Telit announced the launch of Charlie, a turnkey innovation kit for fast, inexpensive development of Arduino-based, LTE-powered IoT applications. The new kit is the latest example of Telit’s commitment to providing makers and other innovators with low-cost development solutions as they explore the burgeoning IoT market opportunity.
Telit designed Charlie to provide all of the key features and capabilities necessary to leverage Arduino and LTE: The Telit ME310 module, based on the Qualcomm 9205 LTE modem, provides full coverage of NB-IoT and Cat M1 LTE bands, as well as a fallback to 2G in those areas where the new technologies are not fully deployed yet; The microprocessor is compatible with the Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and easily programmable through Arduino libraries; The board’s Arduino MKR form factor lets developers use a wide variety of Arduino shields; The ultra-low-power Bosch Sensortec BMA400 acceleration sensor and Qualcomm Technologies’ ultra-low-power Qualcomm 9205 LTE modem, are both ideal for applications such as asset tracking; The ceramic GNSS antenna with a low-noise amplifier (LNA) enables location-based applications; A battery charger, USB access, and cellular antenna connector provide additional design flexibility, capabilities, and efficiency.
This appears to be the perfect low power integrated arduino based mcu with an onboard LTE Modem. Too bad it doesn’t appear to be available to the home hobby electronics user. I can think of dozens of uses for this device that would be extremely popular with the hobby user community.