Is Sonnet vaporware?

[WPXS472]

It has been about a year since I paid my money to get two of these devices. They looked more useful than the Beartooth devices which actually materialized, but were a big disappointment. I get a new update about weekly. But, the thing that bothers me is the year period since I paid, and the nature of these emails. They make it look like they are finding vendors, testing units, correcting bugs. But, should this go on for a year? I just wonder if one day, the emails will stop and the Sonnet folks will have disappeared. Are they just stringing me along with these emails that are supposed to make it look like they are a regular electronics manufacturer? The device incorporates a LoRa transceiver that is capable of multiple bands. They say they are going to make band selection a user feature. But how are they going to ever get FCC acceptance of something that can operate on bands that aren't authorized for that kind of operation? I hope someone has more information about these folks than I get in their emails.

 

[slicerwizard]

Hm, don't they already have their FCC certification?

 

[mmckenna]

Vaporware? Maybe.

There's been a couple of these sorts of products come up in the last few years. Usually guys with a lot of software/hardware background, but almost always zero radio background.
They farm some of the stuff out to China. The Chinese companies will build the RF part no problem. Then they try to get FCC certification and often the grandiose claims of range, frequencies, bandwidth, etc. all fall apart.

There's been a few of these companies that have suggested VHF/UHF radios, no license required, external antennas, etc. Then they suddenly realize that they are not going to get what they want. They fall back on 900MHz and push the product out with less than stellar performance.

And it'll likely keep happening.

I've seen a few of these, and I'm not going to invest money in them since it's pretty obvious they've got a good idea, but no RF experience.

Save your money...

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Hm, don't they already have their FCC certification?

The last I checked, they did.

I hope they make it a simple square box and allow easy support of an external antenna. If you can put in on a backpack frame or tripod and have the antenna vertical that would be advantageous. I think what I liked about the unit was that it is a wifi server as opposed to a 1:1 blue tooth device. They use 915 MHz for the mesh as I recall. I don't know if it is FHSS.

With GoTenna having a head start they need to demonstrate techioncal superiority. It would be nice if they and Gotenna could be compatible at the mesh network side but that wont happen.

I am watching the market closely.

 

[WPXS472]

A year of product development isn't all that unusual. But for a start up to have to go a year shelling out development costs with no product to sell to get income is tough. They do have an external antenna connection, which is good. I am not all that keen on the mesh network aspects.
I am more interested in short range data transmission off the cellular network. I hope these actually work and don't have a lot of bugs. I hope the 900 MHz part isn't spread spectrum, but it would have to be in order to have any power and be legal. With a couple of good antennas, there might be some interesting applications for these.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

https://imgur.com/a/8OcrWlc

This is what they say it will look like.^

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

JackPair: secure your voice phone calls against wiretapping

This is a project I have watched for several years. It is a great idea. The funding is tiny and they keep running up against complications, The major one is that smartphones don't like to pass any sort of encrypted voice on the voice channel. I hope they succeed somehow but they have a lot of angry backers.