Getting started with PyGos and Pylife
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Check your mailbox... An apologetic mail from Pycom received as a Kickstarter update.
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@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.
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@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.
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@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.
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@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).
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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.
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@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.
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@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.
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@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.
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@robert-hh for your sake I hope they stopped shipments in order to deal with these problems.
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@henri-lepervier The location - Atlantic ocean just west of Gabon and south of Ghana - happens to be GPS coordinates 0 longitude and 0 latitude. That's why it seem to pop up in many applications when GPS coordinates are not available and they default to 0, 0.
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@arikb maybe the number of complaints is low because only few people received their devices until now. I'm. still waiting.
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@Peter-Bankuti I noticed that sometimes I get the blue-teal immediately when I start charging, when the device doesn't sit on the pad in the correct place, there doesn't seem to be a lot of leeway in where to place it and a few mm here and there can make a big change.
I did upgrade to the latest firmware on the 3 devices that I didn't brick (I have a 4th one that doesn't charge or otherwise respond at all, possibly literally fried). I still have a problem with BLE - I have 2 devices charging but only one gets the BLE connection. When not charging they seem to be connected for a very short while until they're entirely unresponsive.
NONE of the features in the app work at ALL. This is categoric. No functionality. I tried playing around with the "alert templates" and thereafter "alerts" but I cannot get a single one to trigger. Not even to upload
I just don't know how to characterise this. I'm usually good at this black box analysis stuff. This is really frustrating and disappointing. In a private chat to @Pete-Allen-0 I wrote:
"I had the feeling that the target of this kickstarter project is (also) relatively technical people who want this device to play with and mess around with and reprogram.
"If it's targeted at technical people, then give all the information. Log files, technical information inside the app, ability to control the device mode and put it into firmware update mode explicitly - and not as a side effect of the firmware update mode failing and forgetting to reboot the device.
"If it's made to be an end consumer device, all I have to say is that it barely feels like an alpha version."
This pretty much summarises my feelings about this project. I have nothing against Pycom - in fact I've participated in the original WiPi kickstarter and have only good things to say about that product. And although waiting from 2018 until now is a bit long, I've seen worse in Kickstarter and there was a pandemic in the way. The hardware itself is a bit of a miracle - so much hardware in such a small package. I honestly think the idea and the execution of the hardware (assuming none of these problems are hardware related) is fantastic. I think Pycom really aimed very high and actually hit the mark. However, the overall quality - just feels off, and the lack of control I have over this buttonless portless little brick (I know it has a serial port, but I haven't manufactured a cradle for it and it can't be bought) is frustrating. The firmware leaves much to be desired and the phone app feels like an afterthought with some obvious grammar errors.
Additionally, if I had the responsibility of dealing with what is very obviously a problematic product, I would make sure to dump as much information as possible on how to work around, mitigate, solve and debug these issues. It's been a bit silent around here, as far as people from Pycom responding.
Could it be that only us handful people on this forum have problems with our PyGos? I'm kickstarted backer number 131, so there must be quite a few people out there. Based on the serial numbers I assume more than 1000 units have been manufactured. Do they mostly work and I / we just got stuck with the malfunctioning ones? Are there happy PyGo customers that love their new hackable tracker / communicator?
I don't know how much more of my time I will keep dumping into this project before I set it aside in the "failed kickstarters" bucket, to be recycled in a few years when I move again. My monetary investment into it was €239. I've made worse financial mistakes in my life.
Feeling a bit frustrated now.
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@arikb Have been closely watching my PyGo on the pad for over 4 hours now to take notes about its behaviours. During this time i have observed 2 more LED states in addition to those you mention:
Blinking blue, drawing 530mA - not sure what it means as the PyGo shows a static battery indicator with only 1 square filled, however 530mA sounds too much for not being charged. (How ever the pad is solid blue, when PyGo shows charging animation)
Interchanging blue-teal, drawing 8-540mA - not sure what it means. PyGo display is off in this state (i observe this phase after blinking in teal only).
Based on my notices i get the impression as if the pygo would check its state every 60 seconds and decide what to do based on that. It seems to me when the display shows a static battery indicator (number of filled squares is not always consistent), it probably does not charge. When it shows an animated battery indicator, then i assume the pygo charging itself (most of the time 0-3 squares are animated, for some minutes however it was animating only 0-2, not sure why). When thy pygo overheats and is left on the pad, the pad draws ca 8-115mA while the pad blinks teal. Some time later the pad changes between teal and blue, drawing 8-540mA. However if i remove the pygo from the pad when overheated and place it back on the pad when both have cooled down, the pad turns blue and draws 980mA...which is for sure too much for a battery rated to ca 450mAh. Then after the pygo overheats it can be still scanned over BLE even minutes after having removed from the pad...while other times BLE seems to be turned off as soon as the device overheats. And othertimes the device can not be scanned over BLE despite it has been cooled down, being charged on the pad and also the display is on since minutes. So i simply can not find any consistency how the pygo behaves on the firmware it was released with (yeah, i still did not manage to start its wifi AP to do the ugdate).
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@arikb @Pete-Allen-0 @Edouard-Abramovich @bomtarnes @Stephen-Glavin
Status of tonight : I went outside to buy a new QI wireless charger (yeaaa) : larger one - a square like 7 x 7 cm. Still plugged on my PC USB port. I reached 6% !
Also, BT is on. Pygo is recognized by the Android OS application. But no clue why the WiFi Local network is gone : I suspect this is available only when a Firmware update is possible.
Still the GPS location is completely wrong (I am NOT living in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean)
Still very hot in any case.
No time to verify, but I have the suspicion that the device is charging only after an interaction (like trying to Fupgrade, or asking for a status)...
Anyway, this is quite far from a robust status ... and I still do not understand why there is no SIM slot somewhere as per the documentation
That all for tonight
Kind regards
H.
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@Andrew-Mills They must have went back to an embedded SIM solution. I have manged to upgrade one of my pygo2's and app does now show an IMEI ID #.
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I have the same problems as @Stephen-Glavin @henri-lepervier @Edouard-Abramovich.
My PyGo still heats up a lot, and stops charging after a while. I'm trying to figure out the status LED on the wireless charger.
So far I've seen several behaviours, and I'm trying to fill in the blanks.
Green-blue-green - booting
Solid blue - charging
Blinking ~0.5Hz teal - overheating?
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