Connectivity remains a requirement and challenge for IoT developers. Renesas’ Synergy AE-CLOUD2 Kit (see figure) is designed to ease the job of delivering a 4G/LTE IoT device.
Synergy is Renesas’ development environment and framework for its Synergy processors. It bundles commercial operating systems, middleware, and development tools rather than leaving developers to fend with just open-source tools. The kit takes it a step further with easy connectivity setup via 4G/LTE Cat-M1 and Cat-NB1 support, also known as NB-IoT. The system will work with 2G/EGPRS networks, too.
The Synergy AE-CLOUD2 Kit developed by Renesas helps make 4G/LTE IoT connectivity easier.
Synergy elements include Express Logic’s ThreadX RTOS plus the NetX Duo Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) and NetX Secure Transport Layer Security (TLS) that delivers secure communications. Among the other software is an HTTPS Client and HTTP 1.1 Client, a wireless framework for connecting to LTE IoT networks and cloud services, and an SSP Cellular Framework that provides APIs to provision, configure, and communicate with cellular network.
On the hardware side, there’s a Synergy S5D9 MCU baseboard and a Quectel ultra-low-power BG96 cellular module that supports 4G/LTE Cat-M1, Cat-NB1, and 2G/EGPRS. Sensors with the kit include a Renesas ISL29035 digital light sensor for ambient/infrared light measurement; a Bosch BMI160 MEMS sensor for acceleration and gyroscopic measurement; a Bosch BMM150 MEMS three-axis geomagnetic sensor for compass navigation; a Bosch BME680 MEMS sensor for gas, temperature, humidity, and pressure measurements; and a Knowles SPM0687LR5H-1 analog microphone for sound and voice capture.
Projects that come with the kit include reference code for connection to Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Medium One cloud platforms. Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or LTE all work for such cellular IoT connection needs.
