LoRa notecard and Neo-monitor Aux mode

Though the “neo-monitor” mode is listed in the API as being compatible with the LoRa notecard, we are not having any luck getting it to work. We are successfully using strips of 5 Neopixels with our other Notecard project (WiFi+Cell Notecards), however when we attach one of those same fully-tested strips to the AUX2 pin of our LoRa Notecard (in a Notecarrier B), and we enable neo-monitor using any variations of the following code, we get zero activity on any of the Neopixels (even when actively syncing/transmitting).

{
  "req": "card.aux",
  "mode": "neo-monitor"
}

{
  "req": "card.aux",
  "mode": "neo-monitor",
  "count": 5
}

{
  "req": "card.aux",
  "mode": "neo-monitor",
  "count": 1
}

{
  "req": "card.aux",
  "mode": "neo-monitor",
  "sensitivity": 50
}

(For testing, the Neopixels are being supplied voltage from the VMAIN and GND pins of the Notecarrier, and the Notecarrier is being powered via USB. We can illicit various colors on the Neopixels by inducing noise on the data wire, so we know the strips are functional.)

I don’t see any LoRa-specific notes in the walkthrough docs regarding neo-monitor mode to denote any caveats, so the documentation seems to suggest this should do something. Although I’m not sure exactly what the LEDs would indicate. At the very least we were hoping for an indication of a sync or transmit to aid in our development/testing.

Can someone please shed some light on whether this is actually supposed to work with the LoRa notecard? And if yes, what might be causing it not to work for us currently?

Thanks!

Hi @josh77,

Make sure you’re on the latest version of the developer firmware (v9.1.1) as I believe this bug was fixed on Notecard LoRa: Notecard Firmware Releases - IoT Connectivity at Blues

Thanks,
Rob

Hi @RobLauer. Our LoRa cards shipped with 9.1.1, but as a precaution I installed the latest firmware using the in-browser terminal this morning. Definitely still seeing this issue however.

Card.version reports: dev:0080e11500452ada (NOTE-LWUS) running firmware wl-9.1.1.17181

Hi @josh77,

I just tested this myself with a Notecard LoRa on firmware 9.1.1. I’m able to see activity on the first NeoPixel in a strip (so that’s good) however when I include the count argument, it doesn’t utilize the other NeoPixels (all activity stays on the first LED).

This is the guide I followed (in case you haven’t seen it yet), though the commands are pretty straight forward.

Regardless, I’m going to flag the count issue internally and see if we can narrow this down a bit.

Thanks,
Rob

Hi @josh77,

Unfortunately we have narrowed this down to a mistake in the docs as, due to the low amount of memory available on Notecard LoRa, this is a feature we can’t support in its current state.

Rob