
Plus : nbiot.iot

Any hints ?

Thanks,

Filip.

@peterv said in Orange Belgium Gpy:

6400

[dan]

Hi @peterv,

That's great that you got it working! There's an open issue for DNS on GitHub, as you can see there we are looking into the issue.

[peterv]

It somehow started working with version 37781 too, managed to reduce the code to:

lte = LTE()
lte.send_at_cmd('AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","nbiot.iot"')
lte.attach(band=20)
while not lte.isattached():
    machine.idle()
lte.connect()
while not lte.isconnected():
    machine.idle()

DNS is still not working (maybe related to https://forum.pycom.io/topic/2934/lte-nb-iot-dns/4).