Get GPS Coordinates and send them through Sigfox

[#1]

• About the demo components
• Video
• Limitations:
• Useful Links
• Required Items:
• Hardware Diagram:
• Step-by-Step Guide
• Results:

About the demo components

For this demo, we are using the Sigfox kit, which includes the FRDM-KL43Z and the OM2385 board.

Sigfox is an inexpensive, reliable, low-power solution to connect sensors and devices. 

With our dedicated radio-based network, we are committed to giving a voice to the physical world and making the Internet of Things truly happen. 

The Sigfox protocol focuses on: 

• Autonomy. Extremely low energy consumption allows years of battery life.
• Simplicity. No configuration, connection request or signaling. Your device is up and running within minutes!
• Cost efficiency. From the hardware used in the devices on our network, we optimized every step to be as cost-effective as possible.
• Small messages. there are no large assets or media allowed on the network.  Only small notifications up to 12 bytes are allowed.
• Complementarity. Thanks to its low cost and ease of configuration, you can also use Sigfox as a secondary solution to any other type of network, e.g.: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS, etc.

You can read more about Sigfox in What is Sigfox? | Sigfox build.

The OM2385/SF001 is a development platform dedicated to SIGFOX Wide Area Networking applications. It includes an OL2385 wireless sub-GHz transceiver running the preprogrammed SIGFOX library and is mounted on an FRDM-KL43Z development platform that serves as a host processor for the user's application.

The FRDM-KL43Z is an ultra-low-cost development platform for Kinetis L families KL43, KL33, KL27, KL17, and KL13 MCUs built on Arm Cortex-M0+ processor running at 48 MHz.

Video

Limitations:

Sigfox is only able to send a small amount of data every day for free, so if your application requires more data to be sent, you need to get a connectivity plan from Sigfox Buy .

 

Useful Links

FRDM-KL43Z and NXP Sigfox OL2385 Board : OM2385/SF001 - SIGFOX Development Kit | NXP 

Sigfox Backend Account: Sigfox Buy 

Download MCUXpresso: MCUXpresso IDE|Eclipse-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE) | NXP 

Download SDK: https://mcuxpresso.nxp.com/en/builder 

NXP Product	Link
FRDM-KL43Z and NXP Sigfox OL2385 Board	OM2385/SF001 - SIGFOX Development Kit | NXP
Sigfox Backend Account	Sigfox Buy
Download MCUXpresso	MCUXpresso IDE|Eclipse-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE) | NXP
Download SDK	https://mcuxpresso.nxp.com/en/builder

 

Required Items:

OL2385 Arduino Shield Board FRDM-KL43Z hardware USB A-to-MiniB cable Sub-GHz Antenna GPS UART module

Hardware Diagram:

SPI OL2585	KL43Z FRDM	UART GPS
MOSI ---------- MISO ---------- SCK ----------- ACK ----------- CS -------------	PTD07 PTD06 PTD05 PTD02 PTD04 PTE23 PTE22	----------- TX ----------- RX

This picture shows the board connections made for the project

Step-by-Step Guide

1. After we get the Required items, we need to activate the Sigfox account and register our board: Sigfox Buy 
   1. If you are having trouble registering your Sigfox device, don't hesitate to write your question in our NXP community.
2. We register the board in our backend account, and we should see the device on our device list.
3. When we have our board registered, we will start building the application on MCUXpresso.
4. Download the project attached at the end of this document and import it into MCUXpresso IDE. 
   1. In the video, how to import the sigfox_console example from the SDK is shown, and a brief explanation of the modifications is given.
   2. If you want to download the SDK example to start your project from scratch, you need to add the Sigfox software component to the SDK.
5. After importing the project to our workspace, the only thing left is to make the respective hardware connections and flash the device.
6. Then try your new project in a building-clear area.
7. To be sure your new project will function properly, you should avoid tall buildings to get a stronger signal.
8. The data sent should be seen in your Sigfox backend session.
9. Teraterm console prints the data obtained from the GPS module for your viewing purposes.

Results:

This is the data sent from the Sigfox transceiver to the user backend account. The sent frames are floating-point coordinates converted to four byte-hexadecimal strings.

After the attached project is flashed to the KL43Z, this should be the results seen in the Teraterm console.