Utilize the Sparrow Development Kit to create proofs-of-concept quickly.
It is not necessarily necessary to link a complete Wi-Fi or cellular radio to each IoT sensor in a situation when several IoT sensors are close to one another. Instead, low-cost LoRa radios are excellent since data transmission incurs little to no extra expense. However, getting data from the LoRa-based sensors to the cloud presents a problem. Fortunately, Blues Wireless filled this gap by releasing the Sparrow module and development kit.
Everything you need to go from gathering sensor data to showing it on a web-based dashboard is included in the Sparrow Development Kit. The first thing you get is two Sparrow Reference nodes, each of which has a PIR motion sensor and a BME280 temperature/humidity sensor. These speak with the Sparrow Essentials board via LoRa.
The dev kit includes three Essentials boards. One may be utilized as the LoRa gateway. In order to connect sensors to the other two boards, you can use either header pins or a Qwiic connector.
The Blues Wireless Wi-Fi Notecard, connected to a Notecarrier-A, is how the Essentials board connects to Wi-Fi. The gadget you would incorporate into a final product or deployment is the Wi-Fi Notecard. These cards contain an edge connector in the M.2 format for simple integration into a finished product.
Notecards from Blues Wireless are available with a cellular or Wi-Fi connection. Since they both use the same JSON-based programming interface, switching Sparrow development to a mobile solution is a straightforward process.
A development-style board for the Notecard is called the Notecarrier-A. It contains connection breakouts (Qwiic and JST-PH), a nano-SIM socket, power management circuits, Wi-Fi/cellular antennae, and an active GPS antenna.
The development kit also comes with batteries, a Qwiic connection cable, an STLink-V3Mini programming cable, and nodes for the Essentials and Reference!
Open-source software is available for Sparrow's hardware firmware. Additionally, Blues Wireless provides the free Web Reference App.
The web app serves as a dashboard for Sparrow data and provides a simple method for configuring the LoRa network's sensors. Examples of how to transfer data from Sparrow to Notehub.io and most cloud destinations are also available in the developer hub.
The FCC clearance for the Sparrow module is still pending, according to Blues Wireless. So while you may begin developing right immediately, you should wait until at least September 2022 to plan for deployment. Sparrow Dev Kits cost $199 plus delivery and are available for purchase right now.