The snow is melting, the flowers are coming out, the CFD is getting excited and the footfall of Weather-Paragliding is starting to break records again... That's it, it's officially spring!

It's going to be time to take out the beacons. And that's good, because we've made a lot of progress.

Sigfox / Internet link

I just finalized the contract this week.

Just wait for the invoice, make the transfer to them and there will be no more obstacles for this part.

We will be at 14€ HT per year for the cost of the subscription.

Test, measure, retest…

Develop a beacon like this: a whole program.

It's much more complicated than making software. If there is a bug in a software, no worries just update it.

For hardware, solving a bug = making another electronic card. It is therefore necessary to be certain that everything works, and to anticipate possible problems.

 

Spy on the original map

Borrow mom's hair dryer

Make 130km/h of wind

Playing with the dentist's x-rays!

And do micro-surgery

Let's save energy

The solar panel that powers this beacon is really tiny.

It is therefore necessary to optimize power consumption as much as possible, so that the beacon continues to operate even in the event of bad weather for several days.

The smallest micro-ampere counts!

And no luck, the super power management chip I wanted to use is still not available. (in the December doc, it was announced for Q1 2014).

@nb4ld @ST_World Schedule says end of Q2: June. Hope you can wait!

— ST Corporate Comm (@ST_News) February 18, 2014

And since we won't wait until June, I have to "tinker" with an alternative solution. I hope that won't cause any problems.

Where are we? What remains to be done?

This is the provisional schedule that I have in mind. It will not necessarily stick to reality, but it gives an order of magnitude. There are always last minute unforeseen events that waste a lot of time...

– Monday: Appointment to do the antenna impedance matching circuit

– Tuesday: Finalize and check the design of the electronic card

– Wednesday: Order the cards

It will then take a little over a week to receive the PCBs. During this time I will be able to finalize the software.

Another week to do the assembly, then head to the Post Office for this first series.

This is where we will start to discover the real bugs 🙂

Great, how do I order one?

I get lots of emails asking me:

– how do we order?

– does it pick up on me?

– when will we be able to buy some?

The answer is that you have to wait.

This first series is the “proto DIY” stage.

We must already test these.

For the rest, we enter another dimension. With immediately a lot of much more complicated things to manage. CE standards, patents, Sigfox certification, legal warranty, etc.

It's a real industrial project!

Fortunately, I was able to surround myself with competent people, but there is work and it will be expensive.

It will therefore be necessary to make a large series to pay off the costs. Probably 1000!

For the moment I already finished the first 20.

Then I launch the business plan / investors / crowdfunding / hire people, etc. phase.

This article tells you about the birth of Piou Piou, the first 100% autonomous and affordable sensor to measure the wind live, even where there is no electricity or internet.

Discover Pioupiou on his website: http://pioupiou.fr