LoRa Device-to-Cloud Data Pump

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

The Notecard for LoRa is a version of the Blues Notecard that allows for connecting to LoRaWAN gateways. The device follows the same M.2 pinout as the cellular and Wi-Fi Notecards. What's more, the Notecard for LoRa uses the same powerful JSON-based programming interface, meaning that developers can easily add LoRa 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 LoRa 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 ~8µA@5V when idle.
• MCU-agnostic. Will support any MCU or single-board computer as your app processor - even low-memory, 8-bit microcontrollers.
• 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.
• Efficient. Battery-powered LoRa 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).

• Embeddable. Castellated edges enable product builder to embed the Notecard for LoRa directly onto a PCB for volume production.

Package Configuration

NOTE-LORA

• Product Name: Notecard for LoRa
• Module: STM32WLE5
• LoRa Frequency: Either 868 MHz (Europe) or 915 MHz (United States). Set by Blues during provisioning.

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Block Diagram

The Notecard for LoRa 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 a data pump peripheral that is focused on bidirectional, asynchronous, secure data staging and transfer of JSON Notes.

Key Features

• 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 ~8µA@5V, while still supporting active UART and I2C communication.

Power Information

The Notecard's main supply voltage (VMODEM_P) is used for the LoRa 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 for LoRa typically sits in an ~8µA@5V idle mode waiting for a request from the host MCU, however the Notecard current draw increases when the LoRa radio is active (consult the STM32WLE5 datasheet for details). 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.

Antenna Requirements

The Notecard for LoRa requires usage of an external antenna attached to its u.FL connector. The external antenna must support a frequency band appropriate for the region-specific LoRa frequency in use.

Cellular Service

This section does not apply to the Notecard for LoRa.

Pin Information

Pin Definitions

* See the power information section for important product design considerations related to reset and loss of power conditions.

Pin Description

Notecard M.2 Key E, Edge Connector Pinout

Notecard for LoRa v2.1 Castellated Edge 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) 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

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.

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 and communicates though any available (and in-range) LoRaWAN gateway and LoRaWAN Network Server (LNS) with a secure connection to Notehub.io. Outbound connections communicate with Notehub via the LNS for provisioning and device authentication. By default, the connection is unidirectional, but can operate bi-directionally, if needed.

Specifications

General Characteristics

Electrical Characteristics

Absolute Maximum Ratings

DC Characteristics

Ordering Information

Blues Shop

Certifications

Certifications are currently pending.

Board Errata

• On units shipped where all large black capacitors indicate JJ8, the idle current of the notecard may measure slightly higher than the expected current draw indicated above.

Terms and Conditions

Visit Blues Hardware Terms & Conditions

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