I have some new BRN402 kits that I’m trying to set up for the first time. I’ll be using them in Canada. When EtherSIM was introduced, I thought I would need a physical SIM card for this model but I’ve never seen it available and I don’t know if I need one.
I’m trying to follow the instructions at https://support.particle.io/hc/en-us/articles/360045547634-How-Can-I-Set-Up-My-Argon-Or-Boron-Via-USB- and when I get to the step where it says “Enroll and Activate a SIM”, I get a message the pops up very briefly saying “The action on your SIM is taking longer than expected for our Telephony partners to complete it. It will be retried later.” I understand it’s supposed to take about a minute but could take 24 hours. I’ve been trying for several hours and I don’t know if the problem is a normal delay or because I can’t register the older Boron without an EitherSIM.
I have spent far too many hours searching your documentation and forum and I can’t seem to find any useful information. Is this the right way to set up the BRN402? The Boron datasheet just says
Embedded Particle EtherSIM (BRN404)
Embedded Particle SIM (BRN402)
Which sounds like I do need a SIM card, but the page on SIM cards Particle SIM cards | Datasheets | Particle seems to say the card is meant for 2G/3G models and would be of minimal benefit for LTE models in North America. So it sounds like I’m not expected to use one.
Can anyone help me with how to set up an older Boron?
I had this problem with several BRN402’s as well. I figured it had something to do with the firmware update that was required (I think they had 0.9.0 when I powered them on). I think i ended up putting the device back in listening mode (hold mode button until blinking dark blue) and going back through the setup process again.
Thanks for your reply.
When I followed the instructions I linked, I did update the firmware to 2.3.0. I just went through the full setup process again and re-flashed the firmware and the result is the same.
You don’t need an external SIM with the BRN402, while it doesn’t use the EtherSIM, it does have an embedded particle sim, which should be sufficient. The datasheet says using an external Ethersim would not be beneficial.
I just tried it with the app and I get a slightly longer version of the same error that also says if you have retried multiple times, please contact support.
You do not need an external SIM card. And the BRN404/BRN310 can take 24 hours, sometimes longer to activate. This does not happen on the BRN404/BRN314.
If it doesn’t activate soon, submit a support ticket with your Device IDs, ICCIDs, or Serial Numbers so the status of the activation can be checked with the mobile carrier.
