Overview

What Can Be Done

Runs on Feather MCU, or Rasbeery Pi.   Libraries are available for C/C++, Arduino, and CircuitPython.   API interaction with Notehub.io  

You can do edge-based machine learning with something like Edge Impulse.  

The hardware purchase includes enough cellular data and Consumption Credits that I estimate would allow you to push a message from the device once per hour for six years.  

 

Data Usage / Transfer

blues.io has bundled their hardware, cellular data, and data routing into a single up-front price.   Their Standard Plan Pricing has no limits on the number of projects, or the number of devices connected.   Each device purchased comes with 500 MB of cellular data and 5000 Consumption Credits.   All devices share the pool of Consumption Credits, and each device consumes Consumption Credits based on their data routing usage.   Each month, the pool of Consumption Credits are automatically topped off at 5000 CC for free.  

Data routed from the Notecard device to the Notehub cloud does not consume Consumption Credits, but it does consume cellular data if a cellular Notecard is used.   Data transfer between the Notehub and an external endpoint (cloud service) consumes one Consumption Credit (1 CC).   A Notecard that pushes data out to an external coud service would consume 1 CC.  

5000 CC/mo Consumption Credit Usage
# Devices Request Type Data Push Rate Cellular Data
1 Push 6.8 per hour TBD
100 Push 1.6 per day or 50/mo TBD
1 Request + Response 3.4 per hour or 82/day TBD
100 Request + Response 5.8 per week or 25/mo TBD

Derived from: https://blues.io/pricing/ Dec 2022.   Assumes 1 CC consumed per data push per device, and 2 CC consumed for a request and respose.  

Measuring Data Usage

 

API pull requests to the Notehub from anything but a Notecard device (your cloud service, your PC, another non-Notecard IoT device) will only consume 0.001 CC per request (or 1000 API requests consume 1 CC per request).   This makes it affordable for performing analytics on the data posted to Notehub.io.  

You can see how many Consumption Credits have been consumed by a project by visiting Notehub, selecting a project, and then choosing the menu 'Settings -> Usage' and reviewing the values for 'Routed events'.  

Cellular data usage can be measured by executing a 'card.usage.get' and a 'card.usage.test' requests to see the current usage.   The 'card.usage.get' requests provides actual network usage statistics.   Usage data is updated by the Notecard at the end of each cellular connection.   If connected in 'continuous' mode, usage will not be updated until the current session ends, by configuring the 'duration' argument for a 'hub.set'.   More details at Obtaining Historical Usage.  


{"req": "card.usage.get", "mode": "total"}

When a Notecard is running a consistent payload, then the command 'card.usage.test' may be used to project the lifetime of the available data based on the current usage rate.  

Every time the Notecard is powered up, the Notecard must reconnect with Notehub and initialize a TLS connection.   This power up initialization consumes 28 kB +/- 3 kB.   A Notecard in continuous mode consumes ~4.1 kB/hr and it that is the only data consumed, then the device will have sufficent data for 14 years if left powered on and in continuous mode throughout that period (512000/4.1/24/365).  

My short term tests show that a payload of 50 bytes and a JSON string of 99 bytes consumes about 5005 bytes.   If that payload is sent every hour, the data should last over six years.  

I performed a 26 hour test where a JSON string of ~98 bytes was sent every hour.   The average cellular data consumption was between 3.72 to 4.42 kb/hr.  

 

Security

Notecard supports end-to-end encryption of your data using AES-256 symmetric algorithm based on your RSA public key.   Data encrypted in transit and encryptable at rest using native encryption hardware.   All Notecards have a factory-installed ECC P-384 certificate provisioned at chip manufacture.

 

Changes May 2023

  • New name.   Blues Wireless -> Blues
  • New website

 

 


Do you need help developing or customizing a IoT product for your needs?   Send me an email requesting a free one hour phone / web share consultation.  

 

The information presented on this website is for the author's use only.   Use of this information by anyone other than the author is offered as guidelines and non-professional advice only.   No liability is assumed by the author or this web site.  

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Blynk