The SparkFun expLoRaBLE Thing Plus is a Feather-footprint development board with the NM180100 system in package (SiP), from Northern Mechatronics. Thanks to the NM180100, as well as the Ambiq Apollo3 microcontroller and the Semtech SX1262 LoRa transceiver, this Thing Plus is a highly integrated LoRa® module supporting both 868MHz and 915MHz bands and Bluetooth® Low Energy. On top of all else, the expLoRaBLE Thing Plus utilizes our handy Qwiic Connect System which means no soldering or shields are required to connect it to the rest of your system!

The NM180100 SiP includes a Semtech SX1262 LoRa module paired with the Apollo3 MCU, which is used in the SparkFun Artemis Module. This provides the board with compatibility in the Arduino IDE, through our Apollo3 Arduino core. With both the BLE and LoRa capabilities of the expLoRaBLE you will be able to operate as a Bluetooth enabled LoRa node.

You won't have to worry about how to hook up an appropriate antenna, either. The SparkFun expLoRaBLE Thing Plus has been equipped with a simple U.FL connector. With the U.FL you will have your choice of BLE and RF antennas to chose from but, personally, we recommend our Wide Band 4G LTE Internal FPC Antenna.

The SparkFun Qwiic Connect System is an ecosystem of I²C sensors, actuators, shields and cables that make prototyping faster and less prone to error. All Qwiic-enabled boards use a common 1mm pitch, 4-pin JST connector. This reduces the amount of required PCB space, and polarized connections mean you can’t hook it up wrong.

• Operating Voltage: 3.3V (regulated from 5V USB-C supply)
• Battery charging circuit (500ma charge rate)
• u.FL Antenna Connector - BLE & RF
• 24 GPIO
• Qwiic Connector for I²C
• Compatible with "The Things Network" LoRaWAN

• NM180100 SiP KEY SPECIFICATIONS

  • LoRa®:

    • 863-870 MHz (Europe)
    • 902-928 MHZ (US)
    • Maximum Transmit Power +22 dBm
    • Receiver Sensitivity -147.6 dBm

  • Bluetooth® 5 Low Energy:

    • 2.402-2.480 GHz
    • Maximum Transmit Power +2 dBm
    • Receiver Sensitivity -95 dBm

  • Architecture:

    • Ambiq Apollo3 ARM® Cortex® M4 with FPU up to 96MHz
    • Arduino IDE through SparkFun Apollo3 Arduino Core
    • Flash: 1MB on-chip with external flash support
    • RAM: 384 kB

  • Security:

    • ISO 7816 secure interface
    • Secure Key Storage
    • Secure Boot
    • Secure OTA
    • External Flash Inline Encryption/Decryption

• Schematic
• Eagle Files
• Board Dimensions
• Hookup Guide
• Hardware Component Information:
  • Apollo3 MCU:
    • Apollo3 Datasheet
    • Ambiq Home Page
  • SX1262 RF Tranceiver:
    • SX1262 Datasheet
    • AN: Recommendations for Best Performance
  • SparkFun Qwiic Connect System
• Arduino Libraries:
  • RadioLib
    • GitHub Repository
    • Modified Library (use prior to expLoRaBLE support merge)
  • basicmac (ported)
• Apollo3 Software Guides:
  • Artemis Development with the Arduino IDE
  • Artemis Development with the AmbiqSDK
• GitHub Hardware Repository