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August 28, 2019 by Ayo Ayibiowu - 3 Comments

Nordic Thingy:91 Cellular IoT Prototyping Platform Comes with 16 Sensors

Nordic Semiconductor launched the Nordic Thingy:52 back in mid-2017 in the hopes of bringing app and web developers into the hardware ecosystem as fast and easy as possible. The Nordic Thingy:52 was a Bluetooth 5 IoT sensor development kit based on the company’s nRF52832 WiSoC. Although the Nordic Thingy:52 kit is still very much available for purchase and support always available, Nordic Semiconductor has gone further launching a new development kit called the Nordic Thingy:91 targeting cellular IoT applications. The Nordic Thingy:91 is a cellular IoT prototyping platform with support for LTE-M, NB-IoT plus GPS option. Even though IoT connectivity standards like LoRaWAN, BLE, WiFi, ZigBee, and others are very much growing and expanding, Nordic Semi is fully backing cellular technology, something that has very much been available and most likely will still keep been available, and the adoption of 5G is another testimony to that. Cellular is here, and […]

July 24, 2019 by Stephen Vicinanza - No Comments

hIoTron Launches Smart Cold Chain Management PaaS & Hi-Gate Tracker

The hIoTron monitoring system is designed to be middleware for smart cold chain systems, which can be found in food transport, pharmaceutical transport and even some chemical transport systems. We previously covered any product from the company in April of 2018 with the hIoTron modular and enterprise development kit that helps with prototyping of IoT devices. Cold Chain Systems The company has now developed a commercial product designed for one of the most sensitive platforms in supply chain management: the cold chain. A cold chain system is a distribution process that requires constant monitoring of a product’s surrounding environment while in transit or storage before or after transit. The actions and equipment in low-temperature ranges would be maintained at a constant between 2 and 8 ℃ (36 to 46 ℉) to maintain the integrity of the product, food, drug, or chemical, from harvest/production through to consumption. These complex systems can […]

July 18, 2019July 17, 2019 by Stephen Vicinanza - 5 Comments

Docker Pi IoT Node(A) Adds LoRa, GPRS and GPS to Raspberry Pi Board

The Docker Pi IoT Node(A) is the latest addition to the Docker Pi series of modules meant to enhance IoT capability and expand on the Raspberry Pi family of SBCs. Although it is mountable on the Raspberry Pi SBC, the HAT form factor allows it to be used with other similar single board computers such as Rock64 board. The Docker Pi IoT Node(A) supports GPS/BDS (Beidou), GSM, and LoRa. The add-on board interfaces to the host over I2C, in order to control LoRa & GSM connectivity, as well as the GPS/BDS module through SC16IS752 chip. There are a number of code examples and instructions that can be found on the Wiki. The unit can also be controlled directly without programming, and all the GPIO pins are extended so the board can stack on other HAT compatible boards, in appropriate layers. Specifications GPRS section Low power consumption, standby sleep current <1mA […]

July 4, 2019February 16, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

$15 TTGO T-Call Board Combines ESP32 WiFi & Bluetooth SoC with SIM800 GPRS Module

LilyGo has launched several TTGO boards usually based on Espressif ESP8266 or ESP32 over the years. Here’s another that could be useful if 2G cellular networks have not sunset in your country: TTGO T-Call. The new board combines ESP32 WiFi & Bluetooth WiSoC with SIMCom SIM800L GPRS module, and also happens to rely on a USB-C port for power and programming instead of the more common micro USB port on this type of hardware. TTGO T-Call board (BLINK_V1.3) specifications: Wireless Module – ESP32-WROVER-B based on ESP32 dual core Xtensa processor @ 240MHz with 520kB SRAM on-chip, 4MB QSPI flash, 8MB PSRAM Connectivity – WiFi 4 802.11 b/g/n (2.4 GHz) up to 150 Mbps Bluetooth 4.2 Classic + LE Cellular – 2G GSM/GPRS via SIMcom SIM800L module + Nano SIM card slot USB – 1x USB-C for power and programming (via CP2104) Expansion – 2x 21-pin headers with UART, SPI, SDIO, […]

July 2, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

S+ Camera Basic Combines Raspberry Pi 3 Board and LTE Shield for Edge Applications

Soracom is a company that provides global IoT network cellular connectivity for businesses in smart IoT agriculture, energy, consumer, manufacturing, transportation, and medical industries, and even provides free IoT SIM cards for evaluation (US/Canada only). The company has just announced the S+ Camera on its Japanese blog. The camera looks to features several off-the-shelf components including a Raspberry Pi 3 board and SixFab Raspberry Pi 3G-4G/LTE Base Shield V2 connecting to Soramcom network. It’s a little confusing as to why a cellular IoT company would develop an LTE camera since streaming video requires bitrates not normally associated with IoT. The blog post does provide a few more details however, as S + Camera is said to run SORACOM Mosaic software which enables “algorithms for edge processing cameras and management and operation of cameras”. That means it’s quite possible the video will not be streamed, but edge processing/computing usually means AI is […]

May 22, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Onion Omega2 LTE Board Combines WiFi, 4G LTE and GNSS Connectivity (Crowdfunding)

Onion has launched several compact OpenWrt WiFi boards for IoT projects over the years starting with their Onion Omega board in 2015, and the latest so far being Onion Omega2 Pro with a massive 8GB storage. The company has now launched a new model with 4G LTE connectivity called Onion Omega2 LTE, based on Omega2S+ module, and also featuring GNSS global satellite positioning capability. Onion Omega2 LTE specifications: WiFi Module – Onion Omega2S+ IoT computer module with MediaTek MT7688 MIPS CPU @ 580 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 32 MB storage Cellular and GNS Module – Quectel EC25 LTE Cat 4 modem that delivers 150 Mbps downlink and 50 Mbps uplink data rates, provided either for North America or global markets External Storage – MicroSD card slot up to 2 TB (once such cards become available…) Connectivity 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi 4 + onboard 2 dBi direction chip antenna & […]

May 22, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Arduino SIM for Arduino IoT Cloud Includes 10 MB of Free Data

Arduino SIM Card Arduino MKR GSM 1400 board

I’ve been using Hologram developer SIM card for cellular IoT hardware reviews since it’s really great for evaluation as the company offers 1MB of data for free monthly. It’s supposed to work worldwide, but recently I discovered that while 3G worked fine in Thailand, the card would not support NB-IoT just yet. More companies are now offering this type of global cellular IoT SIM cards such as Twilio or SORACOM, and Arduino is now joining the fray by offering the Arduino SIM card specifically designed to connect to Arduino IoT cloud. The Arduino SIM card currently works with Arduino MKR GSM 1400 board only, and Arm Pelion Connectivity Management provides the cellular service with a global roaming profile than enables connectivity in over 100 countries at a low cost. The first 90 days are actually free if you use less than 10MB of data, after which the price is 5MB […]

March 12, 2019March 12, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 27 Comments

Cost of Mobile Data Around the World

The price of products often vary around the world due to taxes, regulations, and cost of living. In many cases, that’s just a few tens of percents, but in some others the price may vary a lot more, as in many folds. For example, medicines are usually way more expensive in developed countries – and harder to buy -, and based on a study by Cable.co.uk, the price of 1GB mobile data varies massively across the world with India having the cheapest average cost of $0.26 US, and Zimbabwe the highest at $75.20. Price varies a lot even for neighboring countries. So if you live in Geneva in Switzerland where the average price for 1GB is $20.22, it may pay off to get signal from France (if possible) where the average cost is only $2.99. One should bear in mind that determining the average price of 1GB of mobile data […]