World’s first free and open IoT out of the box with NB-IoT module with Arduino header

Many IoT / M2M Cookbook customers asked me for an evaluation kit within the last two years. I launched the first version during M2M Summit in September 2016. In February 2017 the multicellular version came true. The working name is HARduino because it has an Arduino R3 compatible UART interface.

HARALD – ALD + duino = HARduino.

NB-IoT-LTE-Cat-NB1-M1-Arduino-Shield

The Arduino shield will support at first stroke a:

•  Quad-band GSM module
• Penta-band UMTS module with fall-back to GSM
• LTE-Cat1 module with fallback to UMTS and GSM
• NB-IoT (LTE-Cat-NB1) module
• Combined LTE-Cat-NB1 & LTE Cat-NB1 module

I got my first NB-IoT modules last year. The footprint of the NB-IoT module and the GSM module are the same. Even the AT command set is the same. This means customers can start with a prototype on GSM or LTE and migrate to NB-IoT easy.

The  Arduino shield  comes with:

• Temperature sensor (standard)
• Humidity sensor (option)
• GNSS module (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou) module (Option)
• Automatic MCU voltage detection from 3 Volt to 5 Volt
• eSIM and standard SIM card without SIM look

NB-IoT-LTE-Cat-NB1-M1 for any MCU eval kit

Multi MCU support for and kit with Arduino R3 header:

•  ATMEL
• Freescale
• Intel Galileo
• Microchip PIC
• NXP
• Nordic Semi
• STM Nucleo
• and a lot of more

The radio adapter was tested with an Arduino UNO. However, UNO customers are not the target customers. The radio adapters are planned to support IoT customers with IoT products for mass production.

It is world’s first free IoT/M2M out of the box because:

• Free to select the MCU
• Free to select the Compiler
• Free to select the language
• Free to select the IoT portal
• Free to select the SIM card
• Free to select consulter
• Free to select antenna designer

Services around the HARduino adapter

•  Studies with up to prototypes
• Customised HARduinos with other sensors or wireless modules
• Schematic diagram and layout design review
• Development of IoT devices for mass production
• Antenna consulting, antenna matching up to customised antenna designs
• Antenna radiation pattern measurement

Bluetooth LE to cellular gateway on HARduino plus Nordic Semi BLE eval kit:

The BLE eval kit of Nordic Semiconductor has an Arduino R3 header. If you plug the BLE eval kit and the HARduino together, then you get a working prototype within seconds. The C compiler could be the Keil Complier because Keil will support ARM Cortex inside the BLE IC without to ask for a licence fee. However, the free of charge C compiler like GCC GNU compiler will do the job as well. For the first quick test, you will use the SIM card out of your smartphone. Remember, the HARduino has no SIM lock.
The BLE to cellular gateway kit is just an example. You can combine any MCU kit with the five different HARduino radio adapters.
Are you interested in an HARduino as well? Which versions are you interested in? Which HARduino shall we design next? Do you miss something in the HARduino concept?

And the main question – Is HARduino the right name for the radio adapter? Shall we call it IoTfree or FreelyIoT or FreelYoT? What name do you recommend? What is the recommendation of your marketing team? Thank you in advance for your feedback to harald.naumann (at) gsm-modem.de