Over the lifespan of the Qwiic Ecosystem, it has only received a few cellular options, and most of which were heavily specific use cases that didn't allow for much deviation from the board's intended purposes. Now, however, SparkX has created a new and surprisingly economical option for hobbyist electronics. Meet, the Qwiic Cellular!
When we first saw the Notecard from Blues Wireless we were intrigued. A global cellular module with a built in SIM card with no monthly fee? That sounds enticing. After all, the last thing we need is a hot water heater monitor with a monthly cell phone bill! The hardware price includes a 10 year subscription and 500MB of data.
Simply plug the Qwiic Cellular Notecarrier onto any enabled SparkFun Qwiic platforms (currently over 30) and you’ll be able to transmit data anywhere there is cell connectivity with a few lines of Python, Arduino, or JSON. The Blues documentation is superb. All API calls come with extensive C, Python, and JSON examples. While the Qwiic Cellular focuses on using the I2C bus for communication, USB and Serial can also be used to communicate with the Notecard. We found the USB was handy for immediate gratification and command debugging.
The Notecard module comes with integrated cellular, SIM, onboard GPS, accelerometer, and temperature sensor. The Qwiic Cellular product has everything you need: a carrier board (Blues calls them Notepads), the globally enabled NB-IoT & LTE-M M.2 based module (Blues calls them Notecards), and two U.FL cables all assembled and ready to go.
The Qwiic Cellular is available for sale starting today! No pre-orders or waiting (beyond how long it takes for your desired parcel carrier to get it to you), required. Shoot us a tweet @sparkfun, or let us know on Instagram or Facebook. We’d love to see what projects you’ve made!
As a reminder: SparkX products are rapidly produced to bring you the most cutting edge technology as it becomes available. These products are tested but come with no guarantees. Live technical support is not available for SparkX products.
