Blues Cellular Starter Kit First Look

Cloud services are important for data aggregation and device control. However, getting data to and from the cloud becomes challenging when you don't have a WiFi network handy. To make things easier, the Blues Cell + WiFi notecard transmits data over cellular as a ready-to-go "data pump" with 500 MB/10 years of cellular service.

In the video below, I do an unboxing of the Blues Cell + WiFi starter kit and show how to set it up with VSCode/Platformio to transmit data over cellular:

In the Box (and Cloud)

The Blues Cell + WiFi kit includes the following:

• Notecard - Cellular data transmission unit, i.e. the heart of the system. This comes with 500 MB of cell data and 10 years of service with no SIM cards to worry about.
• Notecarrier - Development board that connects the Notecard to other devices. Features a standard M.2 connector for Notecard attachment.
• Swan - STM32-based host device that plugs into the Notecarrier. Programmable as what you might consider a traditional "dev board."
• STLINK-V3MINIE [NOT INCLUDED IN KIT] - Optional, but useful for programming. Available from Blues and other fine electronics distributors.

The notecard sends and receives data over cellular via Notehub–Blues' data routing service–using JSON-formatted Notes. Notehub interfaces with other cloud services like AWS, Azure, etc.

Getting Started (Notecard/Notecarrier)

Connect the Notecard to the Notecarrier and connect the antenna as described in the Notecard Quickstart guide. Connect the Notecarrier to your computer via a Micro-USB cable, allowing you to use the In-Browser Terminal to communicate with it (literally in the browser with the instructions).

Once you've validated your serial connection, set up a Notehub account for cloud access. Create a new project, and get a Product UID that you then feed into your Notecard so it knows where to send data.

The Quickstart instructions are all very copy/paste, but as an experiment, under Queue Notes to Your Notecard, try changing the JSON data values around in the example.

So instead of:

{"req":"note.add","body":{"temp":35.5,"humid":56.23}}

Try the following:

{"req":"note.add","body":{"cookies":25,"eat_them_now":"yes"}}

Or anything else you want in the data fields. Sync with

{"req":"hub.sync"}

Then check events in Blues Notehub to see if it went through (refresh the browser if necessary). The Notecard sends (and receives) arbitrary data. How you process that is up to you!

Blink the Swan

While the Notecard does the heavy data lifting in this setup, the Swan contains the actual STM32 microcontroller to be programmed. You can use the Arduino IDE for this task, but here I used VSCode with the PlatformIO extension, outlined here.

Set up your IDE, copy/paste code from the👆 instructions, and flash your Swan. I used the STLINK-V3MINIE, which made this process extremely simple. You can also program it with a Micro-USB cable, but you'll need to do a bit of fiddling with the boot and reset buttons to get this to work.

The STLINK-V3MINIE also enables debugging. I suggest picking one up if you're going to any significant work with the Swan.

To the Cloud! (Notehub)

Now for the fun part! This tutorial takes you through the procedure to send temperature and simulated humidity readings to the cloud, and includes some initial setup steps that you may have already performed. The procedure is mostly cut-and-paste, substituting in your project's productUID–found in the Settings section of Notehub–for the dummy productUID in the example code.

Once you've gone through the tutorial (up to the View Data in Notehub section), navigate to Events in the Notehub web interface to see what your device has sent over. If you don't immediately see new readings, hit refresh on your browser, and ensure the Notecarrier is powered.

Unlimited Capabilities

The Notecard's 500 MB of cellular data service can last for years when properly managed. Beyond that, Blues' Connectivity Assurance service can be implemented to keep your devices' data topped off. Once on the cloud, Blues' Notehub interface sends data to the proper place, whether services like AWS and Azure, visualization tools like Ubidots and Grafana, or anywhere else. Notehub can also send data to the Notecard for bi-directional control.

From here, you can develop your kit into a one-off custom "thing, " or even take it from prototype to finished product. The Notecard's standard M.2 connector means that integration into a custom board is a snap. It will be exciting to see what people develop with this hardware in the future!