5G will start being deployed sometimes next year, and we’ve already seen announcement of several 5G modem chips including Qualcomm Snapdragon X50, Mediatek Helio M70 , and Huawei Balong 5G01. Samsung has now announced their own 5G cellular modem chip with Exynos Modem 5100. Specifications: 5G NR – Sub-6GHz, mmWave Supported Modes (Backward compatibility) 4G – LTE-FDD, LTE-TDD 3G – HSPA, TD-SCDMA, WCDMA 2G – CDMA, GSM/EDGE Downlink Features 8CA (Carrier Aggregation) in 5G NR up to 6 Gbps (mmWave) and up to 2Gbps (Sub-6GHz) 8CA (Carrier Aggregation) in LTE up to 1.6 Gbps 4×4 MIMO FD-MIMO Up to 256-QAM in sub-6GHz Up to 64-QAM in mmWave Uplink Features 2CA (Carrier Aggregation) in 5G NR 2CA (Carrier Aggregation) in LTE Up to 256-QAM in sub-6GHz Up to 64-QAM in mmWave Process – 10nm FinFET Process (10LPP) The Exynos Modem 5100 is compliant with 5G NR (New Radio) standard defined by […]
Orange Pi 3G/4G Cellular IoT Development Kits with Touchscreen Display Launched for $35 and Up
Earlier this year, Shenzhen Xunlong introduced two new Orange Pi cellular IoT boards running Android – but no Linux distribution just yet – with Orange Pi 3G-IoT and Orange Pi 4G-IoT boards, with LTE bands suitable for Asia and most part of Europe, but not the US. But boards are quite cheap, the 4G-IoT model recently got Android 8.1 Oreo support, if you’d like a display with the board, you can now buy various kits with touchscreen display and in some sets a power supply as well for $34.80 and up plus shipping, or the displays only for $14.80 and up. Four kits have been launched so far: $34.80 Orange Pi 3G-IoT-A Set1 with Orange Pi 3G-IOT-A board powered by Mediatek MT6572 dual core Cortex A7 processor + 256MB RAM/512MB eMMC combo chip, and a 4.98″ TFT LCD touchscreen display (854 x 480) $39.80 Orange Pi 3G-IoT-B Set1 with Orange […]
LEORY 3G USB Dongle Sells for Just $9.99
When Orange Pi 3G-IoT SBC was launched, I looked at 3G USB dongles to make a comparison with a similar setup based on a Raspberry Pi Zero W board and an inexpensive 3G USB stick, and the cheapest I could find was a refurbished HUAWEI E3533 model now selling for around $16 shipped. But I’ve just found one fairly cheaper with LEORY 3G USB dongle offered for only $9.99 including shipping on Banggood. Specifications listed on Banggood: Cellular Connectivity 3G UMTS/ HSDPA + 2G GSM/EDGE Frequency bands 2G – 850/900/1800/1900MHz 3G – 2100 MHz (Band 1) Transfer rate -7.2Mbps downlink SIM card slot Storage – micro SD card storage up to 16GB USB – 1x USB 2.0 port Dimensions – 9 x 3 x 1 cm Temperature Range – Operating: -20°C ~ +55°C; storage: -30°C ~ +65°C Relative Humidity – Up to 93% The dongle is said to be supported […]
Tail it is a Family of WiFi & Cellular GPS Trackers for Things, Pets, and Bicycles (Crowdfunding)
We’ve previously written about Ping, a tiny Cellular GPS tracker that promised to last 3 months on a charge. The raising money part of the crowdfunding campaign itself was successfully with over one million dollars raised, but as with many such campaigns there have been delays, and some people still have to receive theirs, not to mention people complaining about poor battery life and other issues. But there seems to be another option now with Tail It Technologies now offering four different “Tail it” cellular GPS trackers (with WiFi too) for things, pets, and even one designed specifically for bicycles. The company has already sold their devices to thousands of customers in Norway, so they should be working, and on-time delivery should hopefully not be an issue. All four GPS trackers come with 2G, 3G, 4G, and WiFi connectivity, a 5-meter accuracy, and share the same electronics and firmware. Here’s […]
Wio LTE GPS Tracker Board Gets a Cat M1/NB1 Version for $59
Seeed Studio launched a family of GPS tracker boards staring with Wio GPS with 2G cellular connectivity, followed by Wio LTE board offering 4G connectivity several months later. The company is taking pre-order for an LTE Cat M1/NB1 version with NB-IoT / eMTC connectivity, and going for $59 plus shipping. The board is expected to start shipping on July 25th. Wio LTE Cat M1/NB1 board specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32F405RG Arm Cortex-M4 @ 168MHZ with 1M Flash, 192+4KB RAM Connectivity LTE uBlox SARA-R410M module LTE CAT M1 and NB-IoT Cat M1 Half-duplex (375 kb/s DL and UL) Cat NB1 Half-duplex (27.2 kb/s DL, 62.5 UL) Nano SIM and micro SD card 2-in-1 socket GNSS uBlox MAX-M8Q module PS, BeiDou, GLONASS, and Galileo 2.5m CEP(GPS), 4.0m CEP(GLONASS) USB – 1x micro USB port for power supply and DFU Expansions – Grove headers: 2x digital, 2x analog, 1x UART, 1x I2C Misc […]
MediaTek Helio M70 5G Modem to Launch in 2019
5G cellular technology is now being tested, and the first deployment should start next year (2019) in some countries. We’ve also seen 5G cellular modems or 5G capable SoCs with products such as Qualcomm Snadragon X50, Huawei Balong 5G01, NXP QorIQ LA1575, or MIPS I7200, as well as 5G indoor small cells from Ericsson. Unsurprisingly, MediaTek has also been working on their 5G solution, and one of their first product will be Helio M70 5G Modem. MediaTek gas already collaborated with Nokia, NTT Docomo, China Mobile (CMCC), Huawei and others companies, and Helio M70 5G radio modem is compatible with 3GPP Release 15, supports data rates up to 5Gbps, as well as “critical carrier features”. Helio M70 will be fabricated using TSMC’s 7nm process (EUV technology), and shipments are expected to start in 2019. However, DigiTimes reports the company does not expect to sell many 5G modems in 2019, and instead […]
Orange Pi 3G-IoT SBC Launched for $24.90
We had two Arm Linux SBCs with cellular connectivity from Shenzhen Xunlong so far: Orange Pi 2G-IoT for 2G connectivity, and Orange Pi 4G-IoT with LTE support in Asia and Europe. But what if you needed 3G connectivity, and did not want to spend $45 on the 4G board? There was no option until today, but the company has just launched Orange Pi 3G-IoT with WCDMA (UMTS), TD-CDMA and CDMA2000 support. Orange Pi 3G-IoT-B board specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT6572 dual core Cortex A7 processor @ up to 1.2 GHz with Arm Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 512MB DDR2 Storage – 4GB eMMC flash, micro SD slot Display I/F – FPC connector for FWVGA display (854×480) Camera I/F – MIPI connector Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, built-in microphone, 2x solder pads for optional speakers Connectivity Cellular Nano SIM card slot 2G GSM – 850/900/1800/1900 MHz 3G WCDMA -(B1/B2/B5/B8), TD-CDMA, CDMA2000 […]
hIoTron Modular & Enterprise IoT Development Kit is Designed for Fast Prototyping
hIoTron modular & enterprise IoT development kit is described by the company has a “fully pre-programmed prototyping kit for quickly building and testing your IoT concept” with plug-n-play module allowing for flexible prototyping. Beside the hardware comprises of a gateway and nodes, the kit also integrates with the company’s enterprise IoT Platform enabling easy design of custom mobile application & GUI dashboard. The company offers standard, advanced, and custom kits, but to keep things simple, let’s focus on the content of their standard kit first: Hi-Gate IoT gateway: WiSoC – Texas Instruments CC3200 Arm Cortex-M4 @ 80 MHz with 1MB flash, 256KB RAM Storage – 1MB serial flash, 512KB EEPROM Connectivity 802.11 n/g/n Wi-Fi, 2G GSM/GPRS (optional 3G/4G), ZigBee, BLE 4.0, sub-1GHz RF/NON RF to REST/MQTT gateway Expansion – 2x GPIO port pins, 2x analog port pins Power Supply – 9-12V DC 3x modular Hi-Nodes (up to 25 supported per […]