4 ms·

The limit of 60 bytes of down link is really what threw me off. For IoT sensors out in the wild that I've worked with we've still wanted the ability to remotely

The limit of 60 bytes of down link is really what threw me off. For IoT sensors out in the wild that I've worked with we've still wanted the ability to remotely update their firmware. A 14kb firmware is do-able for a lot of systems, but if that update fails you don't get to retry for a month unless your firmware is incredibly tiny... For systems that I've worked with that have firmware that small or even smaller have had power budgets in the <50mA/hour range... This modem uses up to a full amp at 3.3V (presumably only while transmitting but I'd bet its receive mode still busts that power budget in under a minute). I can't think of the use cases for these modems that use that little data and have that much of a power draw...

golem14 4y ago
I think they could potentially make this cheaper for larger deployments with multicast-like down link packets. So if someone has 10,000 devices to update, this might be doable with one stream. Wouldn't help a hobbyist or small batch IOT device.
Pet_Ant 4y ago
> I can't think of the use cases for these modems that use that little data and have that much of a power draw... Large asset tracking.
StillBored 4y ago
Why does it need always-on receive? Any number of data acquisition apps can just wake-up on a set schedule, power that modem on, send their data, and get any action/responses at the same time then power everything back down. So the W/h numbers could still be quite trivial. And presumably much of the power is as you mention transmit, because its talking to a satellite, not a device 1/2 a mile away.