RAK Wireless Introduces DIY Cellular LoRa Gateways, Raspberry Pi & 96Boards Compatible LoRa Modules

Raspberry Pi 3B+ professional LoRa gateway

RAK Wireless already has a decent offering of LoRa gateways and modules, but the company has been working on two new LoRa gateways, one Enterprise grade model – RAK7249 gateway – based on fully custom hardware, and the other – Pilot Gateway Pro RAK7243 – features a Raspberry Pi 3B+ board with Cellular & GPS connectivity on top of a LoRa radio. RAK Wireless will also introduce three RAK2245/RAK2248 LoRa concentrator modules that can easily be used with boards following Raspberry Pi, or 96Boards IoT edition form factors. RAK7249 DIY Enterprise LoRa Gateway Specifications: Main Board WiFi Module – RAK634 Module SoC – Mediatek MT7628N MIPS processor @ up to 580 MHz System Memory – 128MB DDR2 RAM Storage – 16MB SPI flash Connectivity – WiFi: 2×2 MIMO 802.11b/n/n mPCIe LoRa concentrator card Semtech SX1301 based Standard version with 8 channel Gateway and also support Max.16 channel Gateway. Tx Power […]

Mictrack MT825 is a Waterproof LTE Cat M1 & NB-IoT GPS Tracker

MT825 waterproof nb-iot gps tracker

We’ve previously covered Mictrack MT600 4G LTE GPS tracker with support for various GPS software such as the open source OpenGTS and Traccar programs, as well as Android & iOS mobile apps. Since then the company released MT550 model with NB-IoT and LTE Cat M1 (eMTC) connectivity, as well as an OBD-II model that are currently sold for respectively $99 and $69 on Aliexpress. More recently a waterproof LTE IoT module called Mictrack MT825, which we’ll look into more details in this post. Mictrack MT825 key features and specifications: Cellular Connectivity LTE Cat M1 (eMTC) LTE FDD: B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B8/B12/B13/B18/B19/B20/B26/B28 LTE TDD: B39 LTE Cat NB1 (NB-IoT) – LTE FDD: B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B8/B12/B13/B18/B19/B20/B26/B28 2G – GSM: 850/900/1800/1900Mhz SIM Card interface – Nano SIM Internal LTE CAT M1 & NB-IoT antenna Location U-blox MAX-7 GPS chip GPS sensitivity – -162dBm Channel – 56 Positioning Accuracy – 10m Cold Start – 30s. Warm start – 15s […]

Sony Spresense Board Review with NuttX based Spresense SDK

Sony Spresence Kit Assembled

Sony Spresense Arduino compatible board with audio and global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) support and its extension board launched in Japan this summer. The company has now expanded markets, and is offering the boards in the United States and Europe as well. They also tasked an agency to send samples to various reviewers, and I got selected to receive one as well. I’ll start the review by checking out the hardware, shortly discuss software development options, and report my experience with Spresense SDK. Sony Spresense Unboxing I received two packages… … one the main board, and the other for the extension board. The main board package only comes with CXD5602PWBMAIN1 board and an information sheet. The top of the board includes a reset button, four user LEDs, a power LED, a boot recovery button, the camera interface, Sony CXD5247 power management and audio analog interface chip (Black on the photo below, […]

Qualcomm 9205 NB-IoT & Cat M1 LTE Modem Lowers Costs, Power Consumption

Qualcomm 9205

Qualcomm has introduced a new LTE IoT chipset with Qualcomm 9205 LTE modem that supports Cat M1 (eMTC), NB2 (NB-IoT), 2G/E-GPRS fallback, as well as GNSS. Qualcomm 9205  comes at a lower price, smaller footprint, and up to 70% lower power consumption in standby mode compared to its predecessor (MDM9206). Qualcomm 9205 LTE modem key features and specifications: Processor / OS – Arm Cortex A7 up to 800MHz with support for ThreadX and AliOS Things real-time operating systems Connectivity Standards 3GPP release 14 Category M1 and NB2; 2G/E-GPRS fallback where Cat M1 / NB2 is not available. Category M1 mode supports voice for applications such as monitored security panels, and mobility for applications such as asset trackers. RF transceiver Bandwidth support from 450 MHz to 2100 MHz Built-in RF front-end, a first in the cellular IoT space Geolocation Integrated GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems)  support for GPS, Beidou, Glonass, and […]

Samsung Introduces Exynos i S111 NB-IoT Modem + GNSS Chip

Samsung has just announced their first NB-IoT solution with Exynos i S111 chipset with a single chip integrating an NB-IoT capable LTE modem, RF IC, an on-chip security sub-system, and a PUF (Physical Unclonable Function) security solution along with various components such as CPU, and SRAM. The chip apparently also integrates GNSS hardware with support for GPS, Galileo, etc… Exynos i S111 specifications: CPU – Arm Cortex-M7 @ 200MHz On-chip Memory – 512KB SRAM Modem – LTE Release 14 NB-IoT GNSS – GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, BeiDou Interfaces / Peripherals – USI, UART, I2C, GPIO, eSIM I/F, SDIO (Host), QSPI(Single/Dual/Quad IO mode), SMC Security – eFuse, AES, SHA-2, PKA, Secure Storage, Security Sub-System, PUF The chip is also said to features Samsung’s “advanced algorithms for wider coverage”. Many NB-IoT GPS trackers currently implement a two modules solution, so the latest Exynos chip should enable more compact designs. Samsung did not publish […]

RAK8213 mini PCIe Card Comes with GNSS, NB-IoT & eMTC Connectivity

RAK8213 NB-IoT mPCIe Card

After launching their first wireless communication mini PCIe card with RAK833 LoRaWAN gateway card last month, RAK Wireless is back with another mPCIe card that supports GNSS (GPS, GLONASS), as well as cellular IoT connectivity thanks to Quectel BG96 NB-IoT + LTE Cat M1 module. RAK8213 mini PCIe card specifications: Wireless Connectivity Module – Quectel BG96 with LTE Cat. M1 (eMTC), LTE Cat. NB1 (NB-IoT), EGPRS, and GNSS Global bands support FDD-LTE – B1/ B2/ B3/ B4/ B5/ B8/ B12/ B13/ B18/ B19/ B20/ B26/ B28 TDD-LTE – B39 (for Cat M1 only) EGPRS – 850/900/1800/1900Mhz Max Data Rate – Cat M1: 375 kbps (UL/DL); Cat NB1: 32 kbps DK, 70 kbps (UL) micro SIM slot u.FL connectors for cellular and GNSS mPCIe connector with USB 2.0, I2C, UART, and PCM Misc – LEDs for network and power status Dimensions – 51 x 30.1 mm The card can be added […]

AS923 LoRa GPS Tracking with MatchX MatchBox Gateway and RAK811 LoRa GPS Tracker Board

RAK811 Cayenne LPP Data

Earlier this month, I installed Match MatchBox LoRa outdoor gateway close to the roof, and showed how easy it was easies to setup with MatchX Cloud. Basically, you just register to the cloud, enter the serial number, and the gateway is automatically based on your location. I’m in South East Asia, so the gateway was configured with AS923. I’ve now had time to play with the gateway using Rak Wireless RAK811 LoRa tracker board, and eventually managed to get the tracker location to show up on a map. It was my first experience with LoRaWAN, and I had to learn a lot, and overcome many issues from outdated software development tools, different data formats, and some interoperability issues between all components involved. I’ll document all that in this review, and hopefully it will help others. RAK811 LoRa GPS Tracker Unboxing Before going into LoRa configuration, I’ll show what I got […]

Design ESP32 LoRa GPS Tracker Applications with TTGO T-Beam Board

TTGO-T-Beam

TTGO introduced a small ESP32 LoRa board with OLED display last year that is still selling  for around $14 shipped. But the company is now back with a similar board called TTGO T-Beam that does without the display, but adds GPS support, and a 18650 battery holder, so it should be ideally suited for all sorts of LoRa GPS tracking applications. TTGO T-Beam board specifications: SoC – Espressif ESP32 dual core Xtensa LX6 processor with WiFi and Bluetooth Memory – PSRAM Storage – 4MB SPI flash Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n WiFi up to 150 Mbps +  Bluetooth 4.2 Classic and LE with “3D antenna” soldered on PCB LoRa 433, 868, and 915 MHz versions with SMA antenna Transmit current – 120 mA @ +20dBm; 90 mA @ +17dBm; 29mA @ +13dBm Receive sensitivity -139dBm with LoRa & 62.5Khz & SF=12 & 146bps -136dBm with LoRa & 125Khz & SF=12 & 293bps […]

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