Olimex NB-IoT-DevKit Development Board (BC-66)
The NB-IoT-DevKit from Olimex is an IoT board with BC-66 LTE GSM module covering all worldwide GSM bands. The board includes a built-in LiPo battery port and charging circuit, Nano SIM holder, level shifters, status LEDs and a micro-USB connector.
NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) technology is a direct competitor to LoRaWAN and SigFox and has a few advantages:
- Higher speed 25.5 kbps up and downlink
- Single GSM cell can connect to up to 100 000 NB-IoT nodes
- Single GSM cell can cover up to 10-100km rural and 1-10km urban distance
- Can work up to 10 years on a Lithium 3V battery if less than 200 bytes are sent per day
Note: All GSM cells which work with LTE can also support NB-IoT, but this requires new protocol installation and licensee fee, so not all operators provide it by default. You have to check with your local GSM operator if they offer NB-IoT. Also, the SIM card must have this protocol enabled. SIMs with LTE may or may not work with NB-IoT, this depends on your operator.
Features
- BC-66 – worldwide GSM bands coverage
- NB-IoT 25.5 kbps up and downlink
- Ultra-low power design: only 126 uA consumption in PSM mode
- Built-in Li-Po battery charger
- Micro-USB connector
- Nano SIM
- Level shifters for 5 x GPIOs, I2C, SPI, UART
- Micro UEXT connector
- U.FL antenna connector
- Status LEDs
- Dimensions: 40 x 25mm
Resources
Documents
- NB-IoT review at RuseConf2019
- Pinout
- EU Declaration of Conformity
- UKCA Declaration of Conformity
Hardware
- Schematic
- GitHub
Software
- GitHub repository with Arduino and PlatformIO examples for BC-66 and NB-IoT-DevKit
- Firmware flasher and latest firmware
USB Drivers
- USB driver for Windows
- USB driver for Linux (for old kernels; pre-3.14.x)
- USB driver for Mac
- USB driver for Android
Package Contents
- 1x NB-IOT Development Board
