mangOH Red vs. 'X' Operator SIM

Cloud & Connectivity
1

Hi guys,

We’ve purchased a brand new mangOH red with WP7702, so we’re still in the “struggling phase”. We’re trying to connect it to the AirVantage platform using a SIM that’s not the one included in the kit (and it’s not from Sierra Wireless, it’s from a local MNO). The problem is that the ICCID doesn’t get recognized by AirVantage, which would make sense if a Sierra Wireless SIM was mandatory for this. However, we didn’t find this in the “getting started” guide.

So, the question is: do we have to use a Sierra Wireless SIM card for AirVantage? Sorry if this is a noob question!

Thanks in advance!

Regards,
GM

2

Can you post the message you get?

3

I have successfully used a non-SiWi SIM for AirVantage in the past (about a year ago).

4

Hi @asyal,

When we use the local MNO’s SIM with AirVantage, we get the following message: "Subscription cannot be found"

Thanks!

5

OK, that seems like good news then.

Thanks @awneil

6

Can you share a screenshot ?

7

Sure, will do in a few hours.

Thanks again!

8

OK, got the screenshot (sorry for the delay):

airvantage-screenshot
airvantage-screenshot.jpg1320×762 69.3 KB

You can find the message down on the right.

9

I guess that AirVantage “knows” the SiWi SIMs in advance - but not 3rd party SIMs.

So you have “register” the SIM first.

Does this help: https://doc.airvantage.net/av/reference/inventory/howtos/activateOrSynchronizeSubscription/

ISTR that AirVantage does not cope well with changing the SIM in a device …

EDIT

or maybe this: https://source.sierrawireless.com/airvantage/av/howto/hardware/airlink_getting_started/ ?

10

Thanks, @awneil. I’ll try this out and let you know.

11

So, the first link you posted relates to an “Inventory” activity, which doesn’t appear in the pre-configured SiWi account for mangOH. It took me a while, but I found this which clearly shows where the “Inventory” option is in the menu bar (on the left of “Monitor”). You can check in the screenshot I’ve uploaded that this option isn’t available.

I’m still trying the option in the second link you posted, but it doesn’t look good so far.

Anyway, I think I’m done trying to link the local MNO’s SIM to AirVantage. I’d probably go for other options.

Thanks for the help!

12

As noted, it was about a year ago that I tried this.

My notes from then do, indeed, refer to using ‘Inventory’ on AV - and I also can’t see that when I log in now.

13

Thanks for the feedback, @awneil. I think it would be best if this info was in the “getting started” tutorial, just in case somebody else wonders.

14

we will be launching red with a major US carrier next month. We will be updating GSG to take care of 3rd party SIMs in that doc.

15

I have been trying a similar approach and getting exactly the same result “Subscription cannot be found”. Thanks @gmilano and @awneil for your efforts. I was trying to use a SIM from Hologram and can’t make it work. I can understand SiWi can’t support every SIM maker. I have a SIM from AT&T coming in the mail in a few days. I’ll try that and report back to you.

16

@asyal I know this is specifically the mangOH forum, but it would be good to feed this back to the AV guys as a general point - for people wanting to use non-SiWi SIMs in non-mangOH platforms (eg, other SiWi products) with AV …

17

Ok, I have forwarded this and we will get back to you

1 Like
18

I was able to connect using a Hologram SIM purpose-built for iot. The trick is to go in through https://eu.airvantage.net/accounts/signup?type=AVEP rather than the one I had used to register a MangOH with a SiWi SIM, which is https://eu.airvantage.net/session/login. I had to create a new, separate account with AirVantage (different company name, different email), respond to the confirmation email in order to create a password, etc. Finally in, via https://eu.airvantage.net/start I then see a new tab called Register. Choosing hardware of MangOH, I see the three questions (Serial Number, IMEI, Hardware name) (Enter FSN for the Serial Number). A choice is offered to “pre-configure” and I chose Yes, then in the follow-on question I only enabled it to “Set Heartbeat”. (Other options may be ok as well). The difference between this and the mangOH/SiWi SIM registration is that there is nowhere to enter a SIM ICCID, and that’s Ok. Then it was a matter of setting the APN on the Red (as described in the Getting Started Guide). AirVantage took some time doing steps “Configure Communication” and “Synchronize System”. After those were completed, I started the app redSensorToCloud and saw successful data transfers.

My support guy from Richardson (distributor) was very helpful and patient. According to him, if I want to swap out this Hologram SIM for a different Non-SiWi one, I should only have to change the APN, and no need to make changes to the AirVantage side. I will let you know how that goes.

Kudos to Sierra Wireless and the mangOH team for making this an unbundled system, so that we can be free to choose the provider that works best for us in our specific case.

That said, the support guy did make reference to some advantages to using the SiWi SIM, such as the ability to make changes on the fly and in one place after a lot of things have been deployed. I would like to learn more about that and other advantages to choosing Sierra Wireless as our access provider.

1 Like
19

When I said,

The problem was not that it didn’t work - comms were fine - but that AV didn’t notice, and didn’t seem to have any way to be told, that the SIM had changed.

I guess the place to go for specific AirVantage (rather than mangOH) discussions would be:

There were a number of things mentioned at the Innovation Summit in Paris this year that would rely specifically on having a SiWi SIM…

20

OK, this looks promising indeed. Will try it out and let you know how that goes.

Nice job, @jdots83!