I’m thinking if Hologram can help community members by facilitating a ‘DASH order pooling’ system? This is to at least manage the ‘economics’ of acquiring the board. Interested members can pay escrow until a ‘desired volume at a pricepoint’ is achieved and the orders forwarded to your partner manufacturer.
If Hologram can do this facility ‘free’ for the sake of the community, then it’s better… but if a ‘fair premium charge’ is needed, then…
I think this is a win-win solution while community members are finding ways to moveon? or maybe they’ll stay if this mechanism will work out.
That’s cool - thanks… Are there any 2 and 3G boards that are similar to the dash? We have a deployment for an established,existing, product where LTE is not available. (sigfox either)
As others have said, the Dash is/was a wonderful gem: a hardware/network stack easy-to-use like the Particle Electron (one-liner C++), with Hologram pricing (about $0.40/device/month for low-bandwidth applications, prior to the recent changes), open source firmware/design, and minimal “fluff”. The documentation and diagrams are reasonably comprehensive, but easy to read through in a day or so. The forums (and @Reuben) are a great help. I’ve referenced the API page, datasheet, datasheets of the charger and user microcontroller, Arduino integration Git repo, etc. countless times in the last few months that I’ve worked with the Dash. I placed an order for a few more Dash units to have on hand as spares, thanks.
Of course, this only makes the news that much more frustrating. I just finished spending a few months testing Dash units in the field, and am now rushing to redesign/port/retest my PCB and code with an alternative. I’m also disappointed that we will never see a Cat M1 Dash as planned.
I get that you have a business to run, and sometimes those practical interests don’t align. So we’ll have to make do with an alternative, e.g., a supported board that integrates:
easy-to-use network API extending Arduino (or MicroPython on PyCom boards?), like the Hologram library suggested above
low power consumption and power management options like deep sleep
@daradib,
SARA N2xx of Arduino MKR NB has Power Saving Mode indicated in their online document (p. 66). If Arduino’s library will not expose that, then we will have to do it via AT Command.
For the microprocessor, power management/charger and peripheral side, it will be more ‘tailor-fitted’ if you want to achieve <50uA deep sleep mode.
This was a big disappointment to us as well, since we had an order to fulfill in April which would have used 1000 DASH devices. To fulfil the order, we have decided to manufacture the DASH ourselves. We will be duplicating the current open source design functionally in every respect. Any hardware changes (there are a few) will be only to replace obsolete passive components. We expect to have devices for sale by Q3 2018. Our first run will be to satisfy our customer, and we will confirm the design using these initial boards. If there is interest, please contact sales@poemtechnology.com for updates and availability.
SIM800L 2G GSM Breakout
u.Fl Antenna
Breadboard
Hologram Global M2M SIM
Data – $40 of cellular data included
Access to our open source firmware including: over the air (OTA) update capabilities, 256-bit encryption, hundreds of abstracted SIM800L commands
It might still be useful to other parts of the world… but 2G is already eclipsing in US.
Sad that most of my clients are US/UK based. Hope still that the incubator of this module will use either 3G or NBIoT.
OK, so in the same boat as some others. Finished the hardware and software design to embed this in a new product, came back to the store to buy what I needed to fill my orders, and Dash is missing. I understand it’s a business decision, but I don’t understand the zero-notice. I went to the recommended Macrofab site, but not only does the Hologram package NOT load properly into the site, it appears you cannot buy an 8-layer board without spending lots of $. Not to mention, the question of ‘how to load sw in a newly built Dash’ question links to a post that basically says ‘yeah we ought to tell you guys that’.
As a result of the feedback here, has there been any change of direction from Hologram’s management? Why not do a final build (as has been suggested here) and even raise the price if you need to?
If anyone has Dash-es available to sell immediately, would be interested to hear from you
Lots of unhappy folks. I got wind that they were planning to discontinue the Dash and tried mutiple times to head this off to no avail. They just don’t see the value in continuing to support the Dash (even though in my opinion the incremental cost would be relatively low). So I’m redesigning my product to use to MKR 1400 and I’ll take a look at the MKR NB 1500 when its released. In patiently waiting for Ben to release a library to support the MKR series so I can port my Dash software.You might cobble together a few Dashes here and there but the writing is on the wall. Perhaps if Hologram soon releases a library with a similar API to provide rapid development as easily as the Dash, concerns from developers about being left high and dry would subside.
