Where to purchase BC127 Development Kit? (MFi licensee)

Hi,

We have recently acquired a MFi certificate and contract number from Apple but we cannot figure out where to purchase the BC127 MFi Development Kit (part number BC127-DEVKIT001). I have searched through this forum and though others have had troubles finding the board in the past, their support tickets were resolved when directed to Avnet. Avnet as of October 2019 is no longer a distributor of Sierra Wireless - the new distributors are Richardson RFPD and Future Electronics. However, I’ve had multiple phones calls with both sales and tech departments of both distributors and and have had no luck. Sierra Wireless customer support continues to direct me to these distributors and these distributors direct me back to Sierra Wireless to “get more information” on the board.

Actually, as I was writing this post a Sierra Wireless customer support agent got back to me and said she asked “[Sierra Wireless’s] Distribution Channel Manager to fulfill Digikey with this SKU”, and that they would process an order for me when the products are shipped in a few weeks. However the SKU is “BC127 v3” not “BC127-DEVKIT001”, and this product shouldn’t be publicly available without a MFi certification anyway. So I doubt this is the right product. That being said, I do see BC127-DEVKIT001 on DigiKey here, but out of stock. Again - I shouldn’t be able to purchase this without MFi certification anyway.

I have two questions at this point:

  1. Is this board still made? In the latest melody firmware firmware reference guide (7.3 as of this post) when referring to MFi-specific features, it states “iAP is available on MFI builds only (MFI license). Please contact Sierra Wireless for more information”, so I assume the board is still made if MFi builds are still under development.
  2. Do we have to purchase the BC127 Development Kit to get access to the MFi Melody 7.3 build? According to this forum post, we do have to have purchased the development kit. However in June 2017 Apple removed the requirement for a co-processor (they now offer a software based auth protocol), so is it possible to flash a BC127 discovery kit module with the 7.3 MFi build?

Looking forward to an answer for myself and anyone any company rep looking to purchase and use this module in production!

@drewandre,

So MFi builds are specifically restricted as Apple require us to not make them publicly available so that they can only be sent to customers who are part of their developers program. Re 7.3 we do have an MFi release.

Your feedback about Richardson is useful, it is not surprising about Digikey as support through them is limited. If you can tell me the region you are in I can direct the request to the right distribution manager.

I do not know about how/whether the Apple authentication has evolved but the BC127 is probably considered old school and will need the authentication chip which means you need the ‘expanded’ dev kit (blue PCB rather than yellow and which has the chip on it), not sure if we have any of these in stock or if we do actually make them. Once we have directed your request correctly (and sorted the path through Richardson) we can get the release to you.

Regards

Matt

@mlw thanks for the speedy reply. We are located in Boston, MA.

I’m a little confused by your third paragraph. You say that 1) we likely need the blue/expanded development board (BC127-DEVKIT001) because of the Apple MFi co-processor even though you may not actually manufacture them anymore, but 2) you would still be able to release the 7.3 MFi build to us. Why release the MFi firmware if there is no way to run it properly on a BC127 module? Are you suggesting we design our own BC127 board with an Apple co-processor and use this MFi firmware release? We would prefer to use the expended development board just to eliminate variables when debugging. If that’s not possible and the board isn’t manufactured anymore, would you be able to release the expanded BC127 development kit schematics along with the MFi firmware to us?

Thank you!

@drewandre,

Sorry if I wasn’t clear. We have a SKU for the expanded dev kit and so hopefully have some around we can push to you through distribution. After this we will supply you with the MFi release to load onto the unit (as it almost certainly does not have the latest greatest on board.

I will push this thread to our US team and they will chase it through.

Regards

Matt

Great, thanks for clarifying @mlw ! Should I expect to hear back from you here or would someone reach out to me with the email associated with my forum account? I can also supply my email here if that’s easiest. I assume I will still have to go through the MFi verification somewhere outside of this forum.

Thanks again.

@drewandre,

I managed to get your Email address and pass it onto the team (as I am an admin). I am currently waiting for the US guys to respond but I would hope that someone should reach out to you and then we can route everything through our normal systems (this is a forum and so is ‘best effort’/not private).

If you don’t hear anything in the next week from Richardson then ping me and I will push some people.

Regards

Matt

OK - I will keep an eye out for an email from a Sierra Wireless rep and will continue the MFi verification with them. A rep from Richardson RFPD just reached out to me actually (they said they saw this forum post). I will let you know how that conversation goes. Thanks again for your help!

@mlw just to keep you in the loop re: conversation with Richardson RFPD – my contact confirmed they don’t have the discovery kit in stock and I should look to get it stocked at DigiKey. He did say they could supply the BC127 module flashed with the latest MFi build in the future, though. At this point I’ll wait to hear back from you regarding getting the development kit stocked at DigiKey. Thanks.

@drew,

I cannot do anything about getting stock at distributors, you need to push them (I would push Richardson as you will have better luck) for this as its outside my area of influence.

Regards

Matt

Understood - thanks again for the clarification. Richardson RFPD is working on this and said it may just be a long lead time. I’ll report back any additional info.

@mlw is it possible to have the MFi 7.3 build released to us without the BC127 development kit? We would be able to build a simple MFi prototype PCB with the apple co-processor ourselves based off of the schematic after supplying you with out MFi certification info of course. Most of the features on the development kit we don’t need anyway. Our contacts noted that the lead time for the official development kit would be very long.

@drewandre,

So yes you should be able to do this but it will need Richardson to raise a ticket/request it from their US apps engineer.

Regards

Matt

@mlw I raised a ticket with Richardson as you suggested and they received an update from a Sierra Wireless PLM who informed them that SW no longer supports MFi integration on the BC127 module. We’ve been prototyping with the BC127 for close to a year now and were prepared to begin bulk orders so this is unfortunate news for our team.

If this really is the case, there are many resources and manuals that need to be updated or removed. All Melody firmware manuals up to v7.3 refer to MFi builds as if they are readily available by contacting Sierra Wireless (it definitely wasn’t that simple). Additionally, the iAP reference manual, development kit schematics, firmware release notes, product technical specifications, Melody Classic iOS app example, etc - all would need to be updated or removed. It’s extremely misleading and if we had known Sierra Wireless had plans to deprecate MFi integration we wouldn’t have spent the last nine months prototyping with the module. At this point we’re looking at starting from scratch with a new module, new firmware integration, new schematic, and a new mobile software bluetooth classic integration.

Is there a reason for the deprecation? Overall we found the module very straightforward to use with great documentation, but without MFi the module can’t be used with custom iOS applications. Obviously you can connect to the module over A2DP or AVRCP but every other bluetooth classic profile supported by the module is not accessible on iOS without a MFi build (we required an A2DP connection alongside SPP). This limits the range of products the module can be used in and as more and more products are reliant on wireless technology it seems like a step in the opposite direction.

If you can confirm that MFi integration is not an option then we will move on - we just need a yes or no from someone and we’ve been jumping through too many hoops at this point given our product launch timeline. Thanks for your help so far though - you’ve been quick to respond and have been pointing us in the right direction.

@drewandre,

I have been talking around internally and I am sorry to say that for various reasons I have confirmed we cannot make the MFi firmware available anymore so you are going to need to move on.

Regards

Matt

Thanks for confirming – hopefully this thread helps others who are looking for a similar iOS BT solution.

One last question actually @mlw . I just visited the Avnet portal and see the following modules and development kits available even though Avnet is not an official supplier anymore. I assume this issue isn’t one with releasing the compiled firmware to an individual customer (even though the modules may still be manufactured and pre-flashed with the MFi firmware somewhere), and instead a change in manufacturing, correct? So these modules listed are probably on their last run and should not be ordered, correct?

@drewandre,

Yes I suspect this is old stock that they will have bought previously, so people are free to buy it if needed but additional units might be hard to come by.

Regards

Matt

@mlw we may actually be interested in purchasing one BC127-DEVKIT001 unit from avnet just to get this prototype across the finish line for upcoming product demos. However from my understanding, the on board BC127 module would not ship with the MFi firmware, correct? In which case we would not order one.

One follow up question, if it does ship with the MFi firmware pre-flashed, and say it’s Melody v6.x and we wanted to update it, we wouldn’t be able to do this since you can’t release Melody 7.x MFi builds anymore right?

Thanks for answering these lingering questions - we’re just trying to tie a bow on this. Thanks!

@drewandre,

You are, unfortunately, correct on all counts.

Regards

Matt

Ok thanks for the clarification. I marked this comment of yours as the solution for this thread. Thanks again for helping us navigate all of this.