SigfoxTracker

Project SigfoxTracker
Investigating sigfox location trackers
Status	Initializing
Contact	bertrik
Last Update	2022-05-21

What

This page is about investigation of Sigfox location trackers, e.g.:

• how existing trackers work
• coverage of the sigfox network
• how to interact with the sigfox backend
• ultimately, help develop a sigfox tracker for tracking small animals, like bats

Investigation

• great page at disk91 about sigfox, part from reverse engineering
• coverage map https://www.sigfox.com/en/coverage
• modulation is D-BPSK, frequency range is 192 kHz is in the 868 MHz band
• a packet consists of max 26 bytes, of which 12 bytes are user payload

Interesting reading:

• https://www.disk91.com/2019/technology/sigfox/make-you-own-1-sigfox-iot-device/
• https://www.disk91.com/2019/news/sigfox-news/i-held-the-first-1-sigfox-iot-device/
• https://www.disk91.com/2018/technology/sigfox/create-a-5-autonomous-tracker-with-esp8266-and-sigfox/

How to get the keys:

• https://www.disk91.com/2019/technology/sigfox/murata-abz-sigfox-connectivity/

coverage

Sigfox coverage, bike trip Gouda-Leidschendam

Existing trackers

LWT-100

This is a tracker made by Invoxia, features:

• sends positions using sigfox, configured via bluetooth
• fcc id ZVS-LWT1: https://fccid.io/ZVS-LWT1/Internal-Photos/Internal-Photos-3734578
• ESP-8285 chip, this is a microcontroller similar to ESP-8266, used as a 'WiFi coprocessor'?
• NXP-QN9080, Ultra low power Bluetooth 5 system-on-chip solution, probably the 'main controller', see https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/nxp/data-sheets/QN908x.pdf
• U-blox M8030-CT, GNSS chip,see https://www.u-blox.com/en/product/ubx-m8030-series
• Semtech SX1272, LoRa chip
• LiPo battery, 352044 300 mAh 3.7V
• chip antenna for LoRa/Sigfox, 11x5.5mm
• chip antenna for wifi/bluetooth/gps, 10x3 mm

Apparently this was originally a LoRa tracker, contains a LoRa transceiver, but now uses SigFox! The radio waveform is created by the SX1272, not by a specialized Sigfox chip.

Software

The ST package 'STM32Cube_FW_WL_V1.0.0' has examples for Sigfox: https://www.st.com/en/embedded-software/stm32cubewl.html

In directory XX you can find the following examples:

• Sigfox_AT_Slave
• Sigfox_AT_Slave_DualCore
• Sigfox_PushButton
• Sigfox_PushButton_DualCore

It appears that, typically, you should edit a file sigfox_data.h to enter the sigfox credentials (device id, pac and key)