Hanhaa Symbisa IoT Dev Kit - Review

Table of contents

RoadTest: Hanhaa Symbisa IoT Dev Kit

Author: gam3t3ch

Creation date: 12 Oct 2018

Evaluation Type: Development Boards & Tools

Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True

What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?:

What were the biggest problems encountered?: Firmware updating was the biggest of the issues presented.

Detailed Review:

First and foremost thank you to Element14 and HanHaa for the opportunity to check out this kit.

So first off lets introduce HanHaa

HanHaa HQ is in the heart of central london and has a beautiful view of the river Thames.  (google photos of it, it's pretty sweet)

HanHaa has multiple services available Parcelive, symbisa and hanhaa mobile. 

If you add all these services into one with some really sweet products you get an amazing company that has a lot to offer when it comes to consumers and developers in the iot industry.

Personally I have never hear of them before so was excited to see this product as of lately I have been on a huge massive sensor addiction.  MMMMMMM Sensors.

Today we will be going over the Symbisa unit by HanHaa.

What is Symbisa?

It has 6 embedded sensor elements; Humidity, Temperature, Pressure, Light, Orientation, GPS

Can Read and analyse data easily with Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Office 365 add-in.

Equipt with Global FCC and CE certified GSM modem

A Crystal clear E-ink graphical display          its a beauty.

Secure GSM network connectivity

Secure end to end data transmission

Rich sensor data via secure cloud network

Intuitive dashboard with visual representation of data

Easy to manage account system with multi-device registration

100 Free credits per device registered

Supported in USA, Canada and EU

Now you probably thought to yourself I must have just got that off their website? 

Well I did….

So what does it cost you ask?

Current prices are currently around the 120-160 dollar price tag for this unit.

OK OK what about credits?  Well the great news it's only $12 for 1000 credits that's an amazing price.

So depending on how you setup your update intervals on your unit based on the priority of either your sending or your data collection it as each reading sent to the dashboard with all your current data is one credit.

Want to know more about the credits?  Check out the link below for the pdf on the credits.

https://www.hanhaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Symbisa-Credits-Documentation.pdf )

The Symbisa is running the STM32L443RC an ultra-low-power microcontrollers based on the high-performance Arm® Cortex®-M4 32-bit RISC core operating at a frequency of up to 80 MHz.

The Quectel MC60 Chip is a quad-band full-featured GSM/GPRS module using LCC castellation package. With an extensive set of Internet protocols (TCP, UDP, PPP, FTP, HTTP and SSL), it has integrated the GNSS technology for satellite navigation. Based on the latest 2G chipset, it has the optimal performance in SMS & data transmission as well as audio service even in harsh environments.

Powering the unit is a 3.7v 1880mah lithium ion  rechargeable battery. I think the max input for a micro usb is 5v 3a so fairly decent charging and long lasting battery.

I charged the battery when I got it which was only about at 80 something percent when I got it since it was in standby mode.

After charging it I used it the full duration of the roadtest across multiple tests when the unit was powered on for long duration's and still managed to only get it down to about 36%  but this could be shorter or longer also depending on settings for update intervals and other things as well if sending messages to the unit or not.

With the two and three quarter inch e ink display  you have tons of room for displaying data such as messages and barcodes and more on it.

So I was going to do a bunch of video's on the kit, which I did manage to get this one completed before the fun really started.  So check it out the I will go into some more details on the fun which is the major issues with this unit along with some fun that I had.

Edit media

Dimensions x Small Medium Large Custom

Subject (required) Brief Description Tags (separated by comma) Video visibility in search results Visible Hidden

Parent content

Hanhaa Symbisa IoT Dev Kit - Review

Poster

Upload Preview

Ok

Cancel

So now there should be a few more video's and actually I am pretty sad I didn't get them all completed due to completely bricking the unit that's right during the new firmware flash to 1.1.1.0 or something along those line I manage to get it to lock up and stay in a charging state.

No problem I thought this was going to be like when I first stated issues getting it to upload the firmware properly on a windows 7 & 10 computer but all and all I was able to accomplish the task.

What I had done was removed the battery pack and waited a minute pressed the power button even down to discharge anything (in theory) and plugged the battery in and it would fire back up without issue.

Well not this time it stopped registering the power to the board.  OK so checked the battery its reading correctly.  Checked the board its getting power.  It would still power on with the usb cable inserted but default is to go to charging after connection unable to go further while pressing the power button or anything.  Fare enough lets re-flash with the old firmware and see if it helps.  No issues with that at all so lets power it back on removed the micro usb cable and still nothing.

Now at this point I was getting angry because I Was going to do further testing and had taken a bunch of pictures and more video and now I tossed my hands up in the air and had to decided to not persue this unit further.

No its not a development kit but a repackaged package live nothing more so that's a bit confusing why they have 2 products that are basically the same thing internally.

So don't get me wrong tho I love sensors and love this unit but it certainly isn't to consumer grade with the issues had.  I had no issues tho incorporating it in to Microsoft office that was quick and painless they did a wonderful job on the live dashboard.

There is however a ton of applications that I would have loved to play further with on this unit tho. I had some pretty awesome idea's but unless I can get the board going again I won't be updating this at any point but if for some reason I do then yes I will certainly continue further with my mods and projects on this kit.

So in closing on the board itself I think they need to a bit more work on the firmware update process or have the firmware as solid as can be before its shipped. I really like the unit but with flaws like this make it not very consumer friendly and forget about upgrading and not voiding the warranty cause its going to happen.  Mind you I voided it probably quicker then it came out of the box.

This roadtest is shorter then I would have liked but its as far as I can currently go with it due to the condition of the unit.

On that note some more photos.  Cause photos are cool.