nRF9160 Thing Plus Hookup Guide
Circuit Dojo, Ell C Introduction
SparkFun has paired up with CircuitDojo to bring you the SparkFun nRF9160 Thing Plus, which features the powerful Nordic nRF9160 microcontroller in a feather-compatible footprint. This little chip is capable of both CAT M1 LTE and NB-IoT cellular communication and is designed to work with Zephyr, the go-to RTOS for embedded development.
Not only can you take advantage of Nordic’s advanced power states, but you can also put the device into a low power standby state. Laboratory measurements are putting that mode at about 2µA of current. 2µA! It also features a 3.3V Buck-Boost which helps get every mWh from your batteries as possible.
No batteries? No problem! You can plug or power your nRF9160 Thing Plus externally for AC/DC powered operation. Keep it on at all times for high availability scenarios. Power it via the 5V pin or insert a USB C cable to keep things going.
Want to persist data? The nRF9160 Thing Plus has a 4MB external flash for storing data while offline. Using external flash with a filesystem like LitteFS and you’ll have a project to recon with!
Required Materials
To follow along with this tutorial, you will need the following materials. You may not need everything though depending on what you have. Add it to your cart, read through the guide, and adjust the cart as necessary.
Suggested Reading
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