A dual band GSM/GPRS terminal from UK designer and manufacturer Siretta is said to set a new price point for such devices of less than £40. The cellular modem is intended to allow the deployment of wireless communications in M2M and IoT applications without the need for specialist wireless design skills, long design in cycles or complex wireless certifications.
The modem, called ZEST, is said to provide complete, certified wireless connectivity for applications that need to communicate data via the cellular network.
"By pushing the price point to a new level, we have allowed many more applications to benefit from the reduction in development timescales, elimination of certification risk and improved total cost offered by modems," said Nick Lidington, Siretta's chairman. "Applications that struggled to justify the unit cost, such as automatic meter reading, remote vending machine management, LED signage and POS connectivity, will rapidly switch to terminal technology."
Supplied in a 75 x 84 x 31mm enclosure, ZEST can be wall or DIN rail mounted. It accepts a power supply from 6 to 18 V, and has an operating temperature range from -40 to 85°C.
The interface is an RS232 port, which allows software engineers to use either AT commands or Python script when developing applications. A 3G version of ZEST, to be launched shortly, will also feature a full USB interface.
Author
Graham Pitcher
Source: www.newelectronics.co.uk