Building an IoT Remote Control Device
"No matter what device you are managing or where it is deployed, you can embed a cellular IoT solution for full remote control."
IoT has made remote work possible across industries, now businesses that want to stay ahead of the curve are seeking new ways to leverage the IoT to its full potential. One of the most powerful aspects of the technology is the ability to securely and remotely control devices at scale from anywhere in the world. IoT remote control devices reduce costs by giving you greater insight into your assets.
When building proof-of-concept or prototype IoT remote control devices it is important to spend most of your time on features that solve business problems, not utility functionality. To that end, Blues Wireless Notecard is the simplest, and most cost-effective way to add connectivity to IoT devices. Simply connect the Notecard to your device’s existing UART or I2C bus, and it will connect your device to the cellular network automatically, ready to transmit and receive data from its associated Notehub account.
Learn how to build a cellular IoT remote control prototype in a single day for around $200.
Building a Remote Access IoT Device Prototype
Building connectivity into an existing product increases the potential of the device and can often be a more prudent financial decision than upgrading equipment. But whether you’re retrofitting a device or building a new one, adding cellular connectivity can be one of the most challenging and complicated pieces. Using Blues Wireless’ hardware, firmware, and data routing service gets your device connected in less than 30 minutes.
- Hardware:
- The Blues Wireless Notecard is a tiny 30 by 35 mm SoM device-to-cloud data pump that provides instant connectivity, comes with 500 MB of data over 10 years, and is ready to embed in a custom project.
- The Notecarrier is an expansion board with features perfect for prototyping. The best board for this project is the Notecarrier-AF, because it has an Adafruit Feather socket for the ESP32, an M.2 connector for the Notecard, and handles all the power management and charging circuitry.
- Firmware:
- Notehub has the ability to manage the firmware running on your Notecards as well as your host MCU. You can easily choose between the available firmware and deploy to one or more devices through OTA DFU.
- Cloud:
- The Notecard is preconfigured to securely communicate with Notehub.io.
- Notehub.io enables secure device-to-cloud data flow and allows the Notecard to function as a bi-directional device that can receive data in addition to publishing data.
Notecards are assigned to a project in Notehub.io, then sync data into those projects for routing to your cloud application. After getting your project set up on Notehub.io, you’re ready to write the Notecard configuration firmware that will enable you to send sensor readings from your device to Notehub. The Notecard uses a JSON-based API, taking JSON requests and returning JSON responses. You don’t have to learn or use any AT commands to work with this device. If you’re interested in learning more from Blues Wireless, there’s a Quickstart on the developer portal that introduces the basic concepts and commands.
With the Notecard communicating with Notehub, you can send commands over the internet through Notehub.io to take control of your device. Notehub.io can be used to communicate with the Notecard, set environment variables, and more. By sending a note.add request, you can queue a message on Notehub.io that will be sent to the Notecard. In this build, once synchronized, the ESP32 retrieves the note and sends the commands the device needs to perform.
Applications of This Project
IoT remote control is useful for any situation in which you want to securely manage IoT devices at scale from a remote dashboard. You can monitor device sensor readings, system and network performance, hardware vitals, and proactively troubleshoot issues. Some applications include:
- Robotics
- Smart home products
- Industrial machine and equipment sensors
- Commercial pumps
- Environmental monitoring systems
- Air quality monitors
- Water quality monitors
- Patient monitoring devices
- Building management systems
- Interactive kiosks
Start building your prototype today using these instructions and a dev kit from Blues Wireless.
Frequently Asked Questions
This device is fully customizable by integrating different sensors and adding the appropriate libraries to the device.
If you have questions about acquisition or compatibility, please Contact Us.
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 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 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.
Please Contact Us.
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.
No! The Blues 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).
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