Olimex NB-IoT-DevKit Development Board (BC-66)

The NB-IoT-DevKit from Olimex is an IoT board with BC-66 LTE GSM module covering all worldwide GSM bands. The board includes a built-in LiPo battery port and charging circuit, Nano SIM holder, level shifters, status LEDs and a micro-USB connector.

NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) technology is a direct competitor to LoRaWAN and SigFox and has a few advantages:

• Higher speed 25.5 kbps up and downlink
• Single GSM cell can connect to up to 100 000 NB-IoT nodes
• Single GSM cell can cover up to 10-100km rural and 1-10km urban distance
• Can work up to 10 years on a Lithium 3V battery if less than 200 bytes are sent per day

Note: All GSM cells which work with LTE can also support NB-IoT, but this requires new protocol installation and licensee fee, so not all operators provide it by default. You have to check with your local GSM operator if they offer NB-IoT. Also, the SIM card must have this protocol enabled. SIMs with LTE may or may not work with NB-IoT, this depends on your operator.

Features

• BC-66 – worldwide GSM bands coverage
• NB-IoT 25.5 kbps up and downlink
• Ultra-low power design: only 126 uA consumption in PSM mode
• Built-in Li-Po battery charger
• Micro-USB connector
• Nano SIM
• Level shifters for 5 x GPIOs, I2C, SPI, UART
• Micro UEXT connector
• U.FL antenna connector
• Status LEDs
• Dimensions: 40 x 25mm

Resources

Documents

• NB-IoT review at RuseConf2019
• Pinout
• EU Declaration of Conformity
• UKCA Declaration of Conformity

Hardware

• Schematic
• GitHub

Software

• GitHub repository with Arduino and PlatformIO examples for BC-66 and NB-IoT-DevKit
• Firmware flasher and latest firmware

USB Drivers

• USB driver for Windows
• USB driver for Linux (for old kernels; pre-3.14.x)
• USB driver for Mac
• USB driver for Android

Package Contents

• 1x NB-IOT Development Board