Required to always have a Boron or Argon?

Troubleshooting
1

So I’m trying to set up my Xenons I just got but that doesn’t work (stuck at pairing on application) and trying to figure out why.

I got reading here and apparently you need to always have a Boron or Argon to use Xenons? This was not mentioned anywhere when ordering! Also reading further here, it seems that supposedly an email was sent out to people only ordering Xenons that they can’t use that alone. Well, I received no such email.

If it is the case that you can’t use the Xenons without a gateway, Particle better be mighty fast at shipping out Argons to people who were not warned of this limitation.

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Also consider, you could instead order an Ethernet featherwing so that you could turn one of your Xenons into a wired gateway.

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Particle better ship me one of these three options.

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Hi @emil,

As far as I know, our records indicate you received at least one (maybe more) emails in the last few weeks with a discount code for buying a gateway since you didn’t include one in your pre-order, and we also encouraged you to email us if you had any concerns or questions.

I’m sorry about any confusion around that process, but I want to make sure we’re talking honestly about how hard we’re working to make sure everyone has a good experience.

Thanks,
David

7 Likes
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Honesty? Perhaps you should have said that in the order page.

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Hi @emil,

I’m sorry again about any confusion during the ordering process. As with any new product release, we do our best to provide the best information we can. Sometimes we realize we could have done more, like in this case, where we sent out emails and discount codes to folks that didn’t have some kind of gateway in their order.

It sounds like yes you did get those email(s) and that discount code about a month ago, is that right?

I’d encourage you to read the blog posts we posted back in April that talk about Mesh and how the networks work, and the necessary components: https://blog.particle.io/2018/04/28/how-to-build-a-wireless-mesh-network/ .

We also talked a bit about which boards were gateways in the original preorder announcement email ( https://blog.particle.io/2018/02/13/introducing-particles-next-generation-hardware-powered-by-particle-mesh ), and on the store, but I understand why that might not have been clear enough.

Thanks,
David

3 Likes
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@emil it is a mesh… That should have told you immediately that an edge device was required…

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Yes, like my phone, or a computer.

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No. A phone and a computer are not considered mesh devices.

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Get your story straight first at least.

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Wow. SMH.

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Excuse me folks, please refrain from a virtual “fight” cos the community is a place for us to learn and get help.

Our community guidelines does not encourage such behavior as well.

We are here to help so getting aggressive doesn’t get you any useful outcome.

If you really think there’s an issue that particle needs to address for your particular order, you’re more than welcome to open a support ticket and have it resolved.

Thanks!

5 Likes
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Yes, I sent a message to orders@particle.io to resolve the issue.

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I completely understand and agree with @emil 's frustration. I was quite frustrated and disappointed when I learned that the xenons would not be able to really do anything without a particle gateway.

I was hoping to use them standalone to provide sensor data to a phone app which could then get that information to the internet when it was in cell or wifi range.

Have there been any updates on when Particle intends to open up the Bluetooth Interface?

I have purchased RedBear Labs BLE devices in the past, but I have been disappointed in the lack of support and community involvement in developing open BLE “things”. I was really excited and hoping that Particle would be able to make this easier for the Maker Community.

Thanks for all you all do,
-ThereIsNoSky

1 Like
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This post might help with the timelines for BLE APIs on mesh devices:

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Thank you for putting my thoughts into text! This is exactly what I had in mind.

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Thanks for sharing this, I'm planning on using a wired gateway and it's nice to have confirmed that it'll work with a cheaper Xenon istead of a more full featured Argon.

1 Like