Examples of configurations: Very low power, solar/battery, SD-card data storage UT NDT applications:
- Stand-alone cellular/satellite self-reporting station
- Synchronized sleeping mesh network node
- Embedded “pingable” Bluetooth or short-range RF
- LoRa node
How the boards are configured has a huge impact on power consumption and on the capabilities of the system in which it is implemented. And it depends on what your use case is. So there are a lot of options. Including the choice of communications (comms) module and how that is configured too.
There are (1) options on the boards themselves, like jumpers/shunts, and then there are (2) options (settings) that are stored in non-volatile memory, like settings in the boards’ firmware implementations or (3) their communications modules, and then there are (4) options that can be implemented by updating the firmware on the boards and maybe lastly there are (5) options that can be set up at the system level including software and system component configuration (like gateways, servers).
General hardware configurable options, the biggies (a few of them):
| Model Support | Feature | Function and Application Examples |
| 100A1, 102G, 102GXN | VDD-EN | Main board power enable: A sleep-enabled communications module to be able to shutdown the board power when communications are not active or the radio is sleeping. A USB-serial device could also use one of its GPIOs to shut down the board power to extend a portable system’s (laptop, cell phone) battery life. A jumper can be populated on the board so that radios with a not-sleeping output signal can automatically power up the board when they awake. |
| 102G, 102GXN | VCOMMS-EN | Comms module power enable: The main processor (MCU) on the board can be configured for low power sleep with real-time clock/calendar (RTCC) for scheduled wake-and-report. The MCU can thus wake a comms module to transmit data. |
| 102G, 102GXN | High Power VCOMMS | Higher current regulator for high-power cellular and satellite or other higher power RF modules for stand-alone auto-reporting applications. |
| 100A1 | Solar boost | MPPC-tracking capable boost charger for powering from small solar panels |
More info coming. Please get in touch for implementation questions.