Weekly Update (W/C 2nd Jan 2017)

[Fred]

Dear All,

Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity in wishing you all a Happy New Year! 2016 was an incredible year for Pycom thanks to you all and 2017 looks like an even bigger year.

We continue recruiting in Eindhoven to strengthen our dev team, and whilst the effects may only be felt during the latter part of Q1, the positive impact will be felt across all product types we bring out. During the quarter, I will keep you all posted on developments including further growth plans for the company to ensure we are able to fully support our growing list of customers. We are also in the midst of closing a major funding round which will see the company push more goodies your way.

I promised regular firmware updates and complimenting Daniel’s previous notification, here is some additional information as to planned releases for the next few weeks:

This Thursday/Friday:
                                     Updates LoRaWAN stack to Semtech's version 4.3.0
                                     SDcard
                                     Fix TLS/SSL bug
                                     Interrupt system
                                     Option to update the boards to a previous firmware version.

NOTE: As Daniel mentioned, all releases will be made on a Thursday. Exceptionally however, in view of the number of improvements/additions, it may be that we slip to Friday. I have to praise the teams (Pycom/Espressif) with regards to the SDcard functionality for all their hard work over the Festive season. Pycom is now the only company to have this feature available on the ESP32 chip.

Thursday 12 January:
                                     Hardware Timers
                                     BLE subscriptions and non-blocking API
                                     BLE server (LoPy acting as a BLE peripheral)

NOTE: These 2 BLE functions slipped as it became evident that the interrupts needed to be complete before we could implement those 2 additions.

Thursday 19 January:
                                     Sleep modes.
                                     Ultra Low Power coprocessor
RTC and WiFi/BLE disabling

If you have a particular project which requires a further functionality enabled on the boards please do shout and we will look to add that to the list (after we have completed the above releases).

Finally, I am also able to confirm a few elements regarding certifications:

• LoPy:
  The process continues and we expect LoRaWAN certification complete this week.

• SiPy:
We are rushing the certification through with Sigfox and expect some good news also this week.

• CE/FCC approvals:
  Whilst all our modules have already received these certifications, we have decided to deepen the approval list for our modules to include RCM (Australia / New Zealand) and IC (Canada).

Best wishes
Fred

[livius]

@Fred
thank you for the update about plans especially hardware timers and SD card support
we wait enthusiastic for RTC support
which is really important feature to our goal

please add to the list:

• Wifi AP+STA
• encryption of python scripts to protect code
  https://forum.pycom.io/topic/309/two-questions-to-pycom-protect-code-and-delivery-of-fipy/3

[Fred]

@livius Hi Livius,

Many thanks for the input. We will add those to the roadmap so we can schedule. We will be adding a Wishlist section to the forum later today so that all features can be added.

RTC importance is noted and will be delivered.

Best wishes Fred

[jmarcelino]

This is looking great! Thanks.

Looking forward to have fun with the interrupt infrastruture this week and all the coming BLE additions!

By the way on the BLE side just a couple of suggestions:

1. Please keep GAP roles (central and peripheral) independent of the GATT server and client, so for example I can have a LoPy BLE peripheral being a GATT client or as a BLE central with a GATT server - or even both GATT server and client at the same time.

   This is a standard Bluetooth technique and necessary for example to implement ANCS, the Apple Notification Centre protocol.

2. Add support for BLE pairing/bonding (and eventually some security)

[Fred]

@jmarcelino Hi Jose. Good point! We will add those items to the roadmap as well. The Pairing/bonding is not in the IDF yet but we will ask Espressif nicely :)

I want to get a dynamic report which we can share (actively with the community) which will track progress against these roadmap additions.

Best wishes Fred

[mohpor]

@Fred
Happy new year to you and all pycom members too!

To reiterate @jmarcelino point, I want to suggest that a concrete, standard BLE implementation to be chosen and implemented instead of cherry picking features from BLE capabilities. I know it will be seriously constraint by the features IDF provides you, but at least we will have a clear road map and who knows, it might help Espressif to better understand our needs along the way!

Thanks for the hard work you and your team are putting in the advancement of these great products during the holidays.

Cheers,
M.

[Fred]

@mohpor Hi Mophor.

Thank you and Happy New Year to you too.

I like the suggestion and will sit down with Daniel / Espressif to ensure we all align towards a comprehensive spec (including a firm BLE spec). There is some good input from the community here which I want us to build into a roadmap for delivery past the initial specs listed in the Jan release.

Let me come back to the forum with some ideas in the next couple of weeks.

Best wishes Fred

[TravisT]

I am also hoping and waiting for BLE (peripheral) and RTC functionality. I think it is the two remaining major items holding me back from being able to do use the product as I hope to.

Thanks for the hardware work, hope features keep coming.

[gas]

Hi

Happy new year 2017, I think the function to disable and turn off BLE and WiFi is a must
it is great to have an overview of the coming releases

Thanks