Getting started with PyGos and Pylife

[arikb]

@robert-hh for your sake I hope they stopped shipments in order to deal with these problems.

[Keptenkurk]

@arikb I share your frustration and cannot agree more on your writing. The investment of 2018 was written off but customs required me to spend another € 40 to get hold of these PyGo's. I'm done with it. My usecase has been fulfilled with a Tractive GPS tracker 3 years ago.

[arikb]

@Keptenkurk I also find it weird, I live in the Netherlands and can be in their Eindhoven office within a couple of hours by public transport, but I got them shipped by DHL from the UK.

On the other hand, logistics are not as simple as they seem, considering they made them in the far east they had to import them into the EU anyway so they want you to pay for that import. However, importing them en masse to the EU would have probably been cheaper, since you pay customs for the transportation costs as well.

I was more into the ability to run my own code on these things. I don't see that option at all now... yet.

[Keptenkurk]

@arikb For me getting to their Eindhoven office is no more than a 22 min drive :-) I registered an issue with Pycom Support (PYCSD-5760 Failing PyGo's). Maybe we all should do to get it onto their radar.

[henri lepervier]

@Keptenkurk @arikb

We are all very disappointed by this product (that is clearly more a prototype at this stage : the App is not good and buggy, the Product itself is not matching basic expectations). Still the concept is attractive (to me) : Mesh + SMS per group + multiple technologies.

For the time being, I will let it in a corner -- hoping for a real firmware update that may fix all those issues. I think this is not supporting LTE CatM (there is no embedded SIM card, and no SIM slot to insert it).

I am also very curious about the feedbacks from others customers... I predict they will report the same frustration (or we had faulty units ?)

I will enter a case in the Pycom support ticketing machine, but I stop there with this unit. (too much time spent on it)

@arikb : thanks for the GPS (0,0) info -- so I can add that GPS is not working on my unit (I tried outside)

Kind regards from Paris (30€ for the Customs as well...)
H.

[arikb]

@henri-lepervier regarding the GPS - it doesn't mean it's not working, it usually means you didn't get a position fix. It could be a software thing. I can't get a position fix with mine either, despite putting it right next to a window (my phone gets it easily even with cellular turned off).

[henri lepervier]

@arikb said in Getting started with PyGos and Pylife:

get a position fix with mine either, despite putting it right next to a window (my phone gets it easily even with cellular turned off).

Thanks Arikb
About the SIM card, this is mysterious to me :
I can read in the documentation : PyGo2 includes WiFi, Bluetooth, LoRa, Sigfox and dual LTE-M (embedded SIM for CAT M1 and NB IoT) the PyGo2 gives access to all the world’s LPWAN networks on one tiny board.

and the picture is showing a Sim card slot (that I do not have on my unit) -- see red square below

Regards
H.

[henri lepervier]

@henri-lepervier

[Peter Bankuti]

@arikb I am backer #406. I guess we should speak at least about 1000 devices as most backers opted for more than 2 devices. I was somewhat lucky i did not need pay any duty as my order was below 150 euros, for me only 27% VAT has been charged extra, but i knew it would happen. For sure there are always some devices that are not fulfilling the specs or maybe even defective. But my impression is too many of us complain on totally unresponsive PyGo1 devices. Hope we will get some information later on how to revive such devices.

I bought my devices to check me out what LoRa is capable of as a POC for one of my envisioned applications. Of course i would not mind if i could play around with them even after approving/disapproving my expectations about LoRa. Hopefully we will still get there in some days.

[arikb]

@henri-lepervier I read somewhere that they have a Vodafone e-SIM set up. I am not familiar with e-SIM but I assume it's a programmable SIM card that sits inside the modem.

[arikb]

Check your mailbox... An apologetic mail from Pycom received as a Kickstarter update.

[Keptenkurk]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pycom/pylife-and-pygo-the-most-connected-device-in-the-w/posts/3542695
Curious if an app update will help my fried unresponsive devices though...

[henri lepervier]

@arikb
yes , just received as well. "There will be a further update later today.". Crossing fingers -- but the first message will be probably about the Firmware Upgrade via PC. I hope there will be more soon.

[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!