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Need Advice About A Roadtest: Amber Pi Design Kit

rscasny

Greetings. I wanted to get the advice of any top member regarding a roadtest I am getting ready to launch.

 

Let me start by saying, most roadtests begin with a meeting with the sponsor who indicates an interest in sponsoring a roadtest. My boss gives a high level view of the roadtest program, and then I fill in the details, schedules, gathering information, etc. One of the things we always point out is that the products we roadtest have to be global (they can be used in N/SA, Europe, Asia, etc.)image

 

I met with WURTH ELEKTRONIK about its Amber Pi Design Kit. AMBER PI is an expansion board for the Raspberry Pi 3B that gives the Pi a sub-1GHz RF interface. The included sensors (temperature, humidity, pressure, motion) and RF dongle which runs as remote station for the AMBER PI.

 

It seemed like a good product to roadtest. It has an IoT angle, and it seemed like a product that would appeal to both makers and professionals alike. As usual, the sponsor sends me the kits so we can ship them out to the roadtesters. Well,when I opened the box, I soon learned all the kits were for use at 868MHZ (Europe) only. I didn't see that as a problem because often times there are separate part numbers for a 915MHZ product and an 868MHZ product. This time, however, there was not one for 915MHZ. I contacted the tech support line which said : "yes, unfortunately the Amber Pi is only available with the 868MHz RF module." This poses a problem since I need to open the roadtest to North America, at the very least.

 

After some quick research, I see that while the company does not make an Amber Pi with a 915MHZ radio module installed, it does sell aimage

915 MHZ radio module separately. So the radio module would need to be swapped out.

 

Question In Need of Advice

I could very well purchase some 915MHZ radio modules and provide them to the North America roadtesters. So, they would have to swap out the radio modules. I guess if this was a quick pull out/plug in task, I wouldn't be writing this discussion. But it appears that the module is soldered in. I took a close up picture of it (pictured below) for you to see. If I'm wrong, say the word. End of story.

 

But if it requires to be desoldered/soldered, then I am somewhat concerned for a couple of reasons:image

 

-- it changes the nature of the roadtest to include the modification task instead of just focusing on the rapid prototyping capability

--What if there is damage to the radio module during the swap out.

--The swap increases the complexity of the roadtest to the point where it is possible that a roadtester may not complete the roadtest/review

 

Now, I guess I could request from the company to custom build 915MHZ versions. Moreover, since they sell it with a separate 915MHZ radio module, perhaps the swapout should be roadtested to see if it is as easy to do as is implied by the supplier tech support line.

 

So, I am looking for some advice. I want to make sure the roadtest is fair and straightforward for both the supplier and the roadtester.

 

Any comments you have would be appreciated.

 

Randall

  • Hi Randall,

     

    Interesting question, I had to go through something similar with my car ECU this week, trying to remove a part to replace it. Others may have an alternate method to remove it, but all I can think of is heating the underside (using say a preheater) and then simultaneously heating the top with a handheld hot air tool, to lift off the module board.

    With no preheater, it could be very hard to heat the entire large module board evenly with a handheld hot air tool. After it is removed, it should be easy to solder in the new replacement, because it looks like the only connections are on the edges. That could be done with a soldering iron, or hot air tool.

    So in summary it needs a fair bit of equipment to remove : ( And fairly powerful tools (for example I'm not sure my small hot air tool could supply enough energy to heat all around enough to lift it off, since the module is fairly large).

    If the manufacturer supplied it unpopulated then it would be easy to solder in the 915MHz version. But then the manufacturer may as well solder that in I guess : (

  • Safely removing a module like this is pretty easy with a chip removal alloy such as Chip QuikChip Quik . Use of this chip removal product is also a good segment for a road test. I expect lots of members would like to get their hands on a Chip Quik kit, so it may actually increase interest in the road test if the removal kit was included.

  • in reply to dougw

    Wow! I had no idea that existed! Thanks for sharing image

     

    -Nico

  • That is an interesting question. I can't really make out enough of the detail to determine exactly what needs to be unsoldered. Do the pins stay in the board and the new module gets soldered to the pins? Is there a gap in between the module and the board?

     

    I would say this though, it is something I would be willing to try, especially if that was a requirement of North American road testers. As long as people understand what they are signing up for, I guess that would be OK.

     

    My other question is how do you talk to that module? Would the road tester need devices with a special transmitter to talk to the radio module? It looks like it has a few sensors hooked up via I2C and one SPI, with an SPI breadboard for your own device, but where does the wireless come in, how does that get exercised, the board connects to the GPIO pins of the Pi, so I'm curious of the utility of the wireless unless wireless sensors are also provided.

     

    Mike

  • in reply to mconners

    I looked up details on the board and saw there was a wireless usb dongle, which you had mentioned. You would need to ensure it was also setup to receive the US/NA frequencies as well.

     

    Mike

  • in reply to mconners

    Interesting. I see the dongle in the kit on my desk. Okay. Let me check into that. I thought that all that needed to be replaced was the radio module. thanks.

  • in reply to mconners

    It looks like an SMT PCB module with castellated mounting holes ....

  • in reply to dougw

      wrote:

     

    It looks like an SMT PCB module with castellated mounting holes ....

     

     

     

    That's what it seemed like, I don't think that should be too tough to unsolder.

    It's like Bluetooth boards I've played with in the past.

     

    Mike

  • From time to time there may be interesting products that are region specific and it would be OK with me if tested anyway. Maybe the interest generated from a region specific RoadTest would be sufficient to get the product made available in other regions.  In any event your efforts to make world wide products the norm, and to provide opportunity for modification in this instance are appreciated.

     

    Just speaking for me, I probably would not want to modify but would read the RoadTest and if interesting enough put a comment at the bottom asking about greater distribution.