SparkFun LoRa Thing Plus – ExpLoRaBLE

The SparkFun expLoRaBLE Thing Plus is a Feather-footprint development board with the NM180100 system in package (SiP), from Northern Mechatronics. Thanks to the NM180100, as well as the Ambiq Apollo3 microcontroller and the Semtech SX1262 LoRa transceiver, this Thing Plus is a highly integrated LoRa® module supporting both 868MHz and 915MHz bands and Bluetooth® Low Energy. On top of all else, the expLoRaBLE Thing Plus utilizes our handy Qwiic Connect System which means no soldering or shields are required to connect it to the rest of your system!

The NM180100 SiP includes a Semtech SX1262 LoRa module paired with the Apollo3 MCU, which is used in the SparkFun Artemis Module. This provides the board with compatibility in the Arduino IDE, through our Apollo3 Arduino core. With both the BLE and LoRa capabilities of the expLoRaBLE you will be able to operate as a Bluetooth enabled LoRa node.

You won’t have to worry about how to hook up an appropriate antenna, either. The SparkFun expLoRaBLE Thing Plus has been equipped with a simple U.FL connector. With the U.FL you will have your choice of BLE and RF antennas to chose from but, personally, we recommend our Wide Band 4G LTE Internal FPC Antenna.

The SparkFun Qwiic Connect System is an ecosystem of I²C sensors, actuators, shields and cables that make prototyping faster and less prone to error. All Qwiic-enabled boards use a common 1mm pitch, 4-pin JST connector. This reduces the amount of required PCB space, and polarized connections mean you can’t hook it up wrong.

SparkFun LoRa Thing Plus – expLoRaBLE Features

• Northern Mechatronics NM180100 SiP
  • 21 Multifunctional GPIO
    • Up to eight available 14-bit ADC channels
    • Up to twenty-one 16-bit PWM channels
    • Up to two UARTs
    • An available SPI Bus
    • Up to two I²C Buses
• Thing Plus (or Feather) Form-Factor:
  • Dimensions: 2.3″ x 0.9″
  • Two Mounting Holes:
    • 4-40 screw compatible
  • 28 PTH Pins
  • USB-C Connector
  • 2-pin JST Connector for a LiPo Battery (not included)
  • 4-pin JST Qwiic Connector
• LEDs:
  • PWR – Red 3.3V power indicator
  • CHG – Yellow battery charging indicator
  • 18 – Blue status/test LED (Pin 18)
  • RX – Yellow RX serial communication indicator
  • TX – Green TX serial communication indicator
• Buttons:
  • 10
  • Reset
• JTAG/SWD PTH Pins
• u.FL Antenna Connector – BLE & RF
• Compatible with “The Things Network” LoRaWAN

NM180100 SiP General Features:

• LoRa®:
  • 863-870 MHz (Europe)
  • 902-928 MHZ (US)
  • Maximum Transmit Power +22 dBm
  • Receiver Sensitivity -147.6 dBm
• Bluetooth® 5 Low Energy:
  • 2.402-2.480 GHz
  • Maximum Transmit Power +2 dBm
  • Receiver Sensitivity -95 dBm
• Architecture:
  • Ambiq Apollo3 ARM® Cortex® M4 with FPU up to 96MHz
  • Arduino IDE through SparkFun Apollo3 Arduino Core
  • Flash: 1MB on-chip with external flash support
  • RAM: 384 kB
• Security:
  • ISO 7816 secure interface
  • Secure Key Storage
    • Secure Boot
    • Secure OTA
    • External Flash Inline Encryption/Decryption