Hey guys,
So I have been patiently waiting for a good 3 or 4 months now to order cellular radio modules from GHI for my product and the “Out of Stock Until” date keeps being pushed back.
This worries me as it seems as if the module is about to be discontinued.
Are there any alternative options for cellular radio with FEZ Spider I? Could I perhaps attach a non-GHI cellular radio module via a breakout board?
Thanks for any help
I have had a lot of success with the Fona breakout from Adafruit. It is based on the SIM800L. But fair warning - you should not count on integrating with GHI PPP or other features that rely on the GHI cellular driver. You might be able to make it work, but I haven’t tried and I can think of a bunch of ways for it not to work since the GHI board is based on a different core. If you choose to use the Adafruit module, you are probably on your own for driver support.
I have some .Net drivers for the Fona on nuget and posted in the codeshare section of the forum, but they are for calls and SMS messaging and simple http requests. No https and no PPP. If that’s ok for you, search nuget for Fona. The source is on github.
@ mcalsyn - Thank you so much! That should actually work perfectly. I currently am using the Adafruit Ultimate GPS module and had to write my own driver for that, so should I need to do a similar thing it should not be an issue. However I certainly do not enjoy reinventing the wheel, so I will gladly check out your NuGet package.
@ rnafisi - we will finally have them back in stock next month. We apologize for the delay.
@ mcalsyn - Just out of curiosity, what exactly do you mean by the GHI cellular radio module’s core is different? I am not too familiar with the details of the hardware.
@ Gus - Great, thanks. Do you guys do discounts for bulk orders?
@ rnafisi - yes. Please contact us directly with your needs.
The Adafruit module uses the SIM800L core. The GHI/Seeed module uses the SIM900 module. The SIM800 has a few more bells and whistles. You can read about the differences here : http://www.raviyp.com/embedded/188-difference-between-sim800-and-sim900-gsm-modules
What I would really like to see is a SIM800H module so that we can get HTTPS support.
It is fair to note that a lot of the SIM800L bells and whistles are either not especially interesting (FM radio) or not exposed on the Adafruit board (Bluetooth).
And another caveat - The Fona requires the use of a LiPo battery attached to the JST connector, likely due to the high current draw. It won’t work without it - that’s my experience and I think that’s in the documentation too. There is a USB connector for recharging the battery. Great for fiddling around and experimenting - not so great for real-world designs. Just my two cents.
@ mcalsyn - wouldn’t https be possible through our support for ppp, since you will be using the netmf networking stacks?
Possibly so, I just didn’t want to suggest that it did without trying it. There’s a LOT of overlap in the command sets, but it only takes one little difference to break the driver interop. If you can bring up PPP with the Fona, then yes, with the GHI network stack, you’d be good to go with SSL.
I have a Fona here, but my backlog is getting a bit long. I can’t promise anything, but if I get a free moment, I will try it out on my Spider kit.