Sigfox is a global low power wireless network offering service in over 65 countries including the US, and Canada.  Now is the time to start learning what the Sigfox "0G Network" can offer for IOT use cases that require low cost and 2-10 years of battery life.   Initial Feather Wing boards will support the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil regions. This Feather Wing includes a complementary 1 year subscription  to the Sigfox "0G Network" and FREE activation.  The FCC certified radio module is programmed via AT Command interface -- 1 line of code is all you need to send a Sigfox message.  On-board sensors from ST Microelectronics and Avago Technologies are connected to the host Feather via I2C and come with example code and descriptions on how to forward sensor data via Sigfox Cloud APIs and Callbacks Popular asset tracking use-cases are well adapted to the ESP32 HUZZAH Feather with BLE and WIFI radios.  BLE Beacon sniffing  combines with outdoor WIFI-based geolocation (and GPS) match perfectly with the Sigfox payload arrangement.  

Coverage concerns?   Sigfox has dense coverage in many of the major cities in North America.  To augment local coverage, Digi-Key now offers the Sigfox Access Station Micro.     



Technical Details

Embedded design - Feather / Feather Wing communications

The design will require 1 software UART from the Host Feather to communicate with the Sigfox radio module.  A C library supporting the AT commands over s/w UART is available.  Sensors are connected via the I2C bus as slaves.  

Embedded design - Sensors

The HTS221 is a Temp-Humidity sensor.  LIS2DH12 is a 3-axis MEMS accelerometer.  Sensor driver code is available for both STM sensors.  The APDS9960 from Avago Technologies performs RGB color sensing, proximity sensing, or ambient light sensing.  Firmware examples are availble for Arduino.

Embedded design - RF

A 50 OHM matching network is provided to support an external antenna (not included) via an SMA connector.  Suggested list of 900 MHz whip antennas are available.  

Code examples - Geolocation

A simple WIFI sniffing geolocation example based on the ESP8266 Huzzah supports a full end-to-end solution with cloud support from the Sigfox ATLAS WIFI geolocation cloud service.  Alternately, geolocation examples can be developed using the HERE platform and 3rd party cloud.  

Cloud examples -  Sensor-Cloud Dashboard

Sensor data dashboarding examples and payload parsing will be illustrated via ADAFRUIT.IO.

Sigfox connectivity 

Sigfox connectivity will be supported via the "activate" option hosted at BUILD.SIGFOX.COM  One year subscription duration begins after reception of the first transmission at the Sigfox cloud.

Sigfox support - Sigfox learning experience

Sigfox supports the maker community via a dedicated adoption team, SLACK channel and online forum.  To help drive interest, I propose a series of short webinars to jump-start the maker community using this Feather Wing