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March 23, 2021March 23, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

MicTrack MT700 Cat M1 & NB-IoT GPS tracker promises up to 8 years of battery life

MicTrack MT700 LTE IoT GPS tracker with large battery

We’ve covered several Mictrack cellular GPS asset trackers in the past starting with the MT600 4G LTE model, later followed by MT825 with more efficient LTE Cat M1 & NB-IoT connectivity. The company has now introduced a new model with MicTrack MT700 still offering eMTC and NB-IoT cellular networking but with a much larger 7,800mAh battery allowing up to 8 years of battery life with a single daily location update. Mictrack MT700 specifications: Connectivity Cat M1 (LTE-M, eMTC) LTE FDD: B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B8/B12/B13/B18/B19/B20/B26/B28 LTE TDD: B39 NB-IoT (Cat NB1) – LTE FDD: B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B8/B12/B13/B18/B19/B20/B26/B28 2G GSM fallback – 850/900/1800/1900Mhz Internal Micro 3FF SIM Optional WiFi Internal antennas GNSS – Qualcomm Gen 8C GNSS receiver (GPS+Glonass+Galileo+Beidou) plus internal GPS antenna Sensors – 3-Axis accelerometer, light sensor Misc – Charge/SYS/GPS LEDs Power Supply – 5V/2A via Micro USB port Power Consumption – <1.5ua standby current (in lowest power configuration) Battery Rechargeable 3.7V/7,800mAh Li-ion battery for […]

February 16, 2021February 16, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Feather compatible shield Integrates BG96 Module with LTE Cat-M1, NB-IoT, and GPS

Last week, I wrote about the Pebble Board, an nRF9160 based LTE-M and NB-IoT GPS tracker board that connects with Thingsboard. I was soon informed about a similar solution based on Quectel BG96 and compatible with the Feather form factor. Meet IoT-Bots.com’s qTop Adafruit Feather Compatible shield. In case you wonder, why they did not call it a FeatherWing, that’s because as it’s slightly larger, and the boards are “Adafruit Feather Compatible (AFC) from the interface connection perspective only.” Key features and specifications: Wireless module – Quectel BG96 Cellular – LTE Cat M1, NB-IoT, and EGPRS module offering maximum data rates of 375 kbps downlink and uplink GNSS – GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou/Compass, Galileo, QZSS Nano SIM card holder and u.FL connector (3) for cellular connectivity u.FL connector (4) for GNSS Expansion Feather expansion connector (11) 6-pin qJam interface connector (12) with I2C for extra sensors Misc – Network status LED, […]

February 12, 2021February 12, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Pebble Tracker nRF9160 GPS & cellular IoT platform connects to IoTeX blockchain (Crowdfunding)

Nordic Semi nRF91-series of Cortex-M33 SoCs with NB-IoT and LTE-M (eMTC) cellular IoT connectivity was first unveiled in 2018. The first member of the family is nRF9160 System-in-Package (SiP) which also comes with GPS, and we’ve found it Nordic’s own Thingy:91 devkit, as well as in various modules and development boards from third parties. There’s now a new kit called Pebble Tracker that features Nordic Semi nRF9160 with NB-IoT, LTE-M, and GPS connectivity, as well as environmental, motion, and light sensors. The cellular IoT prototyping platform works with the IoTeX blockchain to design decentralized IoT solutions with higher security. Pebble Tracker hardware specifications: Wireless module – Nordic Semi nRF9610 SiP MCU Core - Arm Cortex-M33 @ 64 MHz Storage & Memory – 1 MB flash, 256 KB SRAM Connectivity – LTE-M / NB-IoT modem with support for bands from 700 MHz to 2.2 GHz) Security – Arm TrustZone IoT SIM […]

February 4, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Deutsche Telekom IoT Gateway combines LoRaWAN and LTE-M

I’d normally view LoRaWAN and LTE IoT standards such as NB-IoT or LTE Cat-M (aka LTE-M or eMTC) as competitors, but The Things Industries and Deutsche Telekom partnered to launch an IoT gateway with both LTE-M and LoRaWAN capabilities together with associated services. We do not have much information about the hardware, but it is a LoRaWAN gateway designed by MikroTik that connects to an LTE-M backhaul and to The Things Industries’ device and data platform. If the picture above does indeed represent the actual gateway it should also be equipped with two PoE capable Ethernet ports, and an RS485 terminal block, plus a USB port and a SIM card slot. The solution would mostly be used for smart buildings at first taking advantage of the superior signal penetration of LTE-M. Sensors would send data to the LoRaWAN gateway which then, would forward it to the cloud over LTE-M. This […]

December 24, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Actinius launches nRF9160 SoM and XBee module with NB-IoT, LTE Cat-M, and GPS

Last year, Actinius launched Icarus IoT Board equipped with nRF9160 SiP providing GPS & NB-IoT connectivity in Adafruit Feather form factor. The company is now back with more compact Nordic Semi nRF9160 hardware, namely the tiny 28×18.5mm Icarus SoM with built-in eSIM, as well as Icarus Bee XBee module that incorporates Icarus SoM plus a nano-SIM slot, as well as an RGB LED and a user button. Icarus SoM The module comes with the following specifications: SiP – Nordic Semi nRF9160-SICA system-in-package with Arm Cortex-M33 MCU, 1024 KB flash, 256 KB SRAM, and LTE-M (eMTC), NB-IoT, and GPS connectivity Storage – 64Mbit SPI flash On-board eSIM Antennas – 2x u.FL connectors for LTE and GPS Sensor – Accelerometer I/Os – 2x 20 castellated holes with GPIOS, I2C, SWD, Reset, SIM card signals, and power pins Supply Voltage – 3.3V Dimensions – 28 x 18.5 mm The multi-layer module is designed […]

December 23, 2020December 23, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Notecard LTE Cat-M / NB-IoT M.2 modem sells for $49+ with 10 years of connectivity

If the IoT is ever going to take off, it needs low-cost hardware and connectivity. LoRaWAN is free, apart from the hardware costs, but for projects that need wider coverage and/or higher bitrate cellular connectivity is the way to go and we’ve seen in the past that Hologram offers a free developer SIM card for global IoT projects plus some low-cost cellular IoT plans, as well as 1CNE plans to offer a 10-year plan for 10 Euros. Blues Wireless has taken a different approach as they combine hardware and cellular connectivity with their Notecard LTE-IoT modems (LTE Cat 1/Cat M or NB-IoT) shipping for 10 years of connectivity for up to 500MB data. Notecard has four variants with the following key features and specifications: MCU – Arm Cortex-M4 MCU with 2MB flash Cellular connectivity NOTE-NBGL-500 – Narrowband Cat-M/NB-IoT/GPRS (Global) via Quectel BG95-M3 modem NOTE-NBNA-500 – Narrowband Cat-M/NB-IoT (North America) via […]

December 5, 2020December 5, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Sequans Monarch 2 GM02S LTE IoT module is “5G-ready” for “Massive IoT”

A couple of days ago, Sequans published a press release announcing the availability of Monarch 2 GM02S “5G-ready” LTE-M/NB-IoT module with power consumption further reduced by 60 percent, featuring an GSMA-compliant integrated SIM (ieUICC), and designed for “Massive IoT” applications. Wait… What is “Massive IoT”? Ericsson explains: Massive IoT refers to applications that are less latency sensitive and have relatively low throughput requirements, but require a huge volume of low-cost, low-energy consumption devices on a network with excellent coverage. The growing popularity of IoT use cases in domains that rely on connectivity spanning large areas, and are able to handle a huge number of connections, is driving the demand for massive IoT technologies. I see… That’s what I used to call LPWAN (Low-power wide-area network) applications, but for sure “Massive IoT” sounds much more cool. Monarch 2 GM02S Let’s go back to the module with Sequans Monarch 2 GM02S key […]

August 28, 2020August 28, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Tiny, Waterproof AirBolt GPS Tracker Works with LTE-M and NB-IoT Cellular Networks (Crowdfunding)

We’ve previously covered small waterproof LTE Cat M1 and NB-IoT GPS trackers such as Mictrack MT825, but AirBolt GPS tracker offers another option and promises an even longer battery life of up to 12 months. At 37 x 34 x 11mm, AirBolt GPS may also be the world’s smallest waterproof GPS tracker on the market, as well as the lightest at just 21 grams, both of which are characteristics that make the tracker especially suitable for pets like cats and dogs, as well as track luggage, keys, bicycles, etc… AirBolt GPS tracker key features and specifications: SoC(s) Unnamed, but considering Nordic Semi is listed as a partner it should be nRF9160 SiP with Arm Cortex-M33 MCU core, 1024 KB flash, 256 KB SRAM, NB-IoT, LTE Cat M1, and GPS connectivity There’s also Bluetooth 5.1 so one of the nRF52 chips might also be included. Connectivity Bluetooth 5.1 with long-range and […]