Wi-Fi Device-to-Cloud Data Pump

For developers looking for the ability to expand their wireless connectivity options beyond cellular without sacrificing the simplicity and power of the Notecard.

The Notecard WiFi is a version of the Blues Notecard dedicated for use on Wi-Fi networks only. The device follows the same m.2 pinout as the cellular Notecards. What's more, the Notecard WiFi uses the same powerful JSON-based programming interface, meaning that developers can easily add Wi-Fi as a deployment option for their IoT solutions, with minimal impact to their existing host applications.

Functional Description

As an embeddable device-to-cloud data pump, the Notecard eliminates all complexity and friction that exists with existing IoT solutions. It enables development and rapid iteration of production-quality secure cellular, Wi-Fi, or LoRa IoT solutions at an extremely low, fixed cost. With as little as two lines of code on the controlling MCU, and with no external libraries or dependencies, data can be sent from device to cloud.

Notecard is:

• A drop-in embeddable data storage and transport module for Wi-Fi IoT products, pumping JSON-formatted or binary data ("Notes") bi-directionally between device and cloud:
  • JSON from/to MCU application using I2C, Serial, or USB.
  • JSON to/from your cloud app using HTTPS or MQTT.
  • JSON is auto-tagged with date/time.
• A removable and field-upgradable 30mm x 35mm system-on-a-module (SOM).

Features

• Low-power. Designed to operate on battery power, be "always-on", maintain time & location, while typically drawing less than ~12µA@5V when idle.
• MCU-agnostic. Will support any MCU or single-board computer as your app processor - even low-memory, 8-bit microcontrollers.
• Secure. Integrated STSAFE Secure Element with hardware crypto, true hardware random number generator, and a factory-installed ECC P-384 certificate provisioned at chip manufacture.
• Simple. Uses a JSON command interface over I2C, UART, or USB. Allows you to connect your 3.3V MCU.
• Power-conscious. Mostly-offline data sync mode for low power, and always-online mode for low latency.
• Efficient. Battery-powered Wi-Fi without the complexity of managing connections, queues, or storage.
• Integrated. Utilizes an extremely thin cloud infrastructure that directly routes your data to where it belongs: AWS, Azure, GCP, or your own cloud.
• Built for data. Data routing and simple "no code/low code" visual data stream analysis through Notehub.io (SaaS), or host and integrate Notehub functionality into your own app (OSS).

Package Configuration

NOTE-ESP

• Product Name: Notecard WiFi v2
• Module: ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N8R2
• Radio: 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n

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Module Datasheet

• ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N8R2

Block Diagram

The Notecard WiFi is packaged using a compact removable form factor, 30mm x 35mm.

Open hardware schematics for both the Notecard and Notecarrier boards are available on GitHub, making it a straightforward task to embed the Notecard into a broad variety of host device designs.

The Notecard can interface with the host MCU at 3.3v levels.

Typical Application

As shown below, Notecard is not an application processor and hosts no customer application code. It can be used as data pump peripheral that is focused on bidirectional, asynchronous, secure data staging and transfer of JSON notes. The Notecard can also be configured as a low powered, autonomous, asset tracking device, in which case it does not require a host processor.

Key Features

• Security

  Modern services require that the cloud and the device perform bidirectional authentication so that neither can be spoofed. For many applications it's important that over-the-air and over-the-wire data is encrypted. For this reason, the Notecard integrates an STSAFE Secure Element which contains symmetric keys manufactured into the chip. Neither the manufacturer of the Notecard nor the manufacturer of the customer's product has any need to handle or manage secure key material. The keys generated by STMicroelectronics for the Notecard use ECC with the NIST P-384 curve, and the signature algorithm is ECDSA-with-SHA384.

• Low Power Consumption

  The Notecard has sophisticated power control and makes heavy use of variable clock speeds. This enables the Notecard to have a typical idle current consumption of ~12µA@5V, while still supporting active UART and I2C communication.

Power Information

The Notecard's main supply voltage (VMODEM_P) is used for the Wi-Fi radio and associated circuitry. The Notecard has on-board regulators designed for direct connection to a battery, so any voltage in the range of 2.5V to 5.5V may be provided.

The Notecard WiFi typically sits in an ~12µA@5V idle mode waiting for a request from the host MCU, however the Notecard current draw increases to about 80mA@5V when the Wi-Fi radio is active. The module also draws 10's of mA when the CPU is performing session encryption. As such, it's recommended that VMODEM_P be directly connected to a battery or other supply that is capable of such brief spikes. It is also recommended that PCB traces for VMODEM_P and GND be designed to handle such current.

The Notecard's logic voltage (VIO_P) is provided by the Notecarrier or host system for digital communication; it will be 3.3V. Although the Notecard typically draws very little current, this supply should be designed with a 150mA budget allocated to the Notecard.

Sleep Mode on NOTE-ESP

Unlike other STM32-based Notecards, NOTE-ESP does not (by default) fall back to a ~10uA current draw when it is idle. This is because the ESP32 doesn't have a STOP mode equivalent where the UART and I2C can operate. The ESP32 does have a deep sleep mode that draws ~10µA@5V, but in this state:

• The RTC is retained
• GPIOs are retained
• It can wake based on RTC or GPIO
• UART and I2C are not functional

To enable the NOTE-ESP to enter a deep sleep state during periods of inactivity, the host must configure it with the card.sleep API and drive RTX high to wake the NOTE-ESP from deep sleep when it wants to communicate via UART or I2C. Note that there is significant latency on wake (~10 seconds). The NOTE-ESP sets CTX high whenever it is ready to receive commands via I2C or UART.

NOTE-ESP will never enter deep sleep mode if any of the following are true (this behavior is analogous to the STM32-based Notecards):

• RTX is high
• USB is connected
• AUX-EN is high
• If the Notecard is in continuous mode

Antenna Requirements

The Notecard WiFi includes an embedded PCB antenna, though an external antenna can be used when connected through the u.FL connector on the Notecard. Any external antenna must support a 2.4 GHz frequency band.

The antenna included on the Notecarrier A series, as well as the external antenna provided with the Notecarrier Pi, support 2.4 GHz and have been tested with the Notecard WiFi.

Cellular Service

This section does not apply to the Notecard WiFi.

Pin Information

Pin Definitions

Pin Description

Notecard M.2 Key E, Edge Connector Pinout

Link: Digi-Key part number of the connector - Both Digi-Key and Mouser have pictures for this part number that show a component with a different key, but both have links to datasheet/drawing/CAD models.

Technical Details

Host Microcontroller API

Notecard supports a rich, simple API whose syntax is standard JSON. The developer can communicate requests to Notecard, generally by using little more than printf functions available in most programming languages.

Serial Communication

JSON requests and responses (the Notecard's Application Programming Interface "API") may be sent over any of the following interfaces:

• USB Serial Interface
• UART Serial Interface
• I2C Interface

API Reference

For API usage, names, and parameters, please refer to the Notecard API Reference.

USB Serial Interface

The USB Serial Interface appears to the host as a USB 2.0 Full Speed CDC device. You can access it from Linux, Windows, or macOS without a device driver using terminal emulation software. Newline-delimited JSON requests may be sent directly as UTF-8 text over this port, or you may use the open-source Blues libraries for C, Python, Go, and Arduino.

UART Serial Interface

The UART Serial Interface operates at VIO_P at a fixed baud rate of 9600 using eight data bits, no parity bit, and one stop bit. Newline-delimited JSON requests may be sent directly as UTF-8 text over this port, or you may use the open-source Blues libraries for C, Python, Go, and Arduino.

I2C Interface

The Notecard acts as an I2C secondary device operating at VIO_P, and it implements a simple Serial-over-I2C protocol. You can access it from an embedded host using open-source Blues libraries for C, Python, Go, and Arduino.

Host Microcontroller Hardware Interface

Attention Interrupt

Using software, you can optionally configure Notecard to use the ATTN output pin to:

• Inform the host MCU of certain asynchronous events (such as incoming data availability, or Notecard motion) in an interrupt-driven manner rather than just polling.
• Place the host MCU into a power-off sleep state and wake it back up again.

Auxiliary Ports

An optional Auxiliary UART Serial Interface is available on the AUX_RX_P and AUX_TX_P pins. This interface is inactive unless enabled by raising the AUX_EN_P pin since this UART consumes extra power when in use. It operates at VIO_P at a fixed baud rate of 115200 using eight data bits, no parity bit, and one stop bit. If this interface is unused, the three pins can be left disconnected.

The AUX1-4 pins operate at VIO_P and can be configured in software to operate in several optional modes such as GPS Tracking Mode, GPIO Mode, and Internet Button Mode. If these pins are unused, they can be left disconnected.

Outboard DFU Interface

As an alternative to using the Auxiliary Ports for Outboard DFU, there are also dedicated pins on certain Notecards. For more information on using this interface, check the detailed documentation

Reset

Use of this pin is optional. If the host system has a global reset line, caution should be used when connecting this pin to the host system's reset because the Notecard may independently pull the line low in software. Restrictions on this pin are:

• If this pin is not used, it must remain not connected (NC).
• The pin is active-low. It must be held low for at least 350nS for a clean reset.
• This pin must never be pulled-up. A pull-up would interfere with the Notecard's own internal watchdog timer and thus will prevent reliable operations.
• Some Notecarriers may invert this signal to be active-high.

Network Communication Behavior

The Notecard includes a built-in connection to Notehub.io (specifically a.notefile.net:8086) and communicates over SSL. Outbound connections speak directly with the Notehub session load balancer (or "Discovery Service") for provisioning and device authentication. By default, the TLS connection is unidirectional, but can operate bi-directionally, if needed. The keys and certificates for each device are provisioned by STMicrosystems inside the STSAFE secure element present on every Notecard. Once the Discovery Service has provisioned or authenticated a device, it issues a "ticket" and a Handler IP address that the Notecard can use to make subsequent requests.

The Notecard can also connect to the Handler to do a constrained set of remote procedure calls related to synchronization. If the Notecard determines that the data queued for transmission to or from the Handler should be encrypted, it opens a session to the Handler on port 8086. Otherwise, an unencrypted socket is opened on port 8081.

The over-the-wire data transmitted on both sockets is highly byte-optimized, which is why raw SSL and TCP sockets are used, and not unoptimized HTTP/HTTPS transactions.

Specifications

General Characteristics

Electrical Characteristics

Absolute Maximum Ratings

DC Characteristics

Ordering Information

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Certifications

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Security and Vulnerability Scanning

As a part of our regular audit and scanning process, Blues Inc. performs full vulnerability scanning every six months. Any identified vulnerabilities will be analyzed, reported, and patched in a timely fashion, where appropriate.

Revision History

Contact Information

Blues Inc.
https://blues.com
50 Dunham Ridge Suite 1650
Beverly, MA 01915
support@blues.com