Own Sim Card

Support & Solutions Set up & Installation
1

Hello! I tried to use my Google Fi data only sim in my Yarbo and it did not work. I thought I would try the support tool to see if my APN was set up correctly but noticed the Yarbo was not broadcasting any ssid.

I contacted support to see if there was something that could be done and was sent the following. (See below)

Does anyone know if this is accurate? It would be a big disappointment if we are not able to use our own sim card/use the support tool to check anything.

Thanks!

Thank you for your update and for taking the time to test the SIM card and verify that it works in other devices.

We would like to clarify that Yarbo is designed and validated to work only with the official IoT SIM card provided by Yarbo. Unfortunately, third-party SIM cards, including Google Fi data SIM cards, are not supported and may not function properly with the system.

To ensure stable connectivity and allow us to provide full technical support, we kindly recommend using the original Yarbo SIM card.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. Please let us know if you experience any issues while using the Yarbo SIM card, and we will be happy to assist further.

Best regards,

Claire
Team Yarbo

2

Would that mean that for places where the Halo doesn’t work, that Yarbo is unusable after they end the SIM’s contract?

3

The supplied SIM includes free data. Any reason you’re needing or wanting to switch? Here are some details that might help.

4

Thank you for the link. Getting the sim card inserted is not the problem. It is having access to adjust the APN settings.

I understand that it has free data but how much? I know checking the cameras when over 4g use a significant amount of data. My personal data sim has 100gb a month and I can actually monitor the usage on it. (Not sure how accurate the counter is in the app)
Also like @mad asked what happens after the sim contract?

I go back to all of the articles pointing to the troubleshooting tool that requires the Yarbo to be broadcasting the hotspot SSID to actually be able to connect. It seems like all of the documentation I can find on your website is from 2025 and is outdated.

5

The article talks about the cap and some other points about ensuring the SIM is a data plan only SIM. There currently isn’t a way to set an APN. So the SIM would have to work directly when inserted. The data plan cap is 2GB per the website, but I honestly think it stops working at 4GB. You are limited to 20 mins a session and 60 mins a month on 4G, even if it is your own plan. The Yarbo Tool is only for the 2023 version of the core. It is not compatible with the 24 version. You could open a support ticket and see if they could assist you with the APN. As for when the current contract will expire, they haven’t announced anything about that but I assume it will be a pay to use option available if it does. AFAIK, they have included it for at least 2 years (the length of the standard warranty). After that, we still have 4 months before the first group of 24 cores warranties expire. As for the most up to date information, that is on the wiki. The support center is an archive KB. Not my website, but I do help write articles for the Wiki some. I’m just a customer like yourself.

6

Your responses are so in-depth I assumed your were an employee! That was my mistake! Thank you very much for the info! I have reached out to support about it. I will have to ask them again.

7

Thanks, no pay check, unfortunately. :joy: Just a passionate beta tester. I enjoy the hobby.

8

Every once in a while, they really ought to organize a company dinner—on the house, of course… at this point, we’re practically part of the company for free :rofl:

9

I would definitely attend a meet up. :smiley:

10

We are lucky to have you and the others that help out here.

11

It’s a great community. Some very smart and creative people here.

12

honestly kind of wish yarbo would open source some of their software/firmware so I could open up some pull requests to address some of the most frustrating issues. I swear the docking behavior has gotten progressively worse throughout my ownership lol. Even some app nice to haves, backup behavior, importing/exporting, etc. With agentic coding and some good test coverage it’s incredible the progress that can be made in a short time, which is why I’m a little baffled with some of the slower progress on improvements lately. No idea what the company is dealing with though.

13

I believe this is sort of the goal of open platform. At least to a certain extent. That’s supposedly due sometime next year. They have published their SDK to GitHub.

14

Note that the latest app and firmware updates as of today allow setting an APN.

15

Let us know if you have success after updating to firmware V3.14.0.

It would be nice to Bring Your Own SIM and eliminate the time limit from the Yarbo service.

16

FYI - It currently won’t disable the time limit.

17

NO? So what is the rationale for a time limit if not the cellular cost? Battery life? Heat?

18

Limiting the bandwidth use since most plans you pay by the GB. Right now it is still focused on their included plan. TBD in the future if they can detect it’s not their SIM and disable that time limit.