I am about done with this board.. all the complexity and erratic behavior and freezing and unreliability.. crazy..I saw someone was using a SIM7000A.. any other options out there are are more stand alone like the NB 1500?
also cant believe the lack of support from Arduino.. just awful.. 'read the documentation' was one comment and the other was 'not our problem have to talk to u-blox'.. like what kind of answer is that.. imagine a car company asking you to talk to each individual company they source parts from.. no wonder they cant' get beyond hacker stage.. crap stuff.
I'm a experienced mkr modem fighter ;=), went also trough the loony bin...
But IMHO Arduino is right, it's a u blox product. Also firmware updates are common (think of personal computers). This is open source hard and software, it's not enduser stuff. Keep the faith! I was also often close to abandon but nobody can help you exept github, this forum and RTFM.
My hints:
Bad news: No solution for just terminal or xmodem, you have to solder a USB plug to the board...
In general: The modem is it's own computer and you can only communicate via the AT interface. So timing is important. Check with access(true) if the AT commands come with proper timing for answer from the modem etc.
The new core lib has a undiscoverd bug deep down (something with the MODEM buffer) so 1.8.9 is more reliable then 1.8.11.
In doubt, try out your commands with the serial passtrough sketch.
Back to your question I will try out the telit charlie board:
I did reach out to ublox and created a support ticket.. they said it was an arduino issue :-?( .. goes back and forth.
The board has a mini USB.. what is the difference that requires soldering a normal USB? I have not soldered things that small since i was in the Army 30 years ago.. man.
I can run the pass thru fine.. and the AT commands fine.. not sure what you mean try my sketch with passthru.. you mean try to take apart the NB lib and send the SMS via raw AT Commands?. I would be ok with that if I knew what they were. I am just afraid the issue is somehting deeper and will still have the same issue.
Easy. You need to soler at least two cables from a good usb cable to the board. The + and GND from the USB cable can be soldered to pinheads. Just follow the topic, this is a adventure in hack city which can make you happy after a sucessfull end (or the other way round ;(
They key to these devices is talking to the module directly first via AT command set and skip any library, just so you get an idea how it behaves. Connect your USB-to-serial (level-shifted of course) to the SARA's TX/RX pin directly and send the AT commands directly from a terminal.
or they can just sell the board that does what it says it is supposed to do. The documentation did not state you had to solder and do 30 steps and stand on your head and rub your tummy to get it to work.. that would have been the$0.1 cent board.. this is a $90 board.. its a joke. Arduino knows it based on the responses I get from support.. almost sheepish and arrogant yah we sold you a board that is screwed up .. good luck and ask in the forum.. my favorite is 'call ublox' .. and when I reached out to ublox the response was 'talk to Arduino'.. just a friggen JOKE. .. I want my $90 back.
the board shoud include that in the documentation.. you have to have a windows machine to update the firmware before you can use and if you dont' have a windows machine you can buy it anyway and just put on your shelf because we require you to have a windows machine to use our IoT devices.. joke
I ordered one yesterday.. :).. I hope it does SMS.. not a lot of info on it.. were you able to send and receive? the docs said it will also work with the MKR GPS shield.. which I also have
what about using the MKR family's potential, like the crypto chip, but using another modem like the "MIKROE RN2483 LORA RF CLICK MICROCHIP SERIAL MODUL" lorawan or 4G modem from mikroe and writing some libraries ?
it works in C/C++ but has no libraries yet for arduino, it is stable and tested by telecom companies and therefore approved.
would be nice, but my qualcomm drivers never worked. if I have to go through that hassle with +100 boards I say naaah and look for another board, although the crypto chip for google IoT cloud downlink is pretty neat,
I have the charlie here with me with no further investigations to be honest.. You can sink a lot of time without libs... But it works, the hardware design is IMHO better than the Arduino, maybe some day..here are some entry points:
I will try out the telit charlie board: