FAQs

Yes. The Wi-Fi Notecard uses the same m.2 Key E connector as the Cellular Notecard and as such, can be used in any one of our Notecarriers or a custom, Notecard-based design.

This device is fully customizable by integrating different sensors and adding the appropriate libraries to the device.

The Notecard is compatible with any microcontroller (MCU) from an 8-bit Arduino to 32-bit ESP32 or STM32 and every major Single Board Computer (SBC) platform. Some popular examples include the Adafruit Huzzah32, STM32 Nucleo, Arduino Nano, ESP32-WROOM, among many others. The Notecard communicates over either I2C or UART, so it acts as a peripheral that you can connect to a product’s existing I2C bus or UART connection.

It’s also possible to communicate with the Notecard from any embedded language, including compiled languages like C and C++, to interpreted languages like Python and JavaScript.

Different models of the Blues Wireless Notecard are available that connect to LTE-M, NB-IoT, and Cat-1 networks globally. When LTE-M, NB-IoT, or Cat-1 aren’t available, the Notecard is also supported by UMTS/HSPA+ and GSM/GPRS/EDGE wireless standards.

Yes! Blues Wireless can support your project whether you need 10 devices or 10,000. We also have relationships with device building firms and contract manufacturers to help bring your vision to life.

Various Notecard models are available that connect to LTE-M, NB-IoT, and Cat-1 networks. In global regions without these capabilities, coverage is also supported by UMTS/HSPA+ and GSM/GPRS/EDGE wireless standards.

The Low-Power Wi-Fi transceiver used on the Notecard supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi Networks.

A system on module (SoM) is a circuit board that integrates a system function on a single module/device. Unlike a single board computer like the Raspberry Pi or a microcontroller, a SoM generally serves a single special function.

The Blues Wireless Notecard is a cellular SoM. The Notecard is a secure device-to-cloud data-pump that comes with 500 MB of data and 10 years of cellular service. The Notecard itself is a tiny 30mm x 35mm SoM and ships ready to embed in a project via its m.2 connector. To make prototyping IoT solutions even easier, Blues Wireless also provides a series of expansion boards to host the Notecard called Notecarriers.

Yes, this is possible on any paid account on Notehub.io.

The Blues Wireless Notecard, combined with the Notecarrier-AF, is the easiest way to add cellular connectivity to your MCU-based IoT project. Blues Wireless provides a Feather Starter Kit that includes a Adafruit ESP32 HUZZAH to get you started as quickly as possible. Alternatively, if you are invested in the Raspberry Pi platform, you can get started with the Raspberry Pi Starter Kit.

The Blues Wireless Notecard and Notehub cloud service provide developers with an over-the-air (OTA) device firmware update (DFU) mechanism that can be used to update Notecard firmware, or the firmware of a connected microcontroller or microprocessor host.

Provided the host has the ability to run a custom bootloader or operate across partitions, developers can utilize Notehub.io to upload firmware binaries, and the Notecard to download and deliver those binaries to the host.

Follow the DFU guide provided on our developer site.

The MFF2 UICC embedded SIM used on the Blues Wireless Notecard works in the same manner as a traditional SIM card. However, it is soldered directly onto the Notecard circuit board during manufacturing. This makes the Notecard a perfect option for IoT deployments that are located outdoors (the SIM is protected from corrosion), are in motion (the SIM won’t move out of place), or require a long lifecycle. MFF2 SIM cards are also permanently installed, making them impervious to misuse and therefore more secure.

A cellular IoT module is a system on module (SoM) that integrates a system function (e.g. cellular) on a single module or device. Unlike a single board computer or a microcontroller, a SoM generally serves a single unique function.

The Blues Wireless Notecard is a cellular IoT module. The Notecard is a secure device-to-cloud data-pump that comes with 500 MB of data and 10 years of cellular service. The Notecard itself is a tiny 30mm x 35mm SoM and ships ready to embed in a project via its m.2 connector. To make things even easier, Blues Wireless also provides a series of expansion boards to host the Notecard called Notecarriers.

The BME680 is one of the most popular sensors for gathering gas, pressure, humidity, and temperature data. Likewise, the BME280 is a popular alternative that does not include a gas sensor.

The easiest way to learn how to access sensor data from a BME680 or BME280 is by following one of the Blues Wireless sensor tutorials that use the Notecard to securely relay sensor data to the cloud:

STM32 Discovery
STM32 Nucleo

No! The Blues Wireless Notecard is a small 30mm x 35mm system on module (SoM) that is able to be embedded in any IoT project on its own via its M.2 edge connector.

However, Blues Wireless provides a variety of Notecarrier host boards for easily adding cellular connectivity to a new or existing IoT solution for prototyping purposes. The Notecarrier also provides antennae for both the GPS and cellular capabilities of the Cellular Notecard (and the cellular antenna is also compatible with the Wi-Fi Notecard).

Notecard: SoM peripheral with a cellular modem, IMU sensor, GPS modem, with an M.2 edge connector.
Notecarrier: A prototyping board with cellular/Wi-Fi and GPS antennae, used to breakout the pins on the Notecard’s M.2 connector.
Notehub: A cloud service, used as a backend to connect with the Notecard. Notehub.io securely receives all data and communications created by the Notecard. In turn, Notehub.io can securely sync encrypted data with the cloud application of your choice using VPN tunnels which eliminates the need for traffic to traverse the public Internet.

The Notecard device’s data plan continues to function uninterrupted. Data can be collected via the open-source, cloud service “Notehub” (the core functionality upon which our SaaS product, Notehub.io, is built).

There’s two main reasons the Notecard may be having issues connecting to a computer via USB.

The USB cable doesn’t support data (or it’s a faulty cable) - this happens more often than you might think.
On Windows 7, a user needs to install a driver to support USB communication with the Notecard. See our forum article for more details on communicating with a Notecard on Windows 7.

For more information on Notecard LED blink patterns, see our forum article to decode what your Notecard’s LEDs mean.

If the Notecard’s having trouble establishing a connection, please see our forum’s troubleshooting article on connecting to a cellular network.

Trace information is a stream of messages that can be useful when looking to understand Notecard behavior, for instructions read our forum’s article on how to capture trace logs from a Notecard.