Good afternoon, dear community, we have a project with the BRN404x device, as you know it has a communication module that is supported only in North America.
The device is assembled on the other side of the planet by a team in Europe. That's why it was chosen for debugging and testing/development at the photon 2.
As it turned out, there are some hardware and general discrepancies when testing the device in real conditions that create additional obstacles.
What would you recommend to do to avoid this? And do you have any ideas on how to test the BRN404x in Europe?
Where in Europe? There are a few countries where the BRN404X can connect to cellular using Device OS 6.2.1 or later. This is the easiest solution.
Because the Photon 2 is both Wi-Fi and a completely different MCU with different pin restrictions, it's not the best choice as a development device alternative for the BRN404X. While the Argon is not sold anymore, if you can find old stock or used Argons, that would be the best Wi-Fi alternative since it uses the same nRF52840 MCU as the Boron.
Likewise, the discontinued BRN314 can be used to on 2G/3G in some countries in Europe and is general similar to the BRN404X.
This is one of the reasons we recommend designing around the B-SoM instead of Boron (Feather) platform. The B524 uses the same MCU as the B404X and compatibility is good. You can also design for use the M-SoM M524 and M404, which allow for both Wi-Fi and cellular with a single base board.
We build various devices in Ukraine. I was looking for information on the frequencies in which the BRN404x operates, it seems that in Ukraine there are other frequencies.
Thanks for your advice on alternatives, we were looking at B-SoM to be honest.
A carrier must support LTE Cat M1 on supported bands
The EtherSIM must support that carrier
The carrier must not have special registration requirements, IMEI registration, etc.
As far as I know, no carriers in Ukraine meet those requirements. In general, there is more LTE Cat NB1, which cannot be used with Particle devices, in Europe, but there is some LTE Cat M1. The general direction, however, is to LTE Cat 1, which is what the B524 and M524 use.
The reason there isn't a LTE Cat 1 device in the Boron form factor is that the EG91-E/EX cellular modem used on the B524 and M524 is physically too wide to fit in the Feather form-factor.