Today we’re happy to announce the availability of our new “Midband” Notecard Cellular, based on the LTE Cat-1 bis protocol. Midband Notecards use less power and are less expensive than our Wideband Notecards, use a single antenna design, and are supported everywhere LTE is already available.

We can’t wait to see what you build with them. Read more about LTE Cat-1 bis on our developer blog, and then pick up a midband Notecard Cellular in our shop today.

Today we’re pleased to announce the release of Mojo, a new way to measure energy usage in battery-powered systems. Built around the low-power LTC2959 coulomb counter from Analog Devices, Mojo provides charge and current measurement at 1% accuracy—giving developers a clear view of battery performance, state, and health in remote deployments.

You can learn more about how Mojo works with Notecard in this release blog post. Once you have the basics down, you can pick up a Mojo in our shop and then try our new quickstart tutorial.

Today we’re pleased to announce the launch (or flight?) of Cygnet, a new STM32-based Feather-compatible host MCU from Blues. Cygnet is built around ST's ultra low-power STM32L433, and offers 256KB of flash memory and 64KB of RAM to meet the needs of demanding applications (while still being reasonably priced at only $15).
 
Read more about the flight of Blues Cygnet on the Blues Developer Blog, peruse the datasheet, and get your own Cygnet on the Blues store today.

Today we’re happy to announce the release of the Wireless for Arduino Opta, an expansion module that can quickly add cellular or LoRa connectivity to any Arduino Opta PLC (powered by the Notecard and Notehub!).

Once connected, you can leverage either the Arduino IoT Cloud SDK or our note-arduino library to configure the Notecard and its backhaul.

You can read more about the Wireless for Arduino Opta on our developer blog, or get started today with the Wireless for Arduino Opta Bundle, a kit that includes both an Arduino Opta Lite and a Blues Opta Expansion at a temporarily discounted price of $299.

Starnote, our cost-effective satellite module with bundled data and transparent pricing (no monthly active device fees, and no monthly minimum), is now in stock 🎉

Additionally, we’re happy to announce a new Starnote Starter Kit is available in our shop for $99. The Starnote Starter Kit includes a Starnote, a Notecard, and a new Notecarrier XS that makes connecting everything a breeze.

Learn more about the new hardware on our blog.

Today we’re announcing Notecarrier R, a small form-factor Notecarrier only slightly larger than the Notecard itself. It’s similar to the Notecarrier B, but we’ve swapped out the Qwiic on the B with an ESLOV connector common to many Arduino MKR and PRO Portena boards. ESLOV provides I2C pins, as well as an additional GPIO, which we’ve connected to the Notecard’s ATTN pin.

Check out Notecarrier R in our shop or read through its datasheet. And keep an eye out for future Arduino announcements 👀

It’s a big day at Blues, as today we’re happy to announce the general availability of Notecard LoRa  🎉

With Notecard LoRa we’re applying the developer-friendly design our users love from our Cellular Notecard and applying them to LoRa. With some simple JSON-based configuration, you can starting sending data to the cloud over LoRaWAN in minutes—with no complex device registration or provisioning required.

Oh, and one more thing...

Today we are also releasing the Blues Starter Kit for LoRaWAN. This $199 kit ships with everything you need to get started with building around LoRa and LoRaWAN. It includes a Blues Indoor LoRaWAN Gateway (pre-provisioned on The Things Stack), three Notecard LoRas, three Notecarrier Bs, and three LiPos to power it all.

To try it out, Get Your Blues Starter Kit for LoRaWAN and explore our new LoRaWAN Quickstart tutorials.

Today, we’re excited to announce Starnote—an affordable satellite IoT backup device that, much like the Notecard does with cellular, includes satellite uplink and downlink data with the cost of the device, in partnership with Skylo. Starnote offers a JSON-based programing interface consistent with the Notecard, providing developers with access to yet another major Radio Access Technology (RAT) using straightforward, accessible semantics.

Starnote is a Notecard accessory that is intended to disrupt the conventional wisdom that using satellite requires a high hardware investment (in the hundreds of dollars), and monthly device fees even when devices aren’t communicating with satellites.

Learn more at blues.com/starnote, and join the waitlist to be notified when Starnote is available.

Today is a big day at Blues as we’re happy to announce a new line of Notecards: Notecard Cell+WiFi, an updated Notecard WiFi, Notecard LoRa, and Notecard Chips Edition.

• The new Notecard Cell+WiFi includes on-board cellular and Wi-Fi, with the ability to enable one, or both, to ensure robust connectivity.
  
  
• The new Notecard WiFi is an updated, lower-cost ($10!), way to enable connectivity for indoor solutions.
  
  
• The Notecard LoRa can automatically connect to LoRaWAN gateways in range, offering the same ease of use and “it just works” level of provisioning as its Cellular and Wi-Fi counterparts.
• And Notecard Chips Edition is a “chip-down” design version of the Notecard, intended for organizations scaling to tens of thousands of devices and looking to reduce costs as much as possible.

Learn more more about the new Notecards on our developer blog.

Today we’re pleased to release Scoop, an accessory for Notecard designed to provide a backup power source that is more resilient than the traditionally used Lithium-Polymer Battery (LiPo).

Scoop features a 250 Farads 3.8V Lithium-Ion Capacitor (LIC), a special type of capacitor that operates in a wider range of temperatures than LiPos, has a lower self-discharge rate, and does not have the shipping restrictions familiar to anyone who has worked with Lithium-based batteries.

To learn more, read the full Scoop writeup on our developer blog, check out the Scoop in our store, or get the technical details in the Scoop datasheet.