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