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Sigfox, the low bandwidth, low energy sub-1Ghz network, just introduced a new service.
They can now provide your location as Longitude, Latitude and Radius.
You don't have to change your firmware to make use of the service.

You can use this position service immediately if your contract with Sigfox supports it. I'm using the free prototyping contract that comes with the CC1310 LaunchPad and GEO LOC is included.

Works Directly on the Backend Web

Before setting up a service, let's first look at the immediate difference on the Sigfox backend. As soon as you send a data message from your device, you can see the results. Here are images of the positioning info before and after they implemented GEO LOC.

beforegeoloc_81fa6aeb6d7a91f9a472061cdef15ec8d7c5f577.jpg

 

The results are significantly better. In some regions where Sigfox has 3 antennas that cover your location, the position is impressive. In my case, it's approx half a kilometer off.

GEO LOC as a Service

The info is also available as a service. Just like with the Sigfox data services, there are several options. You can integrate with Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), your own messaging infrastructure and various others.
I'm setting it up as an email service. I get a mail each time my device sends data to the Sigfox network. This is a 2-minute job.

First, log on to the backend and select your device type. Then navigate to the Callbacks menu.

 newcallback_8601f4c006a55669bb00cc8e257838c576c19e17.jpg

 

Create a new Callback, type SERVICE GEOLOC
Select EMAIL as channel and enter your email address(es) in the Recipient field.
You can choose you put in the subject and context fields. You'll see that 3 new variables are available:

  • {lng}
  • {lat}
  • {radius}

callbacksets_486cb7b7fddf1597ba1c153830fc92952348d8a8.jpg

The next time you send data from your device, you'll get a mail 30 seconds later with that position info.

mail_ecca1a9d364b04bbbfa9faf76dd4ac3bd65f5229.jpg

 

 

 

 

That's it. Now you.

 

 

 

 

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