@bytesnz

Jack Farley, Computer Engineer

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  • 4/19/2022, 12:00:00 AM

    New Zealand Low Power Wide Area Networks

    electronicssoftware

    I have started experimenting with low power wide area networks (LP-WAN) in New Zealand using a u-blox SARA-R410-02B. Here is is what I have experimented with so far.

    I am currently experimenting with integrating a low power wide area networks (LP-WAN) modem with a microcontroller. In New Zealand, we have two operators offering LP-WAN services. Vodafone offers both LTE-M/Cat-M1 and narrowband Internet of thing (NB-IoT) networks. Spark offers only a LTE-M/Cat-M1 network (they also have a LoraWAN network, but coverage is very limited).

    To do the experimentation, we purchased a Mikroe LTE IoT Click, which uses the u-blox SARA-R410-02B-01 NB-IoT/LTE-M module. The module uses an AT command set for control over a USB or a (voltage-level selectable) UART serial port.

    Accessing LP-WAN Networks

    To access the LP-WAN networks, you have to get a SIM card that has been set up for them.

    Spark makes this amazingly easy - you simply request a IoT starter kit referral code, sign up with the referral code and they will send you five IoT SIM cards ready to be activated (see below).

    Vodafone on the otherhand makes it amazingly impossible. No one on their non-business teams and few on their business teams even know what NB-IoT is and the fact that Vodafone offers it. They have an email address, which you are supposed to email and someone will contact you... four weeks on I have had nothing from them.

    Setting Up The SARA-R4 (and Linux) To Connect

    Once I received the Mikroe module, put the Spark IoT SIM card in and plugged it into my computers USB port with a big smile on my face. I soon found out it wasn't quite as easy as I was hoping.

    First off, with the Spark SIM cards, you have to activate them before they can connect to the network.

    If you are using Linux to control the module, Linux has a ModemManager service which should be disabled to stop it from trying to take control of the device.

    # systemctl stop ModemManager.service

    To connect to the New Zealand networks, you have to change the mobile network operator (MNO) profile to the stnndard Europe profile (as this has the most flexibility) and then change the bandmask to the bands used by the New Zealand networks (LTE bands 28, 3 and 7 for Vodafone, and LTE bands 28, 3, 1 and 7 for Spark).

    # Disable the radio
    AT+CFUN=0
    # Select the Standard Europe MNO profile
    AT+UMNOPROF=100
    # Restart the modem for the MNO profile change to take effect
    AT+CFUN=15
    # Update the NB-IoT bandmask to 1, 3, 7 and 28
    AT+UBANDMASK=0,134217797
    # Update the LTE-M bandmask to 1, 3, 7 and 28
    AT+UBANDMASK=1,134217797

    Once this is done, you should be able to see the Vodafone and Spark networks, and the module should automatically connect to them.

    # Scan for available networks
    AT+COPS=?
    +COPS: (1,"530 01","530 01","53001",7),(2,"530 05","530 05","53005",7),(1,"530 05","530 05","53005",9),(1,"530 01","530 01","53001",9),,(0,1,2,3,4),(0,1,2)
    # Check of the modem has connected
    AT+COPS?
    +COPS: 0,0,"530 05 Spark NZ",7
    # (Shows currently connected to the Spark LTE-M network)

    HTTP Requests

    To send requests to HTTP servers, you have to configure a HTTP server profile first (see the SARA-R4 AT Commands Manual for a full reference for the HTTP AT Commands).

    # Set the server domain name of profile 0
    AT+UHTTP=0,1,"example.com"
    # Use HTTPS (and port 443) for profile 0 (think very hard if you choose not to use this option)
    AT+UHTTP=0,6,1

    Once the profile is set up, you can use it to send a request to the server

    # Send a GET /hello request to the server in profile 0, saving the response to the file "response"
    AT+UHTTPC=2,1,"/hello","response"
    # Read the contents of the file  "response"
    AT+URDFILE="response"

    Even though, the SARA-R4 documentation documents an option to manually set the server name indication (SNI), it does not seem to be supported on the SARA-R410-02B-01 out of the box (even though it should be) as it responds with an operation not supported error. This means if you want to use HTTPS, you will have to find a server that doesn't require SNI (for example Nginx configured for virtual hosts does require SNI, so will produce a secure socket connect error HTTP error code 73 on the module).

    MQTT Messages

    Sending MQTT messages is similar to sending HTTP request with an additional step of connecting to the server after its configured (see the SARA-R4 AT Commands Manual for a full reference for the MQTT AT Commands).

    # Configure the client ID
    AT+UMQTTC=0,"CLIENT123456789"
    # Configure the hostname and the port
    AT+UMQTTC=2,"example.com",1883
    # Configure the keepalive (timeout time) in seconds for the connection (REQUIRED for mosquitto)
    AT+UMQTT=10,36000

    Once configured, you can save the configuratin in non-volatile (NV) memory.

    AT+UMQTTNV=2

    Then connect to the server

    AT+UMQTTC=1
    +UMQTTC: 1,1

    Then publish a message

    # Send "hello" on the "/user/hello" topic
    AT+UMQTTC=2,0,0,"/user/hello","hello"

    The mosquitto server can be used as a test sever. They also have a test instance you can use for testing at test.mosquitto.org.

    Close
  • 2/7/2022, 6:59:00 AM

    Starting with ESP32

    esp32electronicssoftwaretrap-watch

    I started developing my trap-watch project on an ESP32-CAM using the ESP IDF. Here is the newbie difficulties I ran into.

  • 2/4/2022, 3:29:00 AM

    VIM Window Rabbit Hole

    linux

    Developing ESP-IDF components I thought it would be great if I could make a command to open all the files for a component at once. What a rabbit hole it was. Here is how I did it.

  • 1/28/2022, 12:00:00 AM

    Parsing Arguments in Bash

    linux

    Making a script parse arugments in Bash took me way too long last time I did it, so here is a nice full example of how to do it using getopt

  • 1/8/2022, 12:00:00 AM

    Where's my bait gone?

    electronicsconservationtrap-watch

    I have recently started trapping some introduced predators around my local area and have had baits and pre-feed disappear with nothing to show for it, so I decided to get sparky and see if I could catch the culprit in the act.

  • 3/26/2021, 1:00:00 PM

    Bathymetric Contours

    gisgeoserveroceans

    Finally got around to creating a SLD style for GeoServer to display bathymetric contour lines using the GEBCO gridded bathymetric data. Here's how.

  • 2/25/2021, 9:00:00 PM

    shm That Cache

    yarndockerdevelopment

    I am often trying to find more space on my hard drives and found today my own docker containers wasting space thanks to ! Here's how I fixed it.

  • 2/2/2021, 9:10:07 PM

    Blob blob blob blob Stayin' Alive Stayin' Alive

    softwarejavascriptdebuggingmemory

    Upon recently trying Deezer again, I found their web app ate all my memory when running in Firefox, so I decided to see if I could find out why. I got as far as memory-file-data/string and Blobs. Here's how.

  • 12/25/2020, 12:13:48 AM

    A new Litter Survey

    softwarelitterlitter-survey

    In a culmination of litter surveys and litter picks, linked data and data exploration, and remoteStorage and ActivityPub, I have created a web-based litter pick/survey app that I hope will allow federated citizen science.

  • 12/13/2020, 6:00:00 PM

    Hoe Stream Trash

    litterpi-trash-camlitter-pick

    My latest litter pick target was Hoe Stream and the White Rose Lane Local Nature Reserve. Here's how it went.

  • 11/24/2020, 6:00:00 PM

    Release the Beast

    softwaregitlabcirelease

    I just created a Gitlab CI job to create a release with information from a CHANGELOG.md file for some of my projects. Here's how I did it.

  • 9/30/2020, 9:00:00 PM

    Gitlab CI Caching

    gitlabcontinuous integration

    I noticed something strange happening during build process during a multi-tasking bug fix. Turns out I was using Gitlab CI's caching incorrectly. I should have been using artifacts. Here's what I saw.

  • 9/21/2020, 6:00:00 PM

    Birthday Trash

    litterpi-trash-cam

    As a birthday treat, I took the day off work to try out my electronerised litter picker. Here's how it went.

  • 9/13/2020, 12:12:13 AM

    Pi Trash Cam

    raspberry pielectronicslitterpi-trash-cam

    In preparation for a day of litter picking, I finally got round to a project idea - attaching a camera to a litter picker to record it all. Here's what I did.

  • 8/25/2020, 9:29:58 PM

    yarn add --dev webdriverio

    first-draftsoftwaretestinggitlab

    I finally started implementing UI testing on first-draft using WebdriverIO. While writing tests was easy, getting the tests running was a little more difficult. Here is how I did it.

  • 8/16/2020, 7:04:44 PM

    Hooray! My new blog is live! Based on Sapper, using MongoDB and eventually ActivityPub and ActivityStreams, it will be my federated posting hub to the world.

    softwareblog
  • 8/9/2020, 5:40:49 PM

    Removing EXIF Data from Photos

    exifphotos

    Creating this new blog, I wanted to make sure there was no metadata data leaking personal information. Here's how I removed all the metadata tags except the ones I wanted from my photos.

  • 8/9/2020, 10:21:41 AM

    tmux List and Reattach

    tmuxbashsoftware

    Using tmux for your terminal multiplexer but want an easy to reattach to a session? Here's a small bash script to do it.

  • 8/8/2020, 2:58:48 PM

    Selectable Shell Examples

    markdownsyntaxcss

    Here's how to help your readers save time by making your post's shell commands easy to select and copy - with a simple CSS property.

  • 8/5/2020, 6:48:38 PM

    Be Dates You

    mongodbdocker

    Making my new blog, I didn't initially set the published dates to be native dates in the database. Here what I did to change them ...and do all the upgrades I needed.

  • 7/8/2020, 4:00:00 PM

    Testing vue components

    softwarevuetestingjavascript

    I recently needed to test that some Vue components were creating the correct HTML. To do this, I decided to create snapshots of Object representations of the rendered HTML.

  • 2/20/2019, 12:00:00 AM

    No More Numbers

    javascripthtml5software

    HTML5 number inputs aren't useful, but tel inputs, have all the power

  • 12/21/2018, 12:00:00 AM

    A Hacker "Hacked" Me

    securityemailgrep

    I decided to look into the extortion emails I have been getting and wrote a small script to extract the bitcoin addresses that have been used.

  • 12/7/2018, 12:00:00 AM

    Mouse Surgery

    pledge to not upgradeelectronics

    As part of my pledge not to upgrade, I decided to repair two of my failing mice instead of replacing them with a brand new model (as tempting as it was). Here's what I did.

  • 10/29/2018, 7:00:00 PM

    Danger Danger, Highly Reactive

    vuereactivegraphingdata
  • 9/11/2018, 7:00:00 AM

    Switching to SSR

    reactssrreact-loader
  • 8/10/2018, 4:00:00 PM

    Clean Docker Registry

    nodedockerconsolejavascript
  • 2/1/2018, 12:00:00 AM

    Testing on the Filesystem

    testingjavascript
  • 1/26/2018, 12:00:00 AM

    Tag You Are

    javascripttags
  • 1/25/2018, 9:00:00 PM

    NaN Got Me

    rubber duck savejavascriptnodejsjson
  • 4/28/2017, 10:25:34 AM

    All our app's tabs are belong to us

    angularjavascriptlocalstoragerxjssessionstorage
  • 2/20/2016, 2:33:19 AM

    Developing NPM modules

    nodejsnpm
  • 2/20/2016, 1:48:13 AM

    Nfa + Nfb or N(f+fa+fb)

    arrayfunctionjavascriptjsperf
  • 10/31/2015, 3:36:29 PM

    Photo Layout

    arrangercssgallery hierarchyhtmljavascriptphotostinymcewordpresssoftware
  • 10/31/2015, 2:33:49 PM

    Browning Pass HideAway Web Site

    cssgallery hierarchyhtmlwordpress
  • 10/17/2015, 4:04:57 PM

    Think Mobile

    mobileweb
  • 10/13/2015, 9:30:59 AM

    Pledge to Refuse and Not Buy Bottled Water

    environmentpledges
  • 2/25/2015, 7:42:33 AM

    Run PHP run!

    maximum execution timephptrial and error
  • 11/26/2014, 6:35:32 AM

    Gallery Hierarchy

    galleryhierarchyphotos
  • 10/3/2014, 7:22:04 AM

    Vim and functions

    functionnavigationtagsvim
  • 9/26/2014, 3:18:53 AM

    I'm making hierarchies

    hierarchical datahierarchyphp
  • 9/4/2014, 1:45:18 PM

    Google Sheets fun

    googlegoogle scriptgoogle sheetsjavascriptsheets
  • 8/13/2014, 3:14:22 AM

    Travel Photos

    photo managementphotostravel photos
  • 8/13/2014, 3:02:22 AM

    Image managment scripts

    photo managementphotos
  • 7/31/2014, 3:43:45 PM

    MeldCE logo

    csshtml5javascriptsvg
  • 4/26/2014, 6:34:09 AM

    MoltenDB

    databasemoltendbmongodbnodejs
  • 10/29/2013, 12:09:07 AM

    The Expensive Side

    house
  • 9/22/2013, 7:00:08 PM

    abcde

    music
  • 7/16/2013, 8:26:10 PM

    Energizer Power Plus Rechargeable Batteries

    gadgets
  • 3/4/2013, 6:27:40 PM

    USAR FOGTeX

    fogtex
  • 2/21/2013, 9:09:54 PM

    Personal Gear Bag

    rescuegear
  • 2/18/2013, 11:10:34 PM

    Geocaching Stamp

    stampgeocaching
  • 4/2/2007, 3:50:02 PM

    Call Record Presenter

    parserpythonsqliteweb
  • 9/25/2004, 9:48:10 AM

    Kimi Ora School

    csshtml
  • 6/25/2004, 8:53:53 AM

    All About Catering Web Site

    csshtml
  • 7/26/2003, 7:52:11 AM

    Quantum Accounting Web Site

    csshtml
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