This is the Big Daddy of the Pycom range of devices. The Pycom FiPy has all these connection capabilities (with one tiny caveat):
- Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n 16Mbps
- LoRa (all regions, not 433MHz)
- Sigfox
- Cellular LTE (Cat-M1/NB-IoT)
- Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
Product image for the Pycom FiPy
The FiPy can do anything the other boards can do. The one exception being it can't do LoRa on 433MHz – only LoPy4 has that. Not only is the FiPy a drop-in replacement for the other Pycom devices, having all these communications technologies means it can do things the others can't.
Do you need a LoRa Nano Gateway where there's no Wi-Fi for Internet access? Why not bridge from LoRa to Cellular LTE with FiPy? What about using Wi-Fi when it's available and starting up a cellular LTE connection if it's not?
Want to build an IoT device that needs more network connectivity than Sigfox or LoRa will allow? Have you thought of using cellular data? GPy can do it, so can FiPy.
Hardware
You may remember the WiPy has a single metal package on top containing an ESP32 processor and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios. All Pycom devices have built-in antennae for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Boards with more capabilities (GPy, LoPy, SiPy) have two packages on top. FiPy has three!
With all this connectivity, we'll need a few antennae. If we populate all three u.FL connectors we'll have one antenna that's for both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, one that's for both Sigfox and LoRa, and a third that just works on Cellular LTE.
Pinout Diagram
Pinout diagram for Pycom FiPy
Firmware
The biggest Pycom board carries two sets of firmware. One on the ESP32 processor, that is updated via the Pycom Firmware Update application, as shown in 1.2.2 Updating Firmware in the documentation. The other is for the Sequans Monarch SQN3330 modem that provides the cellular LTE capabilities. Firmware update instructions for this are in 4.5.3 Modem Firmware Update in the documentation. However, we have a more detailed set of instructions at Pycom GPy & FiPy Cellular LTE Firmware Update.
If you're thinking of running a FiPy on one of the expansion boards (Expansion Board 3.0, Pysense, Pytrack or Pyscan) don't forget they have firmware too!
Software
The Atom IDE (integrated development environment) is the application of choice for writing and running MicroPython code on your Pycom device. The pymakr add-in for Atom gives you all the tools you need.
People familiar with Visual Studio can use that too. Visual Studio Code is free and so is the pymakr plug-in for Visual Studio. 2.1.2 Visual Studio Code in the Pycom documentation gives you all you need to know to get your FiPy up and running with Visual Studio.
Conclusion
We've covered the Pycom range in detail in our Pycom Tutorials. If you need information beyond what's available there, we're always available at the Core Electronics Forum.
