EYE on NPI - Particle Tracker One #EyeOnNPI #Adafruit #DigiKey @Particle @DigiKey @Adafruit

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Published on November 12, 2020 1:40:23 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0e31mO9pro

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This weeks EYE ON NPI is on track to being our favorite yet - its the Particle Tracker One (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/p/particle-industries/tracker-one-rf-transceiver-module) from our BFF's particle.io (https://www.particle.io/)! The Tracker One is, as the name suggests, an all-in-one asset tracker that contains an LTE cellular module (Quectel EG91-EX), WiFi module (ESP32) and BLE main processor (nRF52840) all with support for Particle's famed IoT coding/deployment cloud.

Technical Specifications
Includes the asset tracker SoM mounted on carrier board and installed in an IP67-rated enclosure
Cellular: highly reliable LTE CAT M1 (NA) (Quectel BG96), LTE CAT 1 with 3G, 2G fallback (EMEAA) (Quectel EG91-EX)
IP67-rated M8 connector includes CAN Bus, UART, GPIO, and power for simple expansion
GNSS provided by u-blox NEO-M8U with onboard dead-reckoning for up to 1.8 m CEP50 GPS accuracy
Wi-Fi® location via onboard ESP32 with SSID scanning for third-party Wi-Fi location services
Powerful and efficient MCU: Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 SoC Arm® Cortex®-M4F 32-bit processor at 64 MHz with 1 MB Flash, 256 KB RAM, and Bluetooth®
Flexible power supply accepts 4.5 V to 30 V power supply (105 V may be used if connecting power direct to the carrier board without using the M8 connector). Also accepts 5 V supply via USB-C. Switched LiPo battery connector, charge LED, backup battery for GPS and RTC
PMIC and fuel gauge: integrated power management, LiPo charger, and battery connector
High-precision thermistor: with accuracy to 1%
USB-C®: for flashing, debugging, and power with higher charging rates than micro-USB
RGB LED: for use as both a user-configurable device as well as Particle status information
Backup battery: for RTC and GNSS
Open asset tracker library: complete, ready-to-use asset-tracking application enables rapid implementation and time to market
Extensible: modular implementation with user hooks means that it is easy to add your sensors to the application and report that data along with location data
Configurable: publish is configurable by Particle console
Location service: the Particle console offers snapshot and historical location viewing. This includes location, battery, IMU, and temperature data. Locations can be filtered by group or devices characteristics
Data storage: location data is stored in the Particle cloud for analysis, reporting, and retention
Publish configuration: publish rates and triggers can be configured from the Particle console by product or device
Configuration on wakeup: the asset tracker can go to sleep and be configured from settings created in the console on wakeup
Sleep configuration: deep sleep can be enabled or disabled. Sleep on low battery
Configurable crash detection: wake on IMU, crash, and threshold publishing may be configured
Secure database storage: all data is stored encrypted to ensure GDPR compliance

The Tracker One is an open source 'reference' design, you can download the EagleCAD files from github (https://github.com/particle-iot/tracker-hardware) and adjust them as necessary if you want to add or remove components. The main component is the Particle T402MEA SOM which is available separately from Digi-Key (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/particle-industries-inc/T402MEA/12806746) and either hand-solder or place-and-reflow in a custom design.

Once you get the Tracker, set it up over the particle website. You will need to activate the SIM card and attach a credit card for billing. The standard rate is about $7/month for 25 MB of data which is good enough for low-data IoT transfer (temperature, location, motion detection, etc). It does take a few hours to get the SIM activated, like any other cellular device, so give yourself a day to enable it.

We like the durability, the ease of setup and the hack-ability of this cellular board. It's simple to open up if you need access to the debug port. If you don't need a lot of GPIO, then you may be able to use it as-is just using the port to send/receive data and keep the battery topped up! The price is really great, both for the Tracker itself and the monthly service - it would be difficult to make something like this DIY style at a lower price.

You can get both the Tracker One ATT / USA version (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/particle-industries-inc/ONE402MEA/12806723) and the Tracker One Vodaphone / EMEA version (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/particle-industries-inc/ONE523MEA/12806726). Both are in stock at Digi-Key right now, order tonight and you will be tracking by tomorrow.

Watch more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPOQ0JTJaMk
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