Argon Setup and Billing

Troubleshooting
1

I have a development kit with one Argon and three Xenon boards.
I’m now trying to setup the Argon as a gateway for the three boards. I’ve gone through setup.particle.io, and installed the Android app. On my tablet, if I scan the QR code it will be stuck into “pairing with your Argon” forever, but switching to my phone it worked after about 5 minutes, and I could do the firmware update and all that.

But at one point, it asks me whether I want to use this Argon in a mesh network? I suppose I have to select “Yes, Use in Mesh Network”, as I want my Argon to be the gateway for my Xenon nodes. At this point, I’m being asked to add a credit card at console.particle.io/billing. The problem is that I don’t have a credit card as I don’t quality for one (I had to cancel my application last week since we were unable to provide specific documents). Is there a way to use Particle Mesh without a credit card for testing? Thanks.

2

A credit card is currently required to set up an Argon mesh network.

We’re investigating changing this for Argon as if you have <= 10 mesh networks, <= 10 devices, and only one gateway, the network won’t incur any fees, so there’s really no need to require a credit card. I don’t have a definite yes or a timeline at this time for this feature.

Boron mesh networks will still require a credit card.

3

Oh man, please adjust the requirement. With all the hacking going on, I don’t like to leave my card stored on the web if there is no need.

I wasn’t aware I would have to provide a credit card and I pre-ordered just Argons and Xenons.
I guess my Xenons will not be online anytime soon. :thinking:

4

Have you thought of a prepaid credit card with just a symbolic amount on it?
No risk if that was hacked and lost.

1 Like
5

Yeah… another piece of plastic to keep track of.

6

You can have them completely virtual too.

1 Like
7

The answer is sooner, rather than later. The current beta of the Android app no longer requires a credit card for setting up an Argon mesh if you would still be on the free tier (would not exceed 10 mesh networks in an account or create a high availability mesh). It should be the production version soon.

8

:+1::clap::man_dancing: Very happy. Thank you!