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The official Blues blog
Recent Articles
Helping You Scale: New Pricing Updates for 2025
Blues pricing update, designed to simplify connectivity and empower growth. Our new Enterprise plan offers volume and time-based discounts, payment flexibility, and price protection.
Future-Proofing HVAC and Heat Pump Manufacturing: The Shift to Smart Systems
Learn how HVAC and heat pump manufacturers can stay competitive by adopting smart technologies. Explore the benefits of energy efficiency, connectivity, and data-driven intelligence in meeting evolving market demands.
Harnessing Starnote’s Persistent Connectivity to Boost Smart Agriculture
Smart agriculture devices have revolutionized farming to enable real-time data into crop health; learn how satellite connectivity with Starnote can boost the efficiency of your devices.
Navigating Network Sunsets: Future-Proofing Your IIoT Devices with Blues
Protect your IIoT devices from network sunsets and ensure your smart manufacturing infrastructure stays connected with Blues connectivity solutions.
Blues Summit Champions Technology for Good
The Blues team gathered in Memphis to look back on the previous year, align on our strategy going forwards, and champion how Blues is having a positive impact on the world.
Starnote Accelerates Satellite Connectivity in Transportation
Blues’ Starnote is overcoming the barriers that have hindered the adoption of satellite connectivity in transportation. Discover the challenges facing the transport sector, how connectivity can drive value, and where Starnote fits in.
Blues at The Things Conference: A Recap
The Blues team attended The Things Conference, the flagship event for LoRaWAN® and Low-Power Internet of Things (IoT) for two inspiring days engaging with partners, industry leaders, and exploring the latest advancements in IoT technology – including the launch of our very own Notecard for LoRa.
Starnote: Blues’ Trailblazer in Global Satellite IoT
Blues’ Starnote enables device manufacturers to connect to satellite networks using the existing Notecard ecosystem. It represents a blend of cutting-edge technology and user-centric design poised to redefine the boundaries of Satellite connectivity.
Announcing an Official Integration With Blynk
This new collaboration combines the powerful capabilities of Blues’ connectivity solutions with Blynk’s versatile development platform, creating an efficient, streamlined way for developers to build, deploy, and manage their projects.
Blues: Fueling IIoT Innovation with the Micro-PLC and Wireless Connectivity
Blues announced a partnership with Arduino. Together, we launched the Blues Wireless for Arduino Opta, an expansion module that brings Notecard’s wireless connectivity to the Opta PLC.
Satellite IoT: The Final Frontier of Wireless Connectivity
Discover the current landscape of satellite IoT, its key challenges, and how Starnote for Skylo’s intuitive design overcomes these challenges.
Wireless Harmonization: A New Era for Connected Product Development
Learn how wireless harmonization makes it effortless to connect your products to the cloud and transform them into intelligent services.
CES 2024: Reshaping Micro Mobility with VROEGH Design and Blues
Visit booth #10770 at CES 2024 to discover how Blues and VROEGH Design are building the future of cloud-connected micro mobility transportation.
Showcasing Geocene and Blues’ Partnership at CES 2024
Visit booth #10770 at CES 2024 to discover how Geocene and Blues are bringing the next generation of cloud-connected sensors to life.
Navigating the Cloud in Remote Patient Monitoring Devices
Learn how Blues’ cloud-connected Notecard and Notehub are poised to transform the healthcare landscape as we know it.
From Chaos to Harmony: Transforming Connectivity
Blues announced an expansion to our line of Notecards to cover a range of connectivity technologies within an interchangeable, harmonized ecosystem.
Custom vs Hyperscale: Untangling the EVSE Connectivity Dilemma
It is common to have EVSE operators manage the connectivity provider and even cloud instance. With many new operators entering the market, especially smaller scale operations, time is of the essence.
Accelerating Sustainable Mobility: The Critical Role of Connectivity in EVSE
The foundation of a successful charging infrastructure in the EV industry rests on one crucial element: connectivity.
Common Challenges in IoT Development and How to Overcome Them
Learn about the major obstacles to IoT development and how to overcome them. Give your IoT initiatives more power for success.
How IoT Can Boost Efficiency and Productivity in Your Industry
Unleash IoT’s potential for efficiency and productivity in asset management, food tech, and EV energy. Learn about benefits, implementation, and considerations.
10 IoT Solutions for the Environment
Increase sustainability efforts with these ten IoT solutions that enable us to become more informed and connected to the environment.
Growing Up: Cannabis Cultivation Technology Using IoT
Optimize your cannabis cultivation process with IoT sensors and analytics from Blues.
Building vs Buying Cellular Modules: Which Option is Right for Your IoT Project?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer for deciding to build or buy your cellular module. Use this guide to help you make the choice.
How To Overcome 6 Hidden Data Costs in Cellular IoT
Hidden fees in cellular IoT projects, particularly in data routing costs, can jeopardize the project’s success. Here are ways to avoid them.
Introducing Notehub JS – the JavaScript Library for the Notehub API
Notehub JS is designed to get you connected to the Notehub API quickly, and allow you to interact with Notehub.io IoT data in a JavaScript-friendly way.
Blues at CES: Solving Global Challenges with Cellular IoT
Blues was joined at CES by customers and partners for an interactive IoT product showcase.
“Build a Smarter World” Contest Winners
Join us in congratulating the winners of the “Build a Smarter World” contest with Blues and Edge Impulse.
Prodigy’s David Mackenzie Shares His Insights on CES, IoT Product Development, and Why Collaboration Leads to Success
David MacKenzie, 30-year industry veteran and VP of Product Development at Prodigy shares his insights on IoT.
Announcing Notecard Outboard Firmware Update
Introducing an industry-first no-code, RTOS-independent firmware update capability.
Blues Wireless Honored as the Natural Disaster Innovation Awards’ “Cost-Effective Mitigation Product of The Year”
The award was presented during the 2022 California Heat and Fire Expo. Read why this is such a meaningful win for Blues.
Improvements to Data Routing with Notehub
Learn how new improvements to Notehub routes makes it easier than ever to maintain consistent syncing of data between Notecard and your cloud.
Introducing a New Notecarrier-B
Announcing a new version of our small form-factor Notecarrier
Hack-o-ween with Blues
Recently the Developer Experience and Cloud Services teams met up to recap, review, and experience a one-day internal hackathon to see what sorts of connected projects we could build in a single day.
Announcing Build a Smarter World—$5K in Prizes for AIoT Projects!
Today we’re announcing a new contest in partnership with our friends at Edge Impulse.
Exploring Strategic IoT Partnerships at the ST Technology Tour
After a brief hiatus due to the global pandemic, the in-person ST Technology Tour is back. Blues Wireless has a strong partnership with ST and we are thrilled to be participating as a sponsor for the developer conference in Burlington, MA on Nov. 2, 2022.
Strategies for Managing IoT Project Risks
Digital transformation project strategies are increasingly built around managing risk. In this post, I introduce some considerations when developing an IoT product.
Quickly Build Custom IoT Dashboards with Snowflake, Streamlit, and Blues Wireless
Some basic Python code can create beautiful, highly customized IoT data visualizations in no time.
Introducing our Community Experts Program – the Blues Amplifiers
The Blues Amplifiers program thanks our most influential and creative developers and gives them a platform to showcase their efforts, reach more people, and shape the future of the Blues Wireless community.
Here’s How We Added Cheap Cellular Connectivity to Get Data from PLCs
In this post, you’ll learn how to affordably add wireless cellular connectivity to new or existing Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs).
Exploring IoT & Wireless Connectivity at MWC Las Vegas
MWC is one of the premier events for businesses across the entire technology and connectivity ecosystem. In this post, I share my thoughts on this year’s themes relative to IoT.
Introducing the New Feather-Compatible Notecarrier-F
Meet the new Adafruit Feather-compatible Notecarrier.
Introducing Sparrow: A development kit for building LoRa-based applications
Sparrow is a developer toolkit that accelerates construction of low-cost, LoRa-based device cluster applications.
LTE Connectivity and Off-Grid Power: A Match Made in Heaven
LTE connectivity is perfect for off-grid applications. Blues Wireless will be at RE+ Tech with a reliable, low-power cellular IoT connectivity solution.
A Beginner’s Guide to IoT Device Certification
Get a basic introduction and beginner’s tips for successfully navigating IoT device certification and testing.
Use Cell Tower and Wi-Fi Triangulation to Achieve Pin-Point Locations, without GPS
Learn how to use the Notecard to ascertain location information via cell tower and/or Wi-Fi 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.
Build an IoT Smart Leak Detector with SMS Alerts when Water is Detected
Learn how to build a low-cost, cellular-enabled water leak detection device complete with SMS notifications if a leak’s detected.
Smart Farming Solutions at Tech Hub Live
Smart agriculture operations driven by IoT help improve yield, efficiency, and profitability. Blues Wireless will be at Tech Hub Live with a low-cost and simple IoT connectivity solution.
Announcing New balenaBlocks for the Blues Wireless Notecard
Learn about the new Notecard balenaBlocks, and how to use them in balena projects.
How to Add IoT Connectivity to Any Device
Learn what wireless IoT connectivity means, what options to consider, how to implement them, challenges you can expect, and how to solve for them.
Clean Earth Rovers is Creating Solutions for Coastal Waterways
Clean Earth Rovers is deploying autonomous vehicles to clean up coastal waterways. Learn more about their work and how you can help.
Build a Cellular-Enabled Power Outage Detector with Twilio SMS Notifications
Learn how to build a globally-available power outage detector with a Cellular Notecard.
IoT Solutions for Liquid Terminals
Raghu discusses 3 potential IoT Use Cases within the context of the 2022 ILTA International Operating Conference & Trade Show
Quick Guide: Create a Custom Dashboard Using Node-RED
Follow this simple tutorial to learn how you can create your own custom dashboard using Node-RED with data extracted from Notehub.
Syncing & Visualizing Flight Logs with OpenSync & Blues Wireless
See how the IoT can benefit the aviation industry by making it easy to synch and visualize flight data.
Easiest Way to Add Cellular to an ESP32 IoT Project
Learn how to add affordable prepaid cellular to an ESP32-based IoT solution.
Building a Fall Detection System with Edge Impulse and a Notecard
Learn how to build a device that detects falls, and sends emergency alert messages with location information.
Velvetwire: Monitoring the Vaccine Cold Chain with the IoT
Using the Notecard’s connectivity across 137+ countries, Velvetwire integrates timely cold chain data into its industrial IoT solution to help track global vaccine shipments.
Mapping the Outdoors with Adafruit.io and a Blues Wireless Notecard
Learn how to use Adafruit.io, GPS, and a Wi-Fi Notecard to map an outdoor space.
ML Anomaly Detection in Elevators with Edge Impulse and a Notecard
Learn how to use Edge Impulse and a Notecard to detect anomalies in elevator operation.
Anti-Theft GPS Tracker and Recovery System
Build a Notecard-powered anti-theft device complete with SMS alerts when movement is detected, for under $100.
Introducing the New Notecarrier-A
We just released a new Notecarrier with Qwiic ports, improved antennas, and a gorgeous black PCB.
American Crane: Building Smart Cranes with IoT Powered by Blues Wireless
American Crane’s CEO is leading digital transformation initiatives with smart crane solutions powered by the Blues Wireless Notecard.
Webinar: Mastering Global Asset Tracking with a Cellular Notecard and Datacake
Learn how to build a robust, low-power, global asset tracker with a cellular Notecard and Datacake.
Webinar: Get Started with Cellular IoT on the Raspberry Pi 4, Zero, and Pico
In this webinar we showed how to use low-power cellular IoT in the Raspberry Pi ecosystem.
Top 5 IoT Projects on the Raspberry Pi
Check out some of the coolest Raspberry Pi and Blues Wireless-powered IoT projects to date!
10 Examples to Help You Learn JSONata
Learn JSONata through a series of examples of the language in action
Low Fi LoJack® with Blues Wireless and React
Build your own asset tracker from hardware to software and everything in between.
Thermal Image Anomaly Detection with TinyML
Build a basic anomaly detection ML model with thermal images using Edge Impulse.
Introducing the Wi-Fi Notecard
Expand your wireless reach with a 30mm x 35mm System-on-Module that’s compatible with any Cellular Notecard-based design.
Blues Wireless ‘Most Valuable Hackster’
Build IoT projects with the Notecard, publish them on Hackster, and get paid!
Blues Wireless Named As CES 2022 Innovation Awards Honoree
Blues Wireless was recognized as CES 2022 Innovation Awards Honoree for our new Notecard Wi-Fi IoT SoM.
Global Cellular + GPS Asset Tracking Tutorial
Learn how to build a low-cost (and low-code) Cellular + GPS enabled IoT asset tracker that can span the entire globe.
From On Edge to At The Edge
Learn To Relax With an IoT Stress Monitor
.NET Developer? You’re an IoT Developer Too!
Learn how building IoT solutions is now possible using C# and ‘tiny’ .NET frameworks.
Building a POC Smart City Pothole Detector with $100 and 5 Lines of Code
Follow along as we build a conceptual automated pothole detector with a map-based dashboard. So easy a marketing guy did it.
Evexia Telehealth Offers Hope For The Caribbean Population Who Disproportionately Live With Chronic Diseases
Learn how Evexia Telehealth is using the Blues Wireless Notecard to keep underserved patients in the Caribbean engaged with healthcare providers.
Easiest Way to Add Cellular to the Raspberry Pi Zero 2
Learn how to add an affordable cellular option to the new Raspberry Pi Zero 2.
The Revolution Will Be Data-Driven
Lessons from the Raleigh Connected Communities Conference.
Deploying Your IoT Projects with Scalable Services (and Cloud APIs!)
In this webinar, we looked into some key issues that may arise when you start to scale an IoT project.
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.
Uncovering the Hidden Use Cases of Narrowband Cellular for the IoT
Let’s dive into a few ‘hidden’ use cases of cellular IoT like file transfer and remote control.
Building Your First Image Classification Machine Learning Project
Learn the basics of how to build and test your first image classification project with Edge Impulse.
Announcing Long Term Support Releases for Notecard Firmware
The first Long Term Support (LTS) release of our Notecard Firmware is available today.
Debugging a Hot Tub Time (Series) Machine
Notecard and Notehub.io can be used to relay water quality data and send SMS notifications when levels go out of bounds.
11 Things to Think About When Implementing Your First IoT Sensor Project
You’ll need to overcome 11 different challenges when building your first IoT sensor project. Let’s dig in.
Agilix Health Empowers Cancer Patients With Real-Time Health Tracking With Cellular IoT
Patients receiving chemotherapy have adverse effect that can lead to hospitalization. Agilix Health provides real-time health tracking to keep patients healthy and at home.
Blues Wireless – Just Like React, but for IoT
You can build without React or Blues Wireless, but why would you?
Industrial Agriculture Monitoring Uses Cellular Internet of Things Module to Improve Yields
45% of fresh flowers grown for U.S. markets don’t make it to market. AgroPatterns is fixing this with software and cellular IoT.
20,000,000 and Counting
Notecards have now sent more than 20M events to Notehub.io (and beyond)!
IoT Concept to Pilot: The Lighting-Fast Way
Building an IoT product requires skills across a wide range of disciplines. Get it right and you launch a successful product.
Announcing a New Dashboard for the Airnote
Today we’re announcing a new feature for all Airnote owners: an updated dashboard for quickly and easily viewing device readings.
For IoT Success: You need a Champion and a Notecard!
Mobeen Khan explains the 3 elements required to successfully build an IoT project.
Introducing the Swan from Blues Wireless
Swan is the most extensible Feather-compatible MCU on the market today.
Pest Detection With the Notecard and a Raspberry Pi
Learn how to use a Raspberry Pi, a Notecard, and a bit of machine learning to detect common household rodents.
Vacationing with a GPS Asset Tracker
Follow a Notecard’s journey to Iceland and set up your own standalone GPS asset tracker with the Notecard and Notecarrier.
The Top 3 IoT Use Cases For Public Safety At The 2021 FDIC Conference
Raghu explains the top three IoT Public Safety Use Cases from this year’s FDIC International Conference.
Far Away Fires Can Cause Nearby Problems
The earth is a large, interconnected system. Let’s take a look at how fires 3,000 miles away can affect Air Quality in Boston.
Introducing the Qwiic Cellular Notecarrier from SparkFun
Learn about a new Notecarrier created by the SparkFun team.
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.
Why IoT Developers (Still) Matter
Within the enterprise, it’s still the developer who drives the ultimate success or failure of an IoT project.
Cellular IoT Network and Infrastructure Redundancy
Another de facto advantage of cellular is the utilization of a robust infrastructure that has been built up over decades.
Visualizing the IoT with Datacake and the Notecard
Learn about securely delivering Notecard data to the low-code IoT platform, Datacake.
Making Startups Better, Cheaper, and Faster
Gig East is now open as a hub for entrepreneurs, startups, remote workers, and those who value innovation in action.
Common Use Cases for Cellular IoT
Let’s examine some of the common (and unexpected) scenarios for when IoT solutions should utilize cellular.
Launching a Billion-Dollar Idea in North Carolina
The Gig East Exchange is a hub for everyday entrepreneurs, tech startups, remote workers, and anyone who values innovation in action.
The Advantages of Cellular IoT
The advantages of cellular IoT go beyond global availability, to security, reliability, and low power consumption.
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.
What is Cellular IoT?
Cellular IoT technologies allow devices to securely connect to a network for transmitting data. Let’s dive into the details!
Dial a Dad Joke: Raspberry Pi Pico and Cellular IoT
See how a Raspberry Pi Pico, Twilio, and Notecard can be used in a fun dad joke project on Hackster.
Getting Started with Notehub.io
Learn how to securely route data from Notecard to your cloud application with Notehub.io.
RIoT Lunch & Learn: The Strings of Cellular IoT
Join us on April 21st for a virtual lunch & learn, hosted by Raleigh IoT.
Comparing IoT Connectivity with LoRa, Cellular, and Wi-Fi
Network connectivity options for IoT projects are endless. Let’s take a critical look and find the best path forward.
Show Us Your Air, Get an Airnote
In celebration of IoT Day and Earth Day, we’re giving away some Airnotes, and we want you to have one.
Getting Started with the Notecard
Just got your first Notecard? Use our quickstart and in-browser serial terminal to learn the basics.
What We Can Do in a Decade
Our hope is that, over the next decade, we can help connect humanity to the environment around us in the same way that we connected to each other in the last one.
The Strings of Cellular IoT
When taken together, the strings of cellular IoT create a developer-hostile environment where complexity rules.
Our Top Insights From The Things Conference 2021
Developers from around the globe are energized, determined, and more excited than ever to build products and solutions for the IoT.
Soul of a New Machine
Remote sensing and control shouldn’t be expensive or complicated. With just a few lines of code, anything can be cloud-connected. This changes every thing.