Hacker News: nicolsc

New comment by nicolsc in "Arduino board adds Sigfox low power wireless for IoT"

nicolsc — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 08:43:23 +0000

Sigfox, Wifi, or else, my recommendation is the same : when you have nothing to say, do nothing :)

In most "connected" devices, you don't need to keep an established connection which will drain the battery fast.

This is why idle consumption is key, as it will often be the state of the solution 99.x% of the time

Simply turn the communication module on when you need it.

Then the difference between solutions consumption-wise will be on time needed to establish connection if any, time & power to send your data.

New comment by nicolsc in "Arduino board adds Sigfox low power wireless for IoT"

nicolsc — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 08:40:05 +0000

Working on it! It's a pretty big country ...

So far, you have solid coverage in some metro areas only : SF/North Bay, Chicago, NYC, Atlanta, Houston (Miami & others are getting there)

Check out sigfox.com/coverage to get insights on the current production coverage (Sorry for the colours ...)

New comment by nicolsc in "Arduino board adds Sigfox low power wireless for IoT"

nicolsc — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 08:35:19 +0000

I mentioned elsewhere in the thread a beta Sigfox Network Emulator.

Let me know if you could be interested in testing it.

New comment by nicolsc in "Arduino board adds Sigfox low power wireless for IoT"

nicolsc — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 08:34:38 +0000

There is a network emulator (USB key), but we're not 100% happy with it. Which is why it's not advertised for sale yet.

But if someone is interested to give it a try in not-yet-covered areas in the US or elsewhere, let me know : devrelations@sigfox.com ; I could mail one for free in exchange of test feedback

———

Hosting a public base station in exchange of discount/free subscriptions is something that could be considered. Again, feel free to reach out :) One thing to consider : Public base station means that other users will rely on it for their own devices, with a need for reliability (uptime, backhaul connectivity, ..)

New comment by nicolsc in "Arduino board adds Sigfox low power wireless for IoT"

nicolsc — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 08:26:59 +0000

Sigfox relies on

* Ultra Narrow Band (100Hz) modulation

* Low data rate (100 bits/s in Europe, at 14dBm/25mW) + lightweight protocol

* High receiver sensitivity, mostly SDR based

We've got a few youtube videos explaining this ... but mostly targeted for a generic audience. The "radio signal modulation" may have enough tech details to match what you're looking for : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGvM6KEDIdE&index=6&list=PLc...

We're also working on a publication of a standard UNB IoT protocol, Sigfox being one of its implementations. Should come within a few weeks.

There is a draft about the network architecture here : https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-zuniga-lpwan-sigfox-s...

New comment by nicolsc in "Arduino board adds Sigfox low power wireless for IoT"

nicolsc — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 18:28:42 +0000

(Nicolas @Sigfox)

What area are you thinking about ? In western/northern Europe, coverage is already pretty solid nationwide. Agriculture is one of the rising usecase: weather monitoring, soil chemistry, etc... Check sigfox.com/coverage for details about live coverage

As shown on this map, US coverage is mostly in some metro areas right now. But this is just the beginning there.

Arduino MKRFOX1200: MKRZero and Sigfox Connectivity

nicolsc — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 19:45:37 +0000

Article URL: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main.ArduinoBoardMKRFox1200

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14036487

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

C.Fourtet (Sigfox founder): “I came back to some very frugal technologies”

nicolsc — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 17:51:30 +0000

Article URL: http://venturebeat.com/2017/01/06/french-iot-unicorn-sigfox-carries-hopes-of-a-nation-hungry-for-a-global-startup-hero/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13338414

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

FiPy – The world’s first 5-network IoT dev board

nicolsc — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 12:23:22 +0000

Article URL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1795343078/fipy-the-worlds-first-5-network-iot-dev-board?ref=thanks_tweet

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13013553

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by nicolsc in "LoRa Range Testing in San Francisco"

nicolsc — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 09:12:45 +0000

~~Disclaimer : Sigfox employee ~~

Big on words, but not speaking about others ;)

I'd suggest anyone interested in LPWAN (be it Sigfox, LoraWAN or else) to get its own idea by field testing. Talk is cheap. Sigfox coverage is available in 25 countries, including some large US cities (SF, NYC, Chicago, Atlanta, ..) http://www.sigfox.com/coverage

Get in touch if interested by more info about Sigfox, solutions for developers, etc.. http://makers.sigfox.com

AirChat radio code review

nicolsc — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 11:32:14 +0000

Article URL: http://www.daemon.de/blog/2014/04/25/351/code-review-lulzlabs-radio-airchat/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11478616

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by nicolsc in "Show HN: Simple visualisation of Sigfox data with Thingstudio"

nicolsc — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 14:28:23 +0000

Great ! Thanks for sharing @mkarliner :)

New comment by nicolsc in "Sigfox brings its IoT network to … Antarctica"

nicolsc — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 14:53:11 +0000

TL;DR: The Sigfox Foundation goal is to offer coverage to non profit projects in remote areas & developing countries. Using GPS Trackers from Sensolus, the belgian polar mission is now able to track people & assets around their Princess Elisabeth Station. These trackers have a 3 year lifetime using 3 AA batteries.

Sigfox brings its IoT network to … Antarctica

nicolsc — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 14:43:06 +0000

Article URL: http://venturebeat.com/2016/01/19/frances-sigfox-brings-its-iot-network-to-antarctica/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10931018

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

New comment by nicolsc in "The unsexy IoT"

nicolsc — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 09:53:09 +0000

Fully agree: most of the IoT solutions are "unsexy" stuff.

It's often painfully hard to explain that the kickstarter-sexy projects are only the tip of the iceberg.

A BLE "smart" waffle machine would surely be fun, and good material for @internetofshit. But while we're looking at useless/gadgets stuff, there are a LOT of useful (or at least midly interesting) things happening in the IoT.

Unsexy doesn't mean old. And IoT doesn't mean "smart device". A dumb sensor sending raw data can bring in a lot of valuable data.

Metering is still a thing, and i see new projects every week in various fields : agriculture, public equipments, healthcare, safety, ... Lot of independent things that don't need to be used by a user, and that you don't especially know they are "connected"

New comment by nicolsc in "Twitter down on web and mobile"

nicolsc — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 09:27:29 +0000

Tongue-in-cheek statements like this are proof that the guardian is still a british news org

Antarctica Gets a Wireless Network for the Internet of Things

nicolsc — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 09:24:34 +0000

Article URL: http://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2016/01/19/antarctica-gets-a-cellular-network-for-the-internet-of-things

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10929532

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Twitter down on web and mobile

nicolsc — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 09:11:35 +0000

Article URL: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/19/twitter-down-over-web-and-mobile

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10929485

Points: 35

# Comments: 14

Sigfox Coverage Map (LPWAN Dedicated to the IoT)

nicolsc — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 13:50:04 +0000

Article URL: http://sigfox.com/en/#!/connected-world/sigfox-network-operator

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10864765

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

New comment by nicolsc in "How New Long-Range Radios Will Change the Internet of Things"

nicolsc — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 09:17:19 +0000

In the SF event we'll hand out TI dev kits, Launchpad + CC1120 boosterpack (~ http://www.ti.com/tool/boostxl-cc1120-90)

The Akeru board is still quite expensive (€100), as it's a full Arduino/Genuino board + sigfox module + subscription. And the guy is producing them himself, with small batches. This one is not FCC-ready yet anyway.

Keep in touch for future US-based events !