Set Cellular Access Point Name (APN)

[michaelhobo]

@brotherdust I need to try this today! Thanks for the detailed explanation. Time to pull down the pycom source...

[brotherdust]

@michaelhobo Good luck! One more thing: the documentation doesn’t explicitly mention it, but if you’re using the FiPy or GPy with the Expansion Board, you need to disable the RTS and CTS pins on the board (see Expansion Board 2.0 datasheet: https://docs.pycom.io/chapter/datasheets/boards/expansion.html). This is because the pins for RTS/CTS function on the FTDI USB to UART chip on the Expansion Board overlap with the LTE pins on the FiPy (and possibly GPy, I’m too lazy to look right now).

[ahaw021]

@michaelhobo

https://docs.pycom.io/chapter/datasheets/development/fipy.html

saw an AT command manual at the bottom.

I don't have my FiPy (in NZ at the moment)

but when i do i can do some more digging

[michaelhobo]

@brotherdust @ahaw021 Thanks all.
I flashed my Gpy to look for roaming networks and turned on GSM_DEBUG. Then I realized I forgot to get an antenna... My poor little board never stood a chance.

I can tell what's happening when I try to connect to the network now, thanks to debug mode. And I can build my own firmware, so I'm much further along than before. I will try again once my antenna arrives.

[brotherdust]

@michaelhobo Did you blow up your board?!

[michaelhobo]

@brotherdust Oh no, it just couldn't get signal (and never could have in my room with no antenna)

[rskoniec]

@michaelhobo I hope everything is OK with your board, because using LoRa/Sigfox/LTE without connecting the antenna is not recommended.

[bbel91]

@brotherdust Hello, I'm a beginner with Fipy and new in this forum...
Could you please explain how you enable the debug mode in the 3GPP stack and where are stored the libraries on my PC (W10) for me to modify the code as you explained ?
Thanks.

[brotherdust]

@bbel91 You'll need to set up a development environment. See https://github.com/pycom/pycom-micropython-sigfox#the-esp32-version for instructions. Follow them carefully! When are you able to compile and flash the firmware from the unmodified source, you'll be ready for modifying the code to enable GSM_DEBUG and LTE roaming features (if that's what you want to do). I STRONGLY suggest getting comfortable with Git before you start modifying the source code. I personally use a combination of Tower and Git CLI commands.

It's possible to directly access the Sequans modem over UART if you have the expansion board; once you have that setup, you can type AT commands directly to the modem and see what works. See https://forum.pycom.io/topic/2496/gpy-readiness/20 for more info (and a great face-palm moment by yours truly when he forgets to swap the UART pins).

[brotherdust]

@rskoniec said in Set Cellular Access Point Name (APN):

@michaelhobo I hope everything is OK with your board, because using LoRa/Sigfox/LTE without connecting the antenna is not recommended.

My understanding is that, with no antenna attached, it could fry the LNA on the modem. It's expecting a particular impedance on the ANT connector. I really hope you didn't fry it. That would be sad and irritating. =( I've fried a REALLY expensive GPS chip this way (ublox LEA-6T); now it's just a paperweight.

[bbel91]

@brotherdust Thanks a lot for your help.
As I am on Windows10, I looked for a corresponding environment (msys2).
I could then follow your procedure but it blocks at "cd mpy-cross ..." because the directory does not exist. Do you have an idea of what it can be?

[livius]

@bbel91 said in Set Cellular Access Point Name (APN):

mpy-cross

you have it in the pycom-micropython-sigfox/mpy-cross repo
https://github.com/pycom/pycom-micropython-sigfox/tree/master/mpy-cross

[bbel91]

@livius Thanks for your answer.
Yes, of course, I've forgot the essential...
Now that all seems ok and all the repository installed I get this issue when I "make" in mpy-cros :

LINK mpy-cross
build/py/modbuiltins.o:modbuiltins.c:(.rdata$mp_module_builtins_globals_table+0x294): référence indéfinie vers « mp_type_TimeoutError »
collect2: erreur: ld a retourné 1 code d'état d'exécution
make: *** [../py/mkrules.mk:133: mpy-cross] Error 1

Do you know where it can come from ?

[rskoniec]

@brotherdust I would suspect this also.
@michaelhobo There is a note (below) on the Fipy product description

[michaelhobo]

@rskoniec @brotherdust I got my LTE antenna and it's working! At least, I get an IP - I haven't looked at LTE performance, so it's still possible I may have damaged something. I'll make sure to use my backup GPy for any RF-critical benchmarking. Thanks @brotherdust for helping me get started!

[brotherdust]

@michaelhobo you’re welcome and good luck! I fried my FiPy a couple of days ago, so I won’t be much help for now. I’m actually considering going with a different ESP32 board. I’m getting pretty tired of Pycom’s intransigence around releasing actual schematics. If they would, I might have enough info to fix the board, but as it stands, not gonna happen. sigh

[Sat]

@benstr said in Set Cellular Access Point Name (APN):

if either have NB

Hi Ben, Trying to connect to Telstra's CAT-M1 and NB networks. No luck with that. Could you help? I am in a lab environment in band 28.

[camdenkrupala]

@jmarcelino Is there an update on this functionality being added? Thanks!

[jmarcelino]

@camdenkrupala
You can already set an APN manually by doing

lte.send_at_cmd('AT+CEREG=2')
time.sleep(2)
lte.send_at_cmd('AT+CFUN=1')
time.sleep(1)
lte.send_at_cmd('AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","YOUR_APN_HERE"')
time.sleep(2)

while lte.isattached() == False:
    time.sleep(1)

lte.connect()

while not lte.isconnected():
    time.sleep(1)

print("connected")