SparkFun Thing Plus - NORA-W306

The SparkFun Thing Plus - NORA-W306 is a Feather form-factor development board equipped with the u-blox NORA-W306 module. The module contains a Realtek RTL8720DF, which has an integrated single-chip low-power dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) Wireless LAN (WLAN) and Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE 5.3) communication microcontroller. It also consists of a dual processor core: Arm Cortex-M33 and Cortex-M23. To complement the module's low-power options, we've optimized components and added the ability to depower all subsystems to conserve as much power as possible for remote battery-powered applications.

Why the name? We lovingly call it the “Thing” because it's perfect for your Internet of Things project. The Thing does everything from turning on an LED to posting data with your chosen platform and can be programmed just like any microcontroller. You can even program the Thing through the Arduino IDE by installing the Realtek Arduino core.

The board includes a USB-C connector for programming, data, or power. USB data lines are protected by the ESD protection diodes. These pins are connected to a CP2102N USB-to-serial converter for uploading code or serial. Three general use, reset, and boot buttons are also populated on the board. For those that need to go remote with their application, the board includes a 2-pin JST-style connector and MCP73831 single-cell LiPo charge IC (set to a default rate of 500mA). Not sure how much power you have left on your battery? There's also a MAX17048 single-cell, LiPo fuel gauge populated on the board. Voltage is regulated down for the NORA-W306 with the XC6222 3.3V/700mA voltage regulator.

We've included LEDs for power, charging, and a general-purpose user LED. You will also find a small WS2812-2020 addressable RGB LED. Pins are broken out on the board's edge for 20 GPIO pins (20 interrupts, three 12-bit analog, 12 PWM, two UARTs, two SPI, and one I2C). The board also includes a microSD card socket with a transistor to toggle power for low-power applications. On the back of the board are nine jumpers for the LiPo charge rate, current measurements, LEDs, microSD card power control, USB shielding, and I2C pull-up resistors. Finally, one Qwiic connector is populated on the board to add Qwiic-enabled I2C devices to your projects easily!

So what are you waiting for? Connect the SparkFun Thing Plus - NORA-W306 to the cloud to start grabbing current weather conditions in your area, post sensor data to a server, synchronize your clock to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), turn on lights for home automation, or monitor HVAC systems in smart buildings!

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.