About to start work on a project with a particle electron. I am interested to know if anyone has been able to use the 3g connection on the electron with another connected device.
I don’t even know if this is possible but i want to have the electron connected to an RPI and it would be great to use the 3g connection on the electron to connect to the RPI over a vpn to run updates etc.
Hi Arnold,
I don’t see many advantages using the Electron 3G as a wireless hotspot/softAP. First up, the data rates on Electron are excellent given how the device is intended to be used. With that said, there are far better options if you are going to do heavy lifting on RPi (such as updates, and to do things RPi is commonly used for).
A 12-month cost would likely be far less by grabbing a 3G dongle from Optus on a prepaid plan. Optus Long Expiry is 5c per MB which is pretty good if you keep your overheads down. Easy as Pi.
Thanks Graham,
The reason that i am investigating this is due to the fact that the project i am working on specifically uses a combination of a RPI and Electron already, the electron performs some “off pi” functions so that should the PI fall over there is some redundancy to the system.
However the project also calls for 3g connectivity on a PI, and it seems wasteful to have a 3g device (electron) already connected then need a second 3g modem and second sim and service just to enable data on the pi.
The master plan was to have the Electron setup to provide 3g internet to the pi as well as function as an “off-pi” device
Oh ok. I don’t really see why you would need both in the same project/enclosure… There are lots of free and secure data services out there that would get you to very similar end points.
From what I understand, there is no officially supported method to use the Electron as a hotspot (just hacks and workarounds).
Maybe sign up to the Particle + Raspberry Pi Beta. Do it all from the RPi.
Hi Arnold,
Something to consider as well is that you’ll be up for $2.99/1.99 per MB you use, which is fine for the electron, but not really viable for a hotspot for multiple devices.
Thanks Sam, Yes absolutely a consideration, i would be looking to use a third party SIM/Provider in this use case
