Arrow Electronics
The ARIS (Arrow Renesas IoT Synergy) platform for developing Internet of Things (IoT) devices has been extended by introducing the ARIS-EDGE-NB-IoT shield. The shield, made by Shiratech, features a Quectel BG96 module and plugs onto the ARIS-EDGE-S3 board, which is based on the low-power Renesas Synergy S3A3 microcontroller.
The combination of these two boards enables users to evaluate streaming of sensor data to Microsoft’s Azure cloud via a cellular connection (2G/3G, NB-IoT or CAT-M1 depending on network availability), easily and fast.
The new shield has an Arduino form factor and features the popular, low-power Quectel BG96 LTE CAT-M1 & NB-IoT modem and built-in GPS plus an antenna.
Download speed up to 300kbit/s and upload up to 375kbit/s are supported.
The board features a radio module with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE 4.1/4.2), Thread, and ZigBee stacks. The combo kit is well suited for use cases such as home automation, smart meters, smart lighting, wearable electronics, medical monitors and industrial sensing.
Arrow plans to add a LoRa shield as well.
The ARIS-EDGE-S3 features a Bosch Sensortec BNO055 9-degrees-of-freedom (9-DOF) application specific sensor node (ASSN). This sensor is widely used in robotics, augmented and virtual reality, drones, gaming, and other industrial applications.
Also on-board are the BME280 environmental sensor from Bosch Sensortec, which combines temperature, humidity and pressure sensing; a separate MEMS microphone; and an ambient light sensor to further extend contextual awareness.
Arrow’s ARIS-EDGE concept, updated and upgraded with this latest and most powerful of the EDGE boards, connects developers with the Renesas Synergy platform giving access to an optimized operating system, qualified stacks, consistent software libraries, and APIs that streamline IoT-device development and lower total cost of ownership.
David Spragg, vice president engineering of Arrow Electronics’ components business in EMEA commented: “With the addition of this new shield, our expanding ARIS family has become a great option for effectively deploying devices and IoT nodes with cellular connectivity. This capability is underlined further by the complementary software included with the ARIS platform.”
