Getting started with PyGos and Pylife

[Gritty moonshaw]

I've managed to update the firmware on my unit after around 10 attempts, but even after that I am left with nothing more than a small useless piece of plastic that I can't even use as a paperweight.

The app is worse than I imagined, none of the 'alerts' actually work, the battery status never updates, and the Pygo randomly flashes its battery status but other than that nothing. Honestly I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with the damn thing. We all know this project was delayed with supply chain delays being a major factor, but surely a product that has been in development for 4 years should be better than this.

Don't get me wrong, kudos to Pycom on delivering an ( on paper, feature-rich) product in such a small package, but a great idea and impressive HW design is only as good as the software under the hood, which in this case is abysmal to say the least.

Pycom is not a new company, after 4 KS campaigns over 6 years you think they would have got it by now. Yet again over-promising and ultimately under-delivering.

[Keptenkurk]

Some good news! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pycom/pylife-and-pygo-the-most-connected-device-in-the-w/posts/3544098?ref=ksr_email_backer_project_update_registered_users

[henri lepervier]

@Keptenkurk @Pete-Allen-0 @arikb
Hello,
A lot of hope here... let see
Do you know if we will have to pay again a custom fee for the craddle piece ?
I hope they will fix the TI PMU stuff quickly -- my units is simply not usable as of today

Regards
H.

[hjoe]

@henri-lepervier said in Getting started with PyGos and Pylife:

@Keptenkurk @Pete-Allen-0 @arikb
Hello,
A lot of hope here... let see
Do you know if we will have to pay again a custom fee for the craddle piece ?

I hope not.
In my case, the PyGo delivery was more than 150 € that's why I had to pay customs and another German tax.
Let us hope they will send it from the Netherlands.

I hope they will fix the TI PMU stuff quickly -- my units is simply not usable as of today
the same here.

Regards
H.

Heinz

[Brian Wyld]

@hjoe If there is any cost at all and it is shipped from the UK, VAT will be payable. And as soon as DHL have to do the paperwork for that, they charge 17,50€.

So lets hope its shipped from NL for EU customers...

[robert-hh]

@Brian-Wyld Blame it to Boris Johnson (or to the massive delay of the product).

[Gustav Hilding]

I am an early backer who got a pygo1 and a pygo2. I also had to pay import taxes. Furthermore I only got one strap instead of two. Both my devices overheat when charging wireless, hence they charge about 3% then shut down. Pygo1 upgraded fine in the app. Pygo2 had some error and did not show details in the app. Hence I connected my pygo2 via uart to my computer and started troubleshooting in vscode. I connected the pins according to the data sheet found on https://docs.pycom.io/pylife/devices/ and got a terminal with the device. From there I managed to update to 1.20.4.r4. However there are still plenty of problems

1. my pygo2 does not communicate via ble, terminal shows error when app is communicating. This must be a bug:
   File "_ble_rpc.py", line 236, in feed
2. the devices do not charge at all over Qi, please fix this if it is a SW bug. Otherwise recall and reimburse.
3. is there a SIM card or an e-sim in the pygo2, and where can I find instructions?
4. pycom please improve your QA processes, clearly you did not finalise acceptance testing before shipping
5. pycom please make sure you ship the correct accessories, even if you ship a cradle I am still missing a strap, please improve your QA
6. the app feels pretty useless other than checking battery status and setting some mesh config, is there a purpose besides providing a POC of (useless) messaging?

All in all I am very disappointed!

[DEFRAINE.JM]

@Brian-Wyld For me in Belgium the overcost is 46,17 € ( Thank you M. Johnson !!!!!! )

[hjoe]

Pycom wrote: „We have therefore decided to ship free of charge a cradle to each of you. This will be done this week onwards.“
Did it already start? When can we expect these gradles?
Heinz

[Matthijs Mullender]

Both my PyGo1 will not charge on the wireless charging dock. They just gets hot, burning hot.

Any suggestions?

[Keptenkurk]

@Matthijs-Mullender said in Getting started with PyGos and Pylife:

Any suggestions?

This appears to be the experience most of us have. The suggestion is: wait for updates from Pycom.

[Peter Bankuti]

@Keptenkurk Well... i am waiting patiently. Today i checked my Android phone if there is a new release of the pylife app. Yes, there is a new update on that, but after downloading it i do not notice ANY difference. I still get stuck while scanning for my pygo2 with exactly the same message "NOT_VALID_DEVICE". Have no clue why that happens but that issue does not seem to be addressed in the new app release. Maybe it is a firmware related bug (??). Will need to wait until i get the cradle and i REALLY hope the FW update will finally solve the issues.

[bomtarnes]

Latest iOS app installed. Now get as far as "cannot connect to..." (wifi AP name). Still a brick.

[hjoe]

@Pete-Allen-0
Can you please add a Pylife version number to the App? And, while the firmware is (tried to) uploading a progressbar is helpful.

Heinz
PS
Pylife Android App is still not available, even the link at https://docs.pycom.io/pylife/gettingstarted/ does not lead to an current updated version.

[Alaric TABARIES]

This post is deleted!

[Alaric TABARIES]

Android / Pylife v1.0.10

• can not update the firmware "error device is not connected" while displaying "connection status : connected"
• battery level not updating

Add that to a delay of more than 1 year on delivery, lack of communication, the addition of taxes on shipping (VAT+DHL gift of 17.5€). I wish you good luck in building a relationship of trust with your customers.

[Alan Zhang]

@Peter-Bankuti Getting the same NOT_VALID_DEVICE on my phone as well. Updated firmware via cradle to Pycom MicroPython 1.20.4.r4 [v1.11-258cda230-dirty] on 2022-06-13 and am still getting the same error, so I'm not sure what's going on here.

[Peter Bankuti]

@Alan-Zhang Thanks for the info. I am wondering how this project must have been executed, i mean they are keep failing the communication from the very beginning, tell us there is chip shortage, factory issues, etc. At the delayed product launch it turns out the FW is full of bugs, most pygo1 do not even respond and the app/FW updates do not solve anything. I can not see this trend to change no matter what happens, this is no bueno...

[blackansible]

@Matthijs-Mullender My Pygo2 does not charge too.

[robert-hh]

So it seems that the PyGo device I ordered are on their way now. But is seems to me quite thoughtless that the devices are shipped to the EU from the UK instead of the Netherlands. Pycom should be sufficiently professional to consider tax issues of their customers. Companies like Mouser of Digikey can handle Worldwide shipping without addition tax and customs trouble for their customers. So it is possible. With the actual approach of Pycom, selling to the EU is aggravated.