SparkFun has introduced a brand new board which goals to offer connectivity — for each voice and knowledge visitors — in areas the place Wi-Fi networks merely do not attain, wherever throughout North America: the SparkFun LTE Stick.
“[This] is a game-changer on the subject of mobile IoT [Internet of Things],” SparkFun’s Chris McCarty claims of the corporate’s new board design. “Meet the SparkFun LTE Stick — LARA-R6! This little board is ideal for avoiding Wi-Fi lifeless zones, is able to connecting you wherever (within the North American area) and at anytime, opening up a world of potentialities.”
Primarily based on the u-blox LARA-R6 LTE Cat. 1 mobile module, the SparkFun LTE Stick is suitable with LTE FDD bands 2, 4, 5, 12, 13, 14, 66, and 71 — that means out-of-the-box assist for connectivity on AT&T, Verizon, T-Cell, and FirstNet networks throughout North America. Choosing a supplier needs to be straightforward, too: simply pop a nano-SIM card within the board’s slot and also you’re prepared to attach.
The stick features a USB Kind-C connector at one finish and a pair of antenna connectors on the different, plus 0.1″ plated through-hole (PTH) pin headers for UART serial and I2S alerts — the latter supporting voice calls by way of the mobile modem, in addition to knowledge messaging. “For the reason that LARA-R6401 helps knowledge and voice,” McCarty factors out, “you should use the LTE Follow the suitable elements (akin to an audio codec, microphone, speaker, & microcontroller) and code; you may make your individual breadboard phone!”
The board breaks out UART and I2S to breadboard-friendly headers, with take a look at factors for GPIO and a second UART. (📷: SparkFun)
Elsewhere on the board are 4 of the LARA-R6 module’s general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) pins and an I2C header, uncovered alongside a second UART bus on a “take a look at level cluster” and at a 1.8V logic stage, and bodily power-on and reset buttons. All the standard options of the LARA-R6 are supported, SparkFun has confirmed, together with over-the-air (OTA) firmware updates and jamming detection.
The SparkFun LTE Stick is now accessible on the corporate’s retailer at $149.95 earlier than quantity reductions; extra data is accessible within the half’s hookup information.
