All Blog Posts
2026
- How to Estimate Battery Life for a Cellular IoT Device
The math for estimating a cellular IoT device's battery life, a calculator for your own numbers, and how to measure the real answer with Blues Mojo.
- Protect User Privacy with Notecard Location Fuzzing
Your product may need to know where it is, but your customers probably don't want it reporting their street address. See how Notecard can obfuscate location.
- What’s New in Notehub—September 2026 Edition
What we've shipped in Notehub recently, including the Notehub IQ beta, two-factor authentication, customizable table columns, and new filtering options.
- Notehub IQ Tips & Tricks
Tips and tricks from a month of using Notehub IQ, including ways to work with session data, workflows and automations, and more.
- Keep API Keys Off the Device: Use Authenticated Web Calls via Proxy Routes
Stop including secret keys on your devices! Notehub proxy routes let your credentials live in the cloud while the device stays anonymous.
- Cut Your Data Usage in Half with Notefile Templates
Every JSON Note repeats its field names with its values for the life of the device. Notefile templates have Notecard send fixed-length binary records instead.
- Introducing Notehub IQ: Use AI to Talk to Your Products
Ask questions about your deployed products in plain language and get answers from the data you already collect, through Notehub MCP, with no pipeline to build.
- Interrupt-Driven IoT with the Notecard ATTN Pin
Unnecessary polling drains IoT batteries. Notecard's ATTN pin lets a host MCU stay in deep sleep at µA levels and wake only when something happens.
- Pole-to-Pole: Introducing Starnote for Iridium
Starnote for Iridium adds affordable, pole-to-pole satellite failover to Cellular, WiFi, and Cell+WiFi Notecards, with bundled data and no monthly fees.
- CAN Bus for Automotive IoT: From OBD-II to the Cloud
Automotive CAN bus carries everything from RPM to battery state. Learn to tap it, decode the frames, and stream vehicle data to the cloud with Notecard.
- New Tools for Managing Notehub Organizations
Notehub Organizations are an updated version of Notehub billing accounts, with several new features for Notehub administrators.
- Provisioning IoT Fleets at Scale with Notehub
A multi-stage provisioning workflow that takes IoT devices from the manufacturing line to the customer's site without a single manual configuration step.
- What's New in Notehub—May 2026 Edition
A look at the latest features we’ve shipped in Notehub, including smart fleet improvements, encrypted route secrets, resizable columns, and a bunch of new APIs.
- Designing IoT Devices That Degrade Gracefully Instead of Going Dark
Battery-powered IoT devices rarely just fail, they degrade. Here are six low-power mistakes I see in real Notecard deployments and how to design around them.
- Building Dashboards With the Notehub API and Grafana Cloud
Learn how to use Grafana Cloud and the Notehub API to build dashboards that visualize your Notehub data.
- Tips & Tricks for Managing Devices in Notehub
Learn tips to help organize and manage devices in Notehub as your projects start to scale
- One Module, Three Networks - Meet Notecard for Skylo
Introducing Notecard for Skylo, the only module combining Cellular, Satellite, and WiFi connectivity on a single board with bundled data and no fees.
- How to Upload Binary Data Through the Notecard with Python SDK
Learn how to rapidly upload binary data to a remote server with Notecard and Notehub using the note-python SDK.
- Introducing Blues Notecarrier CX - Carrier and Host MCU in One Board
Learn more about the new Notecarrier CX, featuring a user-addressable onboard STM32L433 MCU.
- Detecting Inactive Devices With Notehub Smart Fleets
Learn a workflow for automatically sorting inactive devices into a custom Notehub fleet
2025
- Using Blues Mojo to Measure Power Usage—A Case Study
A case study that walks through using Blues Mojo to monitor device power consumption, and how to measure improvements.
- Level Up Your IoT Fleet with the Latest from Notehub
A quick tour of the latest Notehub features built for IoT developers and fleet administrators.
- Introducing the Notecard ESP-IDF Component
We're excited to announce the release of the ESP-IDF component for Notecard.
- Introducing Blues Expert - AI Tools for Notecard and Notehub Development
Amplify your AI development workflows with Blues Expert MCP server.
- Enhancing Arduino with FreeRTOS—A Hands-On Tutorial
A hands-on guide for enhancing Arduino-based firmware with FreeRTOS, with examples using Blues Notecard and external sensors
- Insights from the 2025 Blues IoT Developer Survey
The responses are in! Here's what we learned from this year's IoT developer survey.
- Simulate an External GPS module with the Notecard AUX Pins
Use a NMEA GPS/GNSS simulator to mock location data for testing Notecard applications.
- Remotely Manage Notecards with Reserved Environment Variables
Learn how to utilize certain environment variables to remotely configure fleets of Notecards.
- JSONata 2.0 for Notehub Routes: New Features and How to Use Them
JSONata 2.0 is now in Notehub routes. Here are the new operators, functions, and patterns that make IoT data transformations faster and easier.
- Detecting Anomalous Devices With Notehub Smart Fleets
A guide to using Notehub smart fleets to automatically detect anomalous devices—such as those that are tipped, tampered with, or reporting faulty sensor data.
- Taking Payments with Stripe and Notecard
Learn how to use Stripe Payment Links and Notecard to easily take payments with your IoT system.
- Notehub Batch Jobs: Automate Fleet-Wide IoT Workflows
Run project-wide changes, generate fleet reports, and provision devices in bulk with Notehub batch jobs. Step-by-step examples for common automation tasks.
- Perform Notecard Outboard Firmware Updates with GitHub Actions
Use the Notehub ODFU GitHub Action to stage updates to the firmware of your Notecard host.
- Bridging the Gap: LTE Cat-1 bis and the Future of 5G IoT
What is LTE Cat-1 bis and how does it impact the future of 5G in the IoT?
- How to Use Model Context Protocol (MCP) with Blues Notecard
Add the hosted Blues Expert MCP server for Notecard docs, request validation, and firmware guidance, or self-host MCP servers that talk to Notecard and Notehub.
- Cellular IoT Module Comparison: Notecard vs DIY Arduino
Side-by-side comparison of Blues Notecard versus a typical off-the-shelf cellular IoT module — the code, retries, power management, and OTA each one needs.
- Debugging Embedded Applications on STM32
An overview of debugging techniques for programs deployed to an STM32 microprocessor.
- Power Management and Energy Efficiency in Embedded Systems
Learn about strategies that can help enhance the power efficiency of your embedded applications.
- Zephyr: Debugging Feather MCUs with note-zephyr
Learn how to use note-zephyr to debug Zephyr RTOS applications for the Feather MCU.
- Configuring Your Notecard for GPS Tracking—A Beginner’s Guide
Everything you need to know about configuring your first Notecard for GPS tracking
- JSON and JSONata Explained: Structure, Syntax, and Data Transformation
A developer's guide to JSON structure and data types, plus how to query and transform JSON with JSONata.
- Zephyr: How to use Shells for Prototyping & Debugging Notecard Applications
Learn how to use Zephyr Shells with examples for I2C, sensors, and custom Notecard commands.
- Routing IoT Data to Adafruit IO (and Beyond)
Learn how to use Notecard and Notehub to route collected sensor data for visualization (and more) on Adafruit IO.
- Sending Your IoT Data to a Cloud Platform
An introduction to the how and why of syncing your IoT data with the cloud.
- Using Serial Logs Effectively
A beginner's guide for using serial logs to debug embedded programs.
- Introducing Notehub Smart Fleets
Learn about smart fleets, a new Notehub feature that lets you dynamically group your devices based on their data.
- Making Sense of Your IoT Data with AI
Leverage the APIs from Notehub and OpenAI to help interpret the data generated by your connected products.
- Using Environment Variables to Change Notecard Configuration
Learn how to use environment variables, both built-in and custom, to change Notecard configuration remotely.
- Introducing Mojo - A New Way to Measure Energy Usage in Battery-Powered Systems
Mojo is a Notecard companion device that measures power consumption in battery-powered systems.
- Zephyr: Message Queues for Real-Time Processing with the Notecard
Learn how to use Zephyr's Message Queues for real-time processing with the Notecard.
- Automating Firmware Management with the Notehub API
Learn how to use the Notehub API to manage firmware updates for your devices or fleets of devices.
- Unit Testing JSONata Expressions in Notehub with JavaScript and Jest
Using the popular JavaScript testing framework, Jest, you can test your JSONata expressions and Events from Notehub.
2024
- Introducing Cygnet - The New STM32 Feather MCU from Blues
Cygnet is a new Feather-compatible host microcontroller from Blues - supporting Arduino, C, C++, and soon CircuitPython.
- How to Call Third-Party Web Services From Notecard
Learn how to make external web requests with Notecard by building a project that retrieves current weather data from the OpenWeather API.
- Securing Edge Applications: Encryption with Notecard
Learn how to secure your real world applications and protect sensitive data with Notecard and Notehub
- 6 Common IoT Transport Protocols: HTTP, MQTT, CoAP, and More
A developer's guide to the six most-used IoT transport protocols — HTTP, MQTT, TCP/IP, UDP, CoAP, and Matter — and how to choose between them.
- What’s New in Notehub
A look at the latest features we’ve shipped in Notehub, including JSONata improvements, new data exporting options, and two new integrations.
- Why Beginning Embedded Developers Shouldn't be Afraid of C
Learn more about why C is such a popular language for embedded development and how it's accessible even to Python, JavaScript, or Go developers.
- Embedded Software Development: Tools and Environment Setup
What embedded software development involves, the write-build-flash-debug workflow, a comparison of IDEs and tools, and how to set up your first environment.
- Implementing a Watchdog Timer on the STM32L4-based Blues Swan
Learn how to add a simple hardware watchdog timer to ensure your Swan never hangs (at least not for very long!).
- Inclusive Technology Innovations from Blues and Hackster
Blues sponsored Hackster's Build2gether 2.0 challenge - now it's time see the winners who built inclusive connected products with the Notecard and Notehub.
- Understanding Sensor Interfaces - UART, I2C, SPI and CAN
Get to know common interfaces used when developing with sensors in embedded products.
- Announcing an Official Integration With Blynk
Everything you need to know about using Blues and Blynk together to build your next project.
- Announcing the Blues Wireless for OPTA Expansion
Add wireless connectivity to your micro PLC projects with the new Blues Wireless for OPTA—available today!
- Understanding and Using Web Services in the IoT
Learn more about web services and why they are vital as a pathway to the cloud in the IoT.
- How to Use a Breadboard: Wiring Your First Components
How a breadboard works, what each row connects to, and how to wire your first components — no prior electronics experience needed.
- Results from the 2024 Blues IoT Developer Survey
Your responses have been tallied and the results are in from our annual survey of Blues developers.
- Implementing Geofences With Blues and Datacake
A guide to Datacake’s new Zone feature, and how to use it to create geofences for a Notecard-based project
- A Beginner's Guide to Arduino
Learn how to write and deploy your first firmware to an Arduino device.
- Understanding IoT Network Connectivity Options
A brief introduction to the wireless connectivity options available when building an IoT product.
- An Introduction to Embedded Development and the Internet of Things
A primer for beginners on embedded development and the IoT. The first in our Blues University series.
- Create a Self-Training Edge AI Solution on STM32 with NanoEdge AI Studio
Learn how to build a cloud-enabled ML project using tooling and services from STMicroelectronics and Blues.
- Introducing Notehub Py - the Python SDK for the Notehub API
The Notehub Py library helps you interact with the Notehub API easily, accessing your IoT data in a Python-friendly manner.
- Starnote Satellite IoT: The Affordable Starter Kit Explained
Starnote brings affordable two-way satellite IoT to Notecard. Here's what comes in the starter kit, the cost, and how to get up and running fast with NTN.
- Building Dashboards That Send Inbound Data to the Notecard
Learn a technique you can use to send a Notecard inbound data when building dashboards.
- Narrowband Cellular, WiFi, LoRaWAN? Individually They're All Dead. The Future is Multi-RAT.
The future of the IoT is clear when you can leverage multiple radio access technologies from a single product design.
- How NTN Mode on Notecard Enables Satellite IoT
NTN lets Notecard talk to satellites alongside cellular. Here's how the firmware APIs work and how to enable NTN mode for testing.
- Using Blues and Edge Impulse to Increase the Accuracy of Your Machine Learning Models
Learn how Edge Impulse and Blues combine to improve your ML models deployed on the edge.
- Using an External GPS/GNSS Module with the Notecard
Learn how to use an external GPS Module with the Notecard, and how you might want to configure the Notecard based on your project.
- Behind the Amplifier - Meet Dishant Shah
Behind the Amplifier highlights our contributors, what they're working on, and their thoughts on the IoT. This edition features Dishant Shah.
- Debugging on STM32 and ESP32 with VS Code and PlatformIO
Get started debugging on STM32 and ESP32 microcontrollers with these simple instructions.
- Writing Firmware That Works Across Cellular, WiFi, and LoRa
Everything you need to know about writing host firmware that works with multiple radio access technologies
- Behind the Amplifier - Bioinformatician Naveen Kumar
Behind the Amplifier highlights our contributors, what they're working on, and their thoughts on the IoT. This edition features Naveen Kumar.
- Launching Today: Notecard LoRa and the Blues LoRaWAN Starter Kit
Everything you need to know about the Notecard LoRa and Blues LoRaWAN Starter Kit—available today!
- LTE-M vs NB-IoT vs LTE Cat-1: How to Choose for Cellular IoT
LTE-M balances power and mobility, NB-IoT minimizes power for fixed sensors, and LTE Cat-1 has the highest data rate. How to choose, and where Cat-1 bis fits.
- Behind the Amplifier - From Maker to Scientist with Prasannaa Kumar
Behind the Amplifier highlights our contributors, what they're working on, and their thoughts on the IoT. This edition features Prasannaa Kumar.
- Using GPS/GNSS and WiFi Triangulation Together Effectively
Learn how to use GPS/GNSS and WiFi Triangulation together in the same project.
- Behind the Amplifier - TinyML Enthusiast Justin Lutz
Behind the Amplifier highlights our contributors, what they're working on, and their thoughts on the IoT. This edition features Justin Lutz.
- 6 Tips for Building Power-Efficient IoT Products with the Blues Notecard
Learn how to make the most out of the power-efficient nature of the Notecard within your IoT product.
- M5Stack UIFlow Integration with Blues Notecard
A guide on how to use the Blues Notecard within the M5Stack UIFlow ecosystem.
- Blues Award Winners from Hackster's Build2gether Inclusive Innovation Challenge
Check out the winners from Hackster's challenge who used the Notecard, Notehub, and Swan to build inclusive IoT prototypes.
- Innovation Unleashed: A Recap of Maker Faire Hyderabad 2023 with Blues
A recap of the 2023 Hyderabad Maker Faire
- Four Tips & Tricks for Becoming a Successful Firmware Developer
Learn a handful of tips & tricks that can help you become a more successful firmware developer.
2023
- Hackster Tutorial - Hands-On with Cellular IoT on the Raspberry Pi 5
This Hackster tutorial shows you how to add low-bandwidth cellular connectivity to the Raspberry Pi 5.
- Dynamically Switching WiFi Networks on a Notecard
Learn a technique you can use to switch a Notecard’s WiFi network using environment variables.
- Revolutionize Your Automation Game with Blues
Build your own home automation system using the Blues Notecard, Notehub, Node-RED, and Qubitro.
- Sending and Receiving Binary Files with the Notecard and Notehub
Learn how to use the card.binary APIs to send and receive files from/to a Micro SD card using the Blues Notecard and Notehub.
- Behind the Amplifier - A Passion for IoT with Ben Lim
Behind the Amplifier highlights our contributors, what they're working on, and their thoughts on the IoT. This edition features Ben Lim.
- The Easiest Way to Upgrade Raspberry Pi OS from Bullseye to Bookworm
Learn how to perform an in-place upgrade from Raspberry Pi Bullseye to Bookworm.
- The Easy Way to Build WiFi Products With a Cellular Fallback
Learn how to make WiFi + cellular simple and secure with the Blues Notecard Cell+WiFi
- Read and Write Images and Text Files with a Micro SD Card and Arduino
Learn how to use Arduino/C to read and write images and text files to a Micro SD card.
- Use Rapid Prototyping to Speed Up Your Hardware Designs
Learn how to use rapid prototyping to speed up your development process.
- Blues “Most Valuable Hackster” Round 2!
Build IoT projects with the Notecard, publish them on Hackster, and get paid!
- Behind the Amplifier - Exploring Pradeep's IoT Journey
Behind the Amplifier highlights our contributors, what they're working on, and their thoughts on the IoT. This edition features Pradeep.
- Blues Launches into LoRa at The Things Conference
Blues sees overwhelming interest in the new Notecard LoRa at the Things Conference in Amsterdam.
- Establishing a Robust MLOps Workflow for TinyML
Create a workflow for continuously improving machine learning models on remote devices.
- Cellular, WiFi, LoRa — The Next Generation of Notecards
Everything you need to know about the new Cell+WiFi, WiFi, and LoRa Notecards
- Announcing the Notecard Developer Firmware Release v5.3.1
Learn about the new features included in the latest Notecard developer firmware release.
- Blues at Fab23 Bhutan
With support from Blues.io, I gave a workshop at the Fab23 conference in Bhutan, showcasing the power of TinyML using Blues, even in remote locations.
- Digitalizing the Wild with Blues
Explore a creative solution to help prevent human-wildlife conflicts with LoRa and Blues Cellular IoT.
- Building a Connected Clock with Blues and the Raspberry Pi Pico
Learn how to make web requests with the Notecard and use Timer Interrupts on Micropython whilst building a clock.
- How It's Made — Manufacturing Notecard at Scale
Take a virtual visit to our manufacturing facility to see how Notecard is made.
- Don't AT Me — Use a Modern JSON API Instead
Notecard uses a JSON API to make IoT application development faster, more intuitive, and more maintainable than developing with AT commands.
- New Notehub Features You May Have Missed
Get caught up on some of the most recently released Notehub features.
- Results from the 2023 Blues IoT Survey
See a high-level recap of the latest Blues developer survey.
- Add Reliable Power Backup to Notecard with Scoop
The all new Scoop features a Lithium-Ion Capacitor to provide Notecard with backup power and a lower self-discharge rate than traditional LiPo batteries.
- Getting Started with Blues Notecard and the Raspberry Pi Pico
Learn how to add an affordable cellular option to your Raspberry Pi Pico.
- Integrating Waylay with the Blues Notehub
Learn more about Waylay and how to integrate it within your IoT solution.
- When to Use Tadiran (Li-SOCl2) vs Lithium Polymer (LiPo) Batteries in IoT Applications
A high-level comparison of Tadiran Li-SOCl2 batteries and Lithium Polymer (LiPo) batteries.
- How We Unit Test Embedded C Code at Blues
Use the Blues approach to unit testing in your next embedded C project.
- Get Started With Zephyr—The Easy Way
Learn how to get a Zephyr app up and running fast with Blues.
- Use Cell Tower and WiFi Triangulation to Achieve Pin-Point Locations, Without GPS
Learn how to use the Notecard to ascertain location information via cell tower and/or WiFi access point triangulation, when GPS is unavailable.
- How to Build an Asset Tracker With Geofence-Driven Alerts
Learn how to build an asset tracking solution that can take GPS readings, and send out alerts when the tracker leaves a configured geofence.
- Easiest Way to Add Cellular to an ESP32 IoT Project
Learn how to add affordable prepaid cellular to an ESP32-based IoT solution
- 10 Examples to Help You Learn JSONata
Learn JSONata through a series of examples of the language in action
- Easiest Way to Add Cellular to the Raspberry Pi Zero 2
Learn how to add an affordable cellular option to your Raspberry Pi Zero.
- The Idiot-Proof Guide to Upgrading Raspberry Pi from Buster to Bullseye
Learn how to perform an in-place upgrade of your Raspberry Pi OS from Buster to Bullseye.
- A Practical Look at PIO on the Raspberry Pi Pico
Learn more about using Programmable I/O on the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller.
- Encrypt and Securely Deliver Data over Cellular
You can now encrypt Notecard data before it is securely routed to your cloud application.
- Optimizing Raspberry Pi Power Consumption
Tips and tricks for optimizing the power consumption of a Raspberry Pi to make it a candidate for off-grid remote monitoring.
