The Notecard

The Notecard is compatible with any microcontroller (MCU) from an 8-bit Arduino to 32-bit ESP32 or STM32 and every major Single Board Computer (SBC) platform. Some popular examples include the Adafruit Huzzah32, STM32 Nucleo, Arduino Nano, ESP32-WROOM, among many others. The Notecard communicates over either I2C or UART, so it acts as a peripheral that you can connect to a product’s existing I2C bus or UART connection.

It’s also possible to communicate with the Notecard from any embedded language, including compiled languages like C and C++, to interpreted languages like Python and JavaScript.

Different models of the Blues Wireless Notecard are available that connect to LTE-M, NB-IoT, and Cat-1 networks globally. When LTE-M, NB-IoT, or Cat-1 aren’t available, the Notecard is also supported by UMTS/HSPA+ and GSM/GPRS/EDGE wireless standards.

Global coverage is available in 135 countries, with direct support provided by leading providers and carriers. For a full list, please see our documentation article on Notecard’s supported countries.

There are four Cellular Notecard models available: NBGL, NBNA, WBEX, and WBNA. The WBEX and WBNA Notecards provide superior wideband coverage using LTE Cat-1, function in North America (WBNA) and EMEA (WBEX), and are our recommended Notecards based on improved connectivity and speed. The NBGL and NBNA Notecards provide narrowband LTE-M and NB-IoT coverage in 135+ countries (NBGL) or North America (NBNA).

A system on module (SoM) is a circuit board that integrates a system function on a single module/device. Unlike a single board computer like the Raspberry Pi or a microcontroller, a SoM generally serves a single special function.

The Blues Wireless Notecard is a cellular SoM. The Notecard is a secure device-to-cloud data-pump that comes with 500 MB of data and 10 years of cellular service. The Notecard itself is a tiny 30mm x 35mm SoM and ships ready to embed in a project via its m.2 connector. To make prototyping IoT solutions even easier, Blues Wireless also provides a series of expansion boards to host the Notecard called Notecarriers.

The Blues Wireless Notecard, combined with the Notecarrier-AF, is the easiest way to add cellular connectivity to your MCU-based IoT project. Blues Wireless provides a Feather Starter Kit that includes a Adafruit ESP32 HUZZAH to get you started as quickly as possible. Alternatively, if you are invested in the Raspberry Pi platform, you can get started with the Raspberry Pi Starter Kit.

A cellular IoT module is a system on module (SoM) that integrates a system function (e.g. cellular) on a single module or device. Unlike a single board computer or a microcontroller, a SoM generally serves a single unique function.

The Blues Wireless Notecard is a cellular IoT module. The Notecard is a secure device-to-cloud data-pump that comes with 500 MB of data and 10 years of cellular service. The Notecard itself is a tiny 30mm x 35mm SoM and ships ready to embed in a project via its m.2 connector. To make things even easier, Blues Wireless also provides a series of expansion boards to host the Notecard called Notecarriers.

No! The Blues Wireless Notecard is a small 30mm x 35mm system on module (SoM) that is able to be embedded in any IoT project on its own via its M.2 edge connector.

However, Blues Wireless provides a variety of Notecarrier host boards for easily adding cellular connectivity to a new or existing IoT solution for prototyping purposes. The Notecarrier also provides antennae for both the GPS and cellular capabilities of the Cellular Notecard (and the cellular antenna is also compatible with the Wi-Fi Notecard).

There’s two main reasons the Notecard may be having issues connecting to a computer via USB.

1. The USB cable doesn’t support data (or it’s a faulty cable) - this happens more often than you might think.
2. On Windows 7, a user needs to install a driver to support USB communication with the Notecard. See our forum article for more details on communicating with a Notecard on Windows 7.

For more information on Notecard LED blink patterns, see our forum article to decode what your Notecard’s LEDs mean.

If the Notecard’s having trouble establishing a connection, please see our forum’s troubleshooting article on connecting to a cellular network.

Trace information is a stream of messages that can be useful when looking to understand Notecard behavior, for instructions read our forum’s article on how to capture trace logs from a Notecard.