NimbeLink NL-SW-LTE-QGB96, Quick Start Manual

Page 1: ...NL SW LTE QGB96 Quick Start Guide NimbeLink Corp Published July 2019 PN 1002152 REV A NimbeLink Corp 2019 All rights reserved 1 ...

Page 2: ...ure 9 3 2 4 Soldered Down Verizon eSIM 11 3 3 Setting Up the Modem and the NL SWDK 11 3 3 1 Attaching the QBG96 Modem to the NL SDWK 11 3 3 2 Attaching the Antenna to the Baseboard 12 3 3 3 Powering Up the Device 13 3 4 Connecting the Modem to a PC 13 3 4 1 Establishing a Serial Connection 13 3 4 2 Testing the Serial Communication 15 3 5 Connecting the Modem on the Network 16 3 5 1 Background Info...

Page 3: ...g a PDP Context 23 3 6 Next Steps 23 4 Applications 24 4 1 Socket Dial 24 4 2 SMS Messaging 26 4 3 PPP 26 4 4 TLS Using AWS IoT 26 4 5 GNSS GPS Location Services 26 4 6 Power Save Mode 27 5 Appendix 28 5 1 AT Commands 28 5 1 1 AT Command Basics 28 5 1 2 Useful AT Commands 30 PN 1002152 REV A NimbeLink Corp 2019 All rights reserved 3 ...

Page 4: ... for use with the QBG96 modem If the user has integration or deployment issues NimbeLink is able to provide better debugging support when the NL SWDK is used In addition the NL SWDK was used when creating the tutorials described in the remainder of this document Some of the sections will apply equally to any development hardware but the user may need to adapt other sections for their specific deve...

Page 5: ...oretical maximum throughput of 375Kbps downlink and 375Kbps uplink and was designed specifically for low power consumption IoT applications The QBG96 modem supports the following industry standards Global Navigation Satellite System GNSS GPS United States Galileo EU QZSS Japan Beidou Compass China GLONASS Russia Communication Interfaces UART USB USB 2 0 compliant I2C Internet Protocols PPP TCP UDP...

Page 6: ...to look for additional reference material Please note that for the BG96 module Quectel has one main At command manual and several additional AT command manuals If the main AT command manual does not have what you are looking for you may need to download additional AT command manuals For Quectel s full breadth of documentation please visit their product page and website The AT Command Manuals are a...

Page 7: ...a soldered down Verizon SIM As a result you can either use a physical SIM card which is inserted into the micro SIM slot or you can use the Verizon eSIM that comes included with the modem If you choose to use the Verizon eSIM Section 3 5 2 provides a tutorial on how to select the solder down SIM If you need to purchase a T Mobile SIM you will need to purchase the SIM card directly through T Mobile...

Page 8: ... to the next section 3 2 3 Activating the SIM and Data Plan If you purchased a subscription plan through a carrier you will need to activate your SIM card and subscription plan directly through that carrier If this pertains to you please move on to Section 3 3 3 2 3 1 Relevant Terminology IMEI or International Mobile Equipment Identity An IMEI is a number unique to a single mobile device like your...

Page 9: ...nd shipping information At this point you have the option to add a subscription plan but it is not required in order for you to create a NimbeLink account 2 Once you have created a NimbeLink account Please login to the Go NimbeLink com portal If you added a subscription plan when you created your NimbeLink account your plan should be listed at the top of page Please move on to the next step If you...

Page 10: ...pment your active subscription plan s will be shown in large red font Within the active subscription plan there will be a list of available carriers Click on the icon next to your chosen network carrier Please make sure you select a 4G plan 4 A menu will open with two entries for the IMEI and ICCID as shown in the image below Enter your IMEI and ICCID and when ready click Activate Please note that...

Page 11: ...er users can select which SIM the modem is using by controlling the onboard SIM selection switch with AT commands Please see Section 3 5 2 for more details on configuring the modem to use the soldered down eSIM 3 3 Setting Up the Modem and the NL SWDK 3 3 1 Attaching the QBG96 Modem to the NL SDWK To mount your QBG96 modem follow the steps listed below Please reference the diagram shown below if y...

Page 12: ...icular to the board There are two U FL connectors labeled X1 and X3 Attach the U FL cable to connector X1 on the Skywire 5 If you are intending to use a separate GPS antenna you will need an external U FL to SMA cable not included in the NL SWDK Otherwise you may disregard this step Connector X3 is available for a GPS antenna If you have an external U FL to SMA cable attach the U FL end to connect...

Page 13: ...he USB cable into connector J14 and into the PC regular USB and high speed USB ports are both acceptable 3 Press and hold button S1 for approximately 1 second to power on the modem After about 4 seconds LED D1 should stay on If LED D1 stayed on you are ready to begin interfacing with your device PN 1002152 REV A NimbeLink Corp 2019 All rights reserved 13 ...

Page 14: ...tatham putty latest html COM ports are assigned differently on each PC To determine which COM port was assigned to your device you will need to open Device Manager a built in Windows application Open the Windows Start Menu and type device manager Click on the Device Manager application that comes up as shown in the image on the left below With Device Manager open expand the heading Ports COM LPT a...

Page 15: ...prompt terminal should open automatically You are now ready to communicate with your device 3 4 2 Testing the Serial Communication The following set of AT commands are quite useful Therefore these commands will be used to verify that you successful established a serial connection with the modem a Verify basic communication with the modem Command AT Response OK As you can see from the image below A...

Page 16: ... communicate with your device it s time to get your device on the network 3 5 Connecting the Modem on the Network 3 5 1 Background Information This section is designed to introduce you to a few key terms and help you understand what s required to set up a network connection There are two main steps that need to be completed in order to establish a cellular network connection 1 SIM Activation As me...

Page 17: ...2 Selecting the Soldered Down SIM eSIM If you are using a SIM card you may skip this section By default the modem is configured to attempt to use the SIM card slot However you can use AT commands to select which SIM the modem uses To configure the modem to use the soldered down SIM issue the following commands in the order they appear below a Turn off cellular functionality Command AT CFUN 0 Respo...

Page 18: ...me of the gateway you are using that enables you to connect to another computer network such as the Internet Every cellular carrier Verizon AT T T Mobile etc has several APNs they allow their customers to use depending on the needs of the customer For example Verizon has a specific APN that is required if you want to establish a basic Internet connection through your device You provide Verizon wit...

Page 19: ... for connections to mobile private networks Note xx would be replaced by the Verizon assigned account name xx vzwstatic Used for static IP connections Note xx would be replaced by an appropriate static IP pool identifier which typically corresponds to a geographic region e g mw01 vzwstatic for a region in the Midwest AT T As previously stated if you are using AT T as your carrier it is strongly re...

Page 20: ... throughout the previous two sections You cannot change the parameters of an active PDP context therefore to ensure that there are no active PDP contexts we will disable all cellular functionality a Turn off cellular functionality Command AT CFUN 0 Response OK Next use the APN and IP Type you determined to configure the PDP context In addition the BG96 module has multiple configurable PDP contexts...

Page 21: ...ignal strength Command AT QCSQ Response QCSQ sysmode rssi rsrp sinr rsrq 3 5 4 1 Description of Parameters sysmode The system mode is the current cellular service mode i e CAT M1 CAT NB1 or GSM If the device is not using any service network or the service mode is uncertain NOSERVICE will be returned as the query result rssi The RSSI or Received Signal Strength Indicator is a measurement of the tot...

Page 22: ... Excellent 10 dB Excellent For the example shown below the RSRP is Excellent while the RSRQ is Fair 3 5 5 Confirming Network Registration If you successfully set up the PDP context and determined your signal strength is acceptable the next step is to confirm that you are registered with the network Network registration should have occurred automatically Network registration acts like a handshake b...

Page 23: ...hnology 2G 3G 4G LTE of your current connection or you are roaming and you would like to know which network you are roaming on enter the command below c Query network technology and carrier Command AT COPS Response COPS mode format oper Act You may ignore the values returned for mode and format The oper parameter is your network operator which is another name for the cellular carrier The Act param...

Page 24: ...firming the assignment of an IP address to your device Now that network setup and testing is complete you are ready to start developing with your QBG96 modem Section 4 provides a few options to help further familiarize yourself with the device 4 Applications This section describes a few common applications of the QBG96 modem A separate guide is available for each of the applications described belo...

Page 25: ...e or database using HTTP HyperText Transfer Protocol syntax Please see the QBG96 s Socket Dial application note for a detailed tutorial on how to send and receive data with your device using a socket dial The examples presented in the Socket Dial application note use HTTP which utilizes TCP to transfer data between your device client and dweet io web server The socket dial flowchart shown below is...

Page 26: ...PN 1002152 REV A NimbeLink Corp 2019 All rights reserved 26 ...

Page 27: ...variety of uses since there are many physical mediums for point to point connectivity such as simple serial cables mobile phones and telephone lines For example PPP provides a way for Internet service providers ISPs to use a physical connection such as a phone line to route Internet traffic to the customer s residence PPP can also be used to set up a secure connection such as an encrypted Virtual ...

Page 28: ...red status on the cellular network The ability for the Skywire to retain its registered status on the network is advantageous in that it eliminates the need for the modem to constantly have to re register on the network each time it exits a low power state In PSM mode the device must be woken up in order to send and receive data The device can be woken up by temporarily grounding the ON_OFF pin of...

Page 29: ... to the value defined by the user s entry Execution Command AT x Returns the value of a non variable parameter This type of parameter is affected by internal processes of the modem A non variable parameter cannot be changed with a user entry Variable Parameter Example The CFUN parameter was selected to demonstrate the different types of commands for a variable parameter Type Syntax Description Tes...

Page 30: ...ADDR Response CGPADDR 1 Gives you a list of defined context IDs which in the case of the QBG96 CID 1 will most likely be the only cid defined Read Command AT x Command AT CGPADDR Response ERROR Tells you that the Read Command type is not available for the CGPADDR command This makes sense since CGPADDR is a non variable parameter affected by internal processes of the modem and cannot be set to a gi...

Page 31: ...e mode AT CFUN 0 Set to minimum functionality AT CGDCONT Query PDP context configuration AT CGACT Query PDP context activation status AT CGACT 1 cid Activate PDP context AT CGACT 0 cid Deactivate PDP context AT CGPADDR Query PDP context IP addresses AT CGPADDR 1 Query PDP context cid 1 IP address AT CEREG Query network registration status AT COPS Query current network operator carrier and type of ...