alexanderjt
New member
The Product
API for decoding IoT device payloads.
https://yep.so/p/iot-payload-decoder?ref=reddit
One of the major bottlenecks in scaling an IoT solution is needing to write custom integrations for each device. It's a new field, and every company has their own protocols and payload format which makes support and debugging a nightmare (speaking from experience).
The goal of this API is to enable IoT developers to get new devices up and running as fast as possible by removing the integration hurdle.
Target Market
Companies in the IoT space. I suspect the primary consumers will be the small to medium size companies as larger players are more prepared to develop their own inhouse solutions.
Competition
In terms of direct competition there are no other publicly available API's I can find that offer the same service. There are companies that can be contracted to write/provide payload decoders, however the price point on them seems utterly insane.
anypayload.com: £475 ($567.91 USD) for a single payload decoder. Insane price. You need to purchase the code from them and host it yourself.
akenza: 2.50 CHF ($2.63 USD) per sensor per month. Yet another platform you need to log into and 'manage' your devices.
Why do I think my approach is better than the competition?
For non-IoT familiar people the typical setup looks like this:
Device > Network > Platform
Device
Device manufacturers may have a platform to send firmware updates to devices. Depending on the size of your catalogue that's 1-N firmware platforms with $X/device/month.
Network
Typical IoT solutions are on several networks.
- Cellular (Requires a SIM management platform)
- LoraWAN (Chipstack/NNNCo/Helium/TheThingsStack)
Each network charges $Y/device/month
Platform
Ideally you would only have one IoT platform. If you've developed in-house you pay for hosting the infrastructure. If you're using a 3rd party platform you're paying whatever their monthly fee is. $Z/device/month.
Summary
Customers have an upper limit on what they will pay per month per device, from experience moderate size companies are happy with $10 if the service is good. With the above costs you'd be looking at minimum $5/month/device to get it working. I think this eliminates akenza as using them would be halving your margins.
I personally wouldn't even consider anypayload as the price isn't reasonable.
What it looks like today
Expression of Interest page: https://yep.so/p/iot-payload-decoder?ref=reddit
The API listing: https://rapidapi.com/jacksonbowe98/api/iot-payload-decoder/details
Right now there are 11 supported devices as a proof of concept. Planned pricing model is $0.0001 per payload decoded. My cost for decoding a payload is approx $0.000002.
For a device that sends a payload every 5 minutes you're looking at 8640 payloads/month = $0.86 /device/month
Hour intervals = 720 payloads/month = $0.072 /device/month
I don't think people will care that they're paying a 5000% mark-up when the end result is <$1 a month.
Marketing
You're reading it. Plan is to post on relevant subreddits, indie hackers, medium. If there is any interest I am prepared to make YouTube video's showing how to consume the API with some popular hobbyist IoT platforms.
If that increases traction next step would be to contact the IoT platforms directly and suggest a native integration (I have some contacts via GitHub issue engagement).
My background
Graduated IoT Engineer 2019. First 2 years spent developing a commercial IoT platform. Afterwards started getting heavy into AWS for serverless solutions (API's/WebApps).
Let me know what you think.
Cheers
API for decoding IoT device payloads.
https://yep.so/p/iot-payload-decoder?ref=reddit
One of the major bottlenecks in scaling an IoT solution is needing to write custom integrations for each device. It's a new field, and every company has their own protocols and payload format which makes support and debugging a nightmare (speaking from experience).
The goal of this API is to enable IoT developers to get new devices up and running as fast as possible by removing the integration hurdle.
Target Market
Companies in the IoT space. I suspect the primary consumers will be the small to medium size companies as larger players are more prepared to develop their own inhouse solutions.
Competition
In terms of direct competition there are no other publicly available API's I can find that offer the same service. There are companies that can be contracted to write/provide payload decoders, however the price point on them seems utterly insane.
anypayload.com: £475 ($567.91 USD) for a single payload decoder. Insane price. You need to purchase the code from them and host it yourself.
akenza: 2.50 CHF ($2.63 USD) per sensor per month. Yet another platform you need to log into and 'manage' your devices.
Why do I think my approach is better than the competition?
For non-IoT familiar people the typical setup looks like this:
Device > Network > Platform
Device
Device manufacturers may have a platform to send firmware updates to devices. Depending on the size of your catalogue that's 1-N firmware platforms with $X/device/month.
Network
Typical IoT solutions are on several networks.
- Cellular (Requires a SIM management platform)
- LoraWAN (Chipstack/NNNCo/Helium/TheThingsStack)
Each network charges $Y/device/month
Platform
Ideally you would only have one IoT platform. If you've developed in-house you pay for hosting the infrastructure. If you're using a 3rd party platform you're paying whatever their monthly fee is. $Z/device/month.
Summary
Customers have an upper limit on what they will pay per month per device, from experience moderate size companies are happy with $10 if the service is good. With the above costs you'd be looking at minimum $5/month/device to get it working. I think this eliminates akenza as using them would be halving your margins.
I personally wouldn't even consider anypayload as the price isn't reasonable.
What it looks like today
Expression of Interest page: https://yep.so/p/iot-payload-decoder?ref=reddit
The API listing: https://rapidapi.com/jacksonbowe98/api/iot-payload-decoder/details
Right now there are 11 supported devices as a proof of concept. Planned pricing model is $0.0001 per payload decoded. My cost for decoding a payload is approx $0.000002.
For a device that sends a payload every 5 minutes you're looking at 8640 payloads/month = $0.86 /device/month
Hour intervals = 720 payloads/month = $0.072 /device/month
I don't think people will care that they're paying a 5000% mark-up when the end result is <$1 a month.
Marketing
You're reading it. Plan is to post on relevant subreddits, indie hackers, medium. If there is any interest I am prepared to make YouTube video's showing how to consume the API with some popular hobbyist IoT platforms.
If that increases traction next step would be to contact the IoT platforms directly and suggest a native integration (I have some contacts via GitHub issue engagement).
My background
Graduated IoT Engineer 2019. First 2 years spent developing a commercial IoT platform. Afterwards started getting heavy into AWS for serverless solutions (API's/WebApps).
Let me know what you think.
Cheers
