The brand new GPRSbee is a GPRS/GSM expansion board, designed by Gregory Knauff. It is much smaller, smarter, more energy efficient and cheaper than the original GPRSbee. The board has the "bee" form factor and can be used in any system that has a bee socket like theSODAQ boards, Seeeduino Stalker or the Arduino Fio. The GPRSbee uses SIM cards of the MicroSIM form factor. The core of this board is powered by the SIM800H module. This module, like most other GPRS/GSM modules, has an operating voltage of 3.5 - 4.5 volts and can draw up to 2A of power during broadcasts bursts. This makes the 3.3V power that the bee socket can provide unsuitable. This has been solved by powering the GPRSbee directly from a 3.7 volt LiPo battery.
Switching the GPRSbee on is simple, just set the DTR pin HIGH. To send data to the Internet just brieflyswitch on the GPRSbee (on average 30 seconds) to send the data and switch it off again. This way we can easily make battery and/or solar powered systems.
Compatible with:
- SODAQ
- Arduino FIO and FIO V3
- Seeedstudio Stalker
- Any other board with bee socket
- Bee socket adapters
The package includes a U.FL antenna.
Noticeable Features:
Size: The SIM800 is much smaller allowing us to reduce the footprint to the identical size of the Xbee module. The SIM800 is software compatible with the SIM900
Power: The battery power can be switched off. This means that when the GPRSbee is switched off it uses no power. Switching on is done by setting DTR high
Price: The new GPRSbee is not only smaller. It’s also 30% cheaper
Antenna: The new GPRSbee comes with a U.FL PCB antenna
- SIM 800H module
- bee socket compatible
- 3.7 volt LiPo battery connector and board connector
- MicroSIM adapter
- U.FL antenna connector
- Network Activity LED
- Software ON/OFF through DTR pin (DTR high = on)
- Power status though CTS pin
- 3.3 V to 2.8V level converter