Texting Trouble With The LTE shield!
The most common choice for using the board as an Arduino shield are stacking female headers, which are included with the shield. After soldering the headers, go ahead and place the shield on top of the Arduino board (unless you're using it as a standalone board) and you're ready for the next step!
Texting trouble with the LTE shield!
GND - Common ground for all logic and power3.3V - 3.3V from the Arduino's regulator. Use this just as you would on the Arduino!5V / LOGIC - This 5V rail from the Arduino charges the LiPo battery which powers the SIM7000 and also sets the logic voltage for the I2C and level shifting. If you are using a 3.3V microcontroller, connect 3.3V to the shield's "5V" pin (please see the section below).VBAT - This grants access to the LiPo battery voltage and is normally not connected to anything on the Arduino so you are free to use it as you wish! It's also the same as the input voltage of the SIM7000 module. If you're thinking about measuring and monitoring this voltage, check out the "b" command in the demo tutorial which measures the voltage and displays the battery percentage! Remember, the LiPo battery is required!VIN - This pin is simply connected to the VIN pin on the Arduino. You can power the Arduino as you normally would with 7-12V on this pin.
First of all you should make have to break the micro SIM out of the normally-sized SIM card holder. On the LTE shield locate the SIM card holder on the left side of the board near the battery connector. The SIM card is inserted into this holder with the SIM's metal contacts facing down and the little notch on one edge facing the SIM card holder.
The shield kit comes with a really convenient dual LTE/GPS antenna! It's also flexible (although you shouldn't try to twist and bend it a lot because you might break the antenna wires off the antenna if you're not careful) and has a peel-away adhesive on the bottom. Connecting the wires is super simple: just take the wires and snap them onto the matching uFL connectors on the right edge of the shield. NOTE: Make sure you match up the LTE wire on the antenna to the LTE connector on the shield, and the same with the GPS wire because they're criss-crossed!
This SIM7000 shield is based on the Adafruit FONA boards and uses the same library but improved with added modem support. You can read full instructions on how to install my revised FONA library here on my Github page.
When the code runs the Arduino will attempt to communicate with the SIM7000 via UART (TX/RX) using SoftwareSerial. In order to do this, of course, the SIM7000 has to be powered on, so while it's trying to establish a connection, check for the "PWR" LED to make sure it turns on! (Note: it should turn on about 4s or so after the code runs). After the Arduino successfully establishes communication with the module you should see a large menu with a bunch of actions the module can perform! However, note that some of these are for SIMCom's other 2G or 3G modules so not all of the commands are applicable to the SIM7000 but lots of them are! Simply type the letter corresponding to an action you want to perform and click "Send" at the top right of the serial monitor or simply press the Enter key. Watch in amazement as the shield spits back a reply!
If you still want to experiment with the AT commands but want to run them in a sequence and don't want to mess with altering the FONA library you can do that with a simple little library I wrote called the "AT Command Library" which you can find here on Github. All you need to do is download the ZIP from the repository and extract it into your Arduino libraries folder and an example sketch (called "AT_Command_Test.ino") for the SIM7000 can be found here in the LTE shield Github repo. This library allows you to send AT commands via Software Serial with timeouts, checks for a specific reply from the module, neither, or both!
Overall, the SIM7000 is super fast and uses cutting-edge technology with integrated GPS and comes loaded with cool features! Unfortunately for those of us in the United States, NB-IoT is not fully deployed here so we will have to wait a bit until it comes out, but with this LTE shield we can still use LTE CAT-M1 on AT&T and Verizon's networks. This shield is great for experimenting with low-power cellular devices like GPS trackers, remote dataloggers, and much more! By including other shields and modules for things like SD card storage, solar panels, sensors, and other wireless connectivity, the possibilities are almost endless!
Hi!I have the following problem:When I run the LTE_Demo Script, and connect the board without battery, first the DONE LED lights up, then the POWER LED is on, the DONE starts flickering for a few seconds and then power LED is off again.When I run the same script with battery connected, the power LED lights up for one second only and then nothing happens.I have tried the steps in the trouble-shooting wiki but it still doesn't work. What can I do? Is the board maybe damaged?GreetingsBernhard
I have a botletics SIM7000A shield on an arduino. I also have a 3.7v 820mAh battery on the shield. I downloaded your latest LTE_DEMO code. My SIM card comes from hologram (one of the free start up cards). When I compile and run, I the following output on the console:FONA basic test16:14:12.247 -> Initializing....(May take several seconds)16:14:12.292 -> Configuring to 9600 baud16:14:12.385 -> Attempting to open comm with ATs16:14:12.385 -> ---> AT16:14:12.432 -> ---> AT16:14:12.479 -> ---> ATE016:14:12.524 -> ---> ATE016:14:12.710 -> ---> AT+GMR16:14:13.411 -> 16:14:13.411 -> OK16:14:13.411 -> 16:14:13.411 -> ---> AT+CPMS="SM","SM","SM"16:14:13.505 -> FONA is OK16:14:13.505 -> Found SIM700016:14:13.505 -> ---> AT+GSN16:14:13.552 -> Module IMEI: 86523503071498016:14:13.598 -> ---> AT+CFUN=116:14:13.644 -> ---> AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","hologram"16:14:13.737 -> -------------------------------------16:14:13.784 -> [?] Print this menu // Menu not shown to save space for now...When I press "n", I get the following:16:14:14.758 -> FONA> n16:19:48.071 -> ---> AT+CGREG?16:19:48.118 -> Network status 2: Not registered (searching)16:19:48.164 -> FONA>What am I doing wrong? It is not connecting.I have been on the hologram website and activated my card. So I do not think it is that.Please advise...
With stable performance, this small cost-effective expansion shield can realize SMS and data transmission in a pretty low power consumption. Besides, it adopts the latest SIM7600CE module. Compared with other GSM/GPRS/GPS modules on the market, this module is well advanced in stable performance and powerful function such as 4G communication and accurate GNSS positioning.
If you need more help with troubleshooting your cell booster, check out our handy guide or give us a call at (866) 294-1660. weBoost has the resources and expertise to make sure you get the most out of your phone signal at all times.
This sketch send a SMS message from an Arduino board equipped with a GSM shield. Using the serial monitor of the Arduino Software (IDE), you'll enter the number to connect with, and the text message to send.
The module includes the BG96 modem and is equipped with some additional features such as SIM holder, Arduino shield interface (connectors compatible with Arduino extension boards such as WiFi), LTE and GPS antenna SMA connectors, USB port and configuration switches.
Hi. Thank you so much for your article - It helped meImmensely setting up my booster system at my cabin. My tower is 36 feet high. I have a 11dbi directional outdoor antenna and a panel indoor antenna. My booster is a 65 gain. The vertical separation between the antennas is around 25 feet with about 15 feet horizontal separation. I am north of marmora, Ontario and the closest rogers towers are here N44.6786 W77.5803 and here N44.5744 W77.5117. I have used OpenSignal to point to the closest signal (the first one). Both towers broadcast in the 850 range and are elevated between 325 and 400 feet. I get a -86 as far as reception when I plug my booster in ( and all green lights)...then what happens is I start to use my phone and inevitably, either right away or sometimes after a few minutes, the 850 alarm goes off and the green light turns off....it will then eventually come back on - but the signal goes with it when the light goes off of course. I have experimented with indoor antenna placement and I have tried pointing the antenna to different towers in the area using open signal. To no avail. Do you have any ideas as to what else I could do to troubleshoot? When the connection is on - it is strong and powerful! The problemIs keeping it up. Thank you again for all your help. Sonya
Critics of the ban doubt that small battery-powered devices would have any significant influence on a commercial jetliner's shielded electronic systems. Safety researchers Tekla S. Perry and Linda Geppert point out that shielding and other protections degrade with increasing age, cycles of use, and even some maintenance procedures, as is also true of the shielding in PEDs, including mobile phones.[12]