Hello. This is my first post and I would like to start by wishing everyone well. I have no experience with Blynk but have decided to use it as my platform. I will be connectiong with Digi XBee Cellular LTE and arduino mega 2560. Most of the examples I have seen on the Blynk forum utilize WiFi connections which I cannot use due to the remote location of my unit.
I would really appreciate if someone could direct me to an example/tutorial for making the necessary connections with my type of equipment so I can begin this journey.
Thank you.
Tom
Are you sure your cellular modem is supported by Blynk?
Is there any reason why you aren’t using hardware that’s more mainstream?
Pete.
I was told that the Xbee is supported. That said, can you point me towards cellular equipment that is more mainstream? I am upgrading all my monitoring systems from 3G to 4G. The Digi XBee is also FCC certified. Thank you for your help.
Tom
Here is a copy of the email:
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for reaching out to Blynk.
Yes, you can set up communication with this device using Blynk’s HTTPs API, as well as with any other cellular device. You can find more details on HTTPs API in our documentation.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Maryna,
Blynk team
Okay. The normal way to use Blynk is to establish an ‘always on’ connection to the Blynk server via the Blynk library.this can be across WiFi, wired Ethernet or cellular.
In this situation there are constant handshakes taking place between the Blynk server and the device.
As your hardware isn’t directly supported for use in this way, you’d need to use the Blynk HTTP(S) REST API to send data from the device to the Blynk server. If you want to send data commands the other way - from the app or web dashboard to the Blynk server and on to the device then the device would also need to be polling the Blynk server via the API to pick-up these commands. This is a rather clunky approach compared to the regular method.
Maryna has pointed you towards the API documentation, and to use this you would need to manually manage the connection GPRS connection and make the API calls from the Mega - assuming that an HTTP client is available for the Mega using this connection method.
Most people have moved-on from the old Arduino Uno/Mega/Nano hardware to more modern and more powerful (and often cheaper) hardware like the ESP32.
There is a very nice ESP32 board with built-in SIM800 cellular modem called the TTGO T-CALL which many people tend to use.
Pete.
Thanks Pete.
The problem with the SIM800 is that 2G and 3G are sunsetting and most carriers are no longer allowing new activations. Do you know of any 4/5 G equipment that works well with Blynk?
The SIM800 uses 2G and ironically it will probably be kept running far longer than 3G by many carriers as it uses less bandwidth and many legacy devices such as alarm systems still depend on it.
If I was implementing something that required cellular access that I wanted to future-proof then I think I’d use a cheap 4G travel router (MiFi type device) and connect to it via WiFi from an ESP8266 or ESP32. When 4G is retired then it’s simply a case of replacing the router and SIM with a 5/6/7G equivalent.
Pete.
Pete.
Thanks Pete. I am building/upgrading control panels in remote locations. I am currently using sim 5320 and mega 2560 with sms. I do have several sim 800 still operational but carriers will not activate new sim cards for 2g or 3g. My controllers each have several thousand lines of code…I didn’t think upgrading to 4g would be so difficult. The Digi XBee is an embedded device that I thought was mainstream.
Tom