Gpy readiness



  • Hi,

    We've bought many of Gpy & Fipy units during the kickstarter campaign days and finally received them after ~5-6 months later.
    But now they are just sitting in a box collecting dust.

    We tried to connect it to our CAT-M network, however with no success. We've flashed them with latest firmware, thats was bit of a pain aswell since these modules didnt have any usb connector...anyway we managed to get thru that. Then we try to connect to the network modem seem to heat up alot (after reading thru forums ive seen many people has reported also). there has been few crashes also (for example during request os name). We are quite familiar with CAT-M and has managed to get other vendor devices to work. So we are confident its not an issue on network side. We've tried band 3, 8, 28. none seem to work for us with pycom devices.

    I want to know has anybody in the community managed to get any of these devices (fipy or gpy) up and running on CAT-M?
    it seems we've been given a device thats not yet ready to use. So much for promising a decent quality device with all the long waiting.



  • This post is deleted!


  • Sorry to say but those UART pins are not mapped onto test points or external pins on the GPy. They only connect to the ESP32.



  • Yeah. On the GPy there's a bunch of pogo pads underneath. I might just start testing them one by one... ;-]



  • @brotherdust said in Gpy readiness:

    @redferne Aren't the pins documented? Looks like it to me. If I had a GPy, I would use my expansion board similar to how I did it with the FiPy; just with different pin locations. =)

    Ah, I see now what you are saying. That's a bummer they didn't break it out on any pins. Looks like you'll have to play whack-a-mole for a bit to find those pads!



  • @redferne Aren't the pins documented? Looks like it to me. If I had a GPy, I would use my expansion board similar to how I did it with the FiPy; just with different pin locations. =)



  • Is there anyway to get to the LTE TX & RTS pin on the GPy?
    Are they available on the pads on bottom side of the PCB?
    I'm really tired of recompiling each time I think I have some magic AT command to get the Sequans modem to play ball...



  • @jmarcelino
    /me face-palms
    There. are. no. words.

    Thank you.



  • Hi @brotherdust

    I think your TX and RX are swapped if you want to communicate with the modem.

    Also explains why you see the ESP32 - in this case you want to emulate it so you should not see it.

    Please try swapping th RX/TX and keep the ESP32 in reset.



  • @jmarcelino I tried your method using my expansion board. I know CTS/RTS is working because it's handshaking correctly. When I take my FiPy off of reset, I can see the AT commands coming from the ESP32. However, it's not responding to anything I type into the terminal. Any thoughts on what could be happening here? Thanks!!

    0_1517378778357_2018-01-30_23-02-50.png

    0_1517378822706_2018-01-30_23-04-06.png



  • @kevin
    NB-IoT will be later next month. We're trying to have a test firmware to support all 12 bands as well, but due to lack of certification and calibration procedures that will be for testing only.



  • @jmarcelino
    Thanks. When should we expect that to be available?



  • @kevin
    That's to be expected, you'll need a completely different LTE modem firmware for NB-IoT as well as band 8 support.



  • @jmarcelino
    Can you also relay this result to Sequans? We ran a similar test with modified Gpy FW on our Band 8 NB1 lab network. Note the response to "AT+COPS=?" appears to show support only for AT&T, and the CEREG result code is 0 (meaning it is not searching for an operator - maybe due to lack of B8 support?).

    0_1517002901517_Gpy_AT_output.png



  • Hi @electrozest
    You can find GPIO numbers as described in the GPy board configuration:

    https://github.com/pycom/pycom-micropython-sigfox/blob/master/esp32/boards/GPY/mpconfigboard.h

    #define CONFIG_GSM_TX 5
    #define CONFIG_GSM_RX 23
    #define CONFIG_GSM_CTS 18
    #define CONFIG_GSM_RTS 19

    This is relative to the ESP32, so TX is TX from the ESP32 or RX from the modem side, same applies to RX, CTS and RTS.



  • @jmarcelino
    On the GPy which ESP32 GPIO pins are used for the LTE modem? The LTE_Tx pin is not shown the pinout.
    Also should all NBIoT functionality be available from the AT command interface once the LTE modem has new firmware?
    Thanks.



  • @jmarcelino
    We are also testing modules against our own lab network (NB-IoT in this case) and have had success interoperating with a number of other manufacturers by using their AT command interfaces directly.
    We now have the Gpy, but no real way to test it. A basic AT command interface (e.g., via MicroPython as mentioned in another post) would be very useful - when do you expect to have this available? Can you point us to the full AT command reference from Sequans?
    Also, we require B8 operation. I did not see this in your list of currently supported bands; what is the reason for this restriction? When will it be supported?



  • @jmarcelino
    has these devices been ever tested? looks like we are the guinea pigs testing these for first time on certain bands :(
    we find it hard to believe if these were lab tested with correct bands they fail so miserably on live networks.



  • @redferne

    Thanks so much for your tests, that looks quite conclusive.
    I'll relay it to Sequans for their advice.



  • @jmarcelino

    I confirmed with our internal network support that the LTE M.1 is on Band 3 and EARFCN 1925. Tried shooting the "addscanfreq..." command and it is accepted but no dice. Modem refuses to register and a AT+COPS=? comes up empty.

    AT COMMAND: [AT!="addscanfreq band=3 dl-earfcn=1925"..]AT RESPONSE: [....OK..]
    AT COMMAND: [AT+CPIN?..]AT RESPONSE: [..+CPIN: READY....OK..]
    AT COMMAND: [AT+CFUN=1.]AT RESPONSE: [..OK..]
    AT COMMAND: [AT+COPS=?..]AT RESPONSE: [..+COPS: ,,(0,1,2,3,4),(0,1,2)....OK..]
    AT COMMAND: [AT+CEREG?..]AT BAD RESPONSE: [..+CEREG: 2,4....OK..]
    C, restarting...
    AT COMMAND: [AT+CEREG?..]AT BAD RESPONSE: [..+CEREG: 2,4....OK..]
    C, restarting...
    AT COMMAND: [AT+CEREG?..]AT BAD RESPONSE: [..+CEREG: 2,4....OK..]
    C, restarting...
    AT COMMAND: [AT+CEREG?..]AT BAD RESPONSE: [..+CEREG: 2,4....OK..]
    C, restarting...
    AT COMMAND: [AT+CEREG?..]AT BAD RESPONSE: [..+CEREG: 2,4....OK..]
    ...
    

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