GPRSbee rev. 6

The brand new GPRSbee is a GPRS/GSM expansion board, designed by Gregory Knauff. It is much smaller, smarter, more energy efficient and cheaper than the original GPRSbee,

The board has the bee form factor and can be used in any system that has a bee socket like the SODAQ board, Seeeduino Stalker or the Arduino Fio. The GPRSbee uses SIM cards of the MicroSIM form factor.

The core of this board is the SIM800H module. This module, like most other GPRS/GSM modules, has an operating voltage of 3.5 - 4.5 volt and can draw up to 2A power during broadcasts bursts. This makes the 3.3V power that the bee socket can provide unsuitable. This has been solved by powering the GPRSbee directly from a 3.7 volt LiPo battery.

To accomodate this the GPRSbee has two JST sockets, one to connect the battery and a second one to provide the power to the main board. When the main board has a LiPo charge circuit (like the SODAQ board has), this allows for charging the LiPo battery too.

When not in use the GPRSbee is disconnected from the power source. Only the built in RTC (Real Time Clock) will draw just 3uA. This is a great saving over the normal power down mode in which the SIM800H still draws 50uA.

Switching the GPRSbee on is simple, just make the DTR pin HIGH. To send data to the Internet just briefly switch on the GPRSbee (on average 30 seconds) to send the data and switch it off again. This way we can easily make battery and/or solar powered systems.

Specifications:

• SIM 800H module

• bee socket compatible

• 3.7 volt LiPo battery connector and board connector

• MicroSIM adapter

• U.FL antenna connector

• Network Activity LED

• Software ON/OFF through DTR pin (DTR high = on)

• Power status though CTS pin

• 3.3 V to 2.8V level converter

Part List:

• 1 X GPRSbee rev. 6

Compatible with

• SODAQ

• Arduino FIO and FIO V3

• Seeedstudio Stalker

• Any other board with bee socket

• Bee socket adapters

You can find more information at http://www.gprsbee.com/

For any technical support or suggestion, please kindly go to our forum.