Third Gen Hardware - Argon

Connectivity BLE // NFC
1

Hi There - I have an application idea for a product using the Argon when it becomes available. I want to build a consumer product but not have the customer connect the Argon to the internet via WiFi immediately. Connecting to the internet would only occur if they wanted to join our subscription service. Without the subscription service the unit would do its job and the user would connect to it over bluetooth to view the data. My reason for not connecting to WiFi is because we would then become liable to the $0.39/$0.29 cost per device per month - which would be costing us money continuously just to do firmware updates.

The product would be able to do all its processing locally on the device and communicate its data via bluetooth to a mobile phone app over bluetooth. Then if the customer wanted to access additional value add features, they could connect the Argon to WiFi after paying a small subscription charge.

My question is this:

  • can the Argon work in this mode? - i.e. potentially never being connected to WiFi by the end user?
  • if it is never connected to WiFi - can we update the firmware via bluetooth from a smartphone?

Does this sound feasible?

Thanks in advance!

2

I’m pretty sure you can keep things the same as it’s now with Gen1 & Gen2 devices: You can run without the Particle cloud but still use your local WiFi and even talk to the internet.
As long you are not using the cloud features - in this case the gateway upgrade features - I wouldn’t expect the costs you stated above to apply.

BT communcation is on the list of features to come, but probably won’t be there from the beginning.

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3

Hi ScruffR - that was very helpful, thanks for your speedy reply. I’m a total newbie to the Photon so am still figuring out how it all hangs together.

Kind regards.

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