MicroPython Forum (Archive)

The new module from pycom has been announced yesterday via the mailing list. Five network module - FiPy or xPy. Although the official page hasn't been updated yet: https://www.pycom.io/product/xpy/, here's a snippet from the email.

In addition to WiFi, BLE, LoRa and Sigfox, we've added the latest cellular technology for IoT: LTE-M. But, we didn't just go for one frequency type either. Nope, we partnered with the leaders in their field, Sequans, and are now proud to confirm that our module will have both CAT NB1 and CAT M1.

This is rather interesting from micropython side as I am curious to how exactly the LTE stack is controlled by the user and how micropython meets the requirements of timely LTE frames transfer. The 4G chip itself is provided by a French company Sequans Communications. I work in the cellular industry, LTE PHY in particular, and as far as I know, the only company that provides affordable-ish LTE (Cat 1) stand-alone modules is a u-blox. This could potentially be a great board and first of it's kind, depending on how many frequency bands are supported.

Pycom is preparing another Kickstarter for this and the Early Bird price is going to be €33, which is very reasonable, provided we get the Sequans chip spec. What are your thoughts? Would you buy one?

Whilst this is a great product announcement, lets hope they are not overlifting themselves (especially with fw dev) and provide adequate support for their just released lopy/sipy/wipy2 boards...

These were also my thoughts. I don't know how many people they have working on dev/support. Releasing 4/5 boards in a short period of time might leave the codebase less mature and create a support nightmare for the devs.

FiPy Kickstater has started today.

About the risks of FiPy :
- expected to ship April 2017, 5 months from now;
- reuse almost all the hardware of WiPy 2, LoPy and SiPy, i.e., ESP32, WiFi, Bluetooth LE, LoRa, SigFox modules;
- common MicroPython between WiPy 2, LoPy, SiPy and FiPy.

Risks for existing boards, i.e., Wipy 2 and LoPy ? They are expected to have firmware 1.0 in mid December 2016. The stable firmware is late due to Expressif SDK issues and delays.

From an user point of view, I like to see diversity of MicroPython boards, potentially increasing the MicroPython user community.

I kinds wish there was a separate module with just LTE, instead everything bundled together.