lpwan News - Page 7 of 23 - CNX Software

February 21, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Low-power satellite IoT SoC works with Totum’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) network

Orca Systems ORC3990 is a low-power satellite Internet of Things (IoT) SoC that works with Totum’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) network of satellites and targets outdoor and indoor tracking and monitoring applications. It’s not the first time we read about satellites being used for LPWAN networks, as Sigfox launched LEO satellites a few years ago to provide worldwide coverage even in remote locations like the Sahara desert, the two poles, and oceans. But I had never heard of Totum or Orca Systems before, so let’s have a closer look. Orca Systems ORC3990 ORC3990 specifications: Unnamed Arm cores Integrated RF Transceiver Low Power Sensor-to-Satellite (LP-S2S) connectivity in the 2.4 GHz ISM band Totum DMSS modem for improved doppler performance Link budget enables indoor signal coverage Support location fixes with 20m accuracy Low power – 10+ year battery life Package – 7x7mm QFN chip Temperature Range – -40 – +85°C Process – […]

January 29, 2022January 31, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Arduino Portenta gets an LTE Cat. M1/NB IoT GNSS shield

Arduino Portenta LTE Cat-M1 NB-IoT GNSS shield

Arduino PRO Portenta family of industrial boards is getting a new LTE Cat. M1/NB-IoT GNSS shield that adds global connectivity and positioning capabilities through the Cinterion TX62-W LPWAN IoT module by Thales. The shield works with the Portenta H7 board as well as its lower-cost variants and Arduino MKR boards and will power industry 4.0 and edge computing solutions such as positioning, asset tracking, and remote monitoring applications at the factory, in agriculture, public utilities, and smart cities. Portenta CatM1 shield specifications: Cinterion TX62-W module with: 3GPP Rel.14 Cat.M1, Cat.NB1, Cat.NB2 Global coverage with a single SKU FDD-LTE Bands – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, 66, 71, 85 LTE Cat. M1 – DL: max. 300 kbps, UL: max. 1.1 Mbps LTE Cat. NB1 – DL: max. 27 kbps, UL: max. 63 kbps LTE Cat. NB2 – DL: max. 124 kbps, […]

January 27, 2022January 27, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Sigfox is in financial trouble

While there are many LPWAN standards, in recent years, we wrote mostly about LoRaWAN, NB-IoT & LTE Cat M1/2, as well as Sigfox to a lesser extent. The company managing the latter, also called Sigfox appears to be in financial trouble with the company placed in “redressement judiciaire”, a court-supervised business recovery/turnaround procedure in French law that looks to be similar to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US, and sometimes also translated as “receivership”. LTE IoT standards like NB-IoT and Cat M1/M2 rely on the vast infrastructure established for phones, while LoRaWAN allows the community and private companies to build their own network with gateways, but Sigfox decided to build and own their network and charge a monthly/yearly fee per device to access the network. Sigfox has extensive coverage in Europe, South Africa, Japan and South Korea, New Zealand, and part of South East Asia, but more sporadic coverage in […]

December 8, 2021December 24, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

LoRa expansion boards work with Raspberry Pi SBC and Raspberry Pi Pico board (Crowdfunding)

We’ve covered a number of LoRa solutions based on Raspberry Pi boards, and SB Components is now offering another with the LoRa HAT for Raspberry Pi equipped with an Ebyte E22 LoRa module operating in either the 433 MHz, or 868 and 915 MHz bands. The company also offers a LoRa expansion for Pico based on the same E22 module, adding a small 1.14-inch LCD for information display, and designed for the Raspberry Pi Pico board with the RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller. LoRa HAT for Raspberry Pi specifications: LoRa connectivity LoRa Module (one or the other) Ebyte E22-900T22S based on SX1262, operating in the 850 MHz to 930 MHz band Ebyte E22-400T22S based on SX1268, operating in the 410 MHz to 493MHz band Supported frequencies – 433 MHz, 868 MHz, 915 MHz Range – Up to 5 km line-of-sight Antenna – SMA antenna connector USB – 1x Micro USB port […]

December 6, 2021December 6, 2021 by Sponsored Post - 10 Comments

Ai Thinker enters the NB-IoT LPWAN market with EC-01 modules (Sponsored)

As we all know, 2G and 3G cellular networks are gradually being sunset, and NB-IoT has been formally incorporated into 3GPP standards. The LPWAN industry has ushered in new development opportunities for the Internet of Things market. Ai-Thinker has recently released three NB-IoT series modules: EC-01/EC-01F/EC-01G. The NB-IoT series modules are equipped with the EC616S chip platform, which is an ultra-low-cost, ultra-low power, ultra-high integration NB-IoT SOC chip, fully supporting the 3GPP R13/R14 NB-IoT standards with up to 159 kbps uplink. What are the benefits of the new modules? Better signal, more spectrum Better performance (equipped with EC616S) Ultra-low power consumption, stable and reliable connectivity I/O expansion, feature-rich module Check out the comparison table between AI Thinker NB-IoT modules part of the EC-01 family below. Ai-Thinker NB-IoT series modules adopt an SMD package that is convenient for mass production at the factory, and can use AOI to do the SMT […]

December 5, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Eigencomm EC616/EC616S SoC supports Cat-NB2 cellular IoT

Eigencomm EC616/EC616S are Cortex-M3 microcontrollers supporting the 3GPP R13/R14 NB-IoT standard, with 3GPP R14 notably introducing the newer LTE Cat-NB2 standard allowing higher bitrates up to 127 kbps downlink, and up to 159 kbps uplink, and OTDOA and E-CID positioning methods. Both EC616 and EC616S are virtually identical, but the EC616S comes with fewer GPIOs and is designed for the lowest possible BoM cost for modules as small as 10×10 mm. Both target similar IoT applications such as wireless meter reading, smoke detection, smart street lights, smart logistics, asset tracking, smart fire monitoring, smart parking, smart home, wearable devices, industry 4.0, smart agriculture, and others. Eigencomm EC616/EC616S specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M3 @ up to 204 MHz Frequency band – 663 MHz to 2200 MHz Protocol version – 3GPP R13/R14 Built-in PA output power – 23dBm Receiver sensitivity – EC616: -118 dBm, EC616S: -117 dBm Peripherals EC616 – 2x […]

November 3, 2021November 3, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Conexio Stratus – An nRF9160 board with solar energy harvesting capability (Crowdfunding)

Conexio Stratus board is equipped with Nordic Semi nRF9160 System in Package (SiP) with LTE-M (eMTC) & NB-IoT cellular IoT connectivity as well as GPS support through a pair of u.FL connectors for antennas, together with 500MB of mobile data valid for ten years. Designed for battery operation, the devkit comes with built-in battery charging, monitoring, and energy-harvesting circuitry, plus an accelerometer and a temperature and humidity sensor that makes it ideal for prototyping cellular IoT systems such as asset-tracking applications, environmental monitoring, and smart-meter monitoring, among others. Conexio Stratus board Conexio Stratus specifications: SiP – Nordic Semi nRF9160 system-in-package with Arm Cortex M33 MCU, 1 MB Flash, 256 kB RAM, cellular IoT modem, and GPS. Cellular Connectivity 3GPP LTE release 13 Category M1 and NB1 compliant 3GPP release 14 NB2 compliant RF Transceiver for global coverage supporting bands: Cat-M1: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B8, B12, B13, B14, […]

October 11, 2021February 18, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

RAK introduces Raspberry Pi RP2040 based LoRaWAN core, more Wisblock modules

RAKwireless has just launched the RAK11310 WisBlock LPWAN Module with Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU and LoRaWAN connectivity, as announced after launching 14 new WisBlock modules for IoT prototyping last July. The RAK11310 module was introduced as part of the “Just Track It RAK Autumn Launch 2021” event together with the smallest WisBlock Base Board so far, as well as 11 new Wisblock modules which bring the total to 47 modules. RAK11310 – Raspberry Pi RP2040, LoRaWAN connectivity RAK11310 specifications: RAK11300 WisDuo LPWAN Module MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 133MHz with 246 kB RAM LoRa connectivity SX1262 LoRa transceiver Worldwide frequency coverage RAK11310L – EU433, CN470 RAK11310 – EU868, US915, AU915, KR920, AS923, IN865, RU865 LoRaWAN 1.0.2 protocol stack (supports Class A & C) I/O ports – UART, I2C, GPIO, USB through a “Wisconnector” Debugging – Serial Wire Debug (SWD) interface Supply Voltage – 2.0 V ~ […]