Spark Electron - Dev Kit with mobile Internet from $ 39

After the success of the first project, the creators of Spark Core launched a new campaign replacing the WiFi module with 3G with their SIM card. A year after sending the first installment of Spark, its improved and cheaper version, Photon, was announced . Now, fundraising has been announced for the new version of Photon with 2G and 3G modules - Electron. The idea and essence of the device remain the same - an Arduino-compatible controller on ARM with a permanent Internet connection. Included with the controller will be a SIM card that provides communication in North America or 27 European countries (optional) upd Almost all over the world! Including Russia. For this spark.io will become MVNO




and issue cards under their brand.


Communication will not be free, but, according to the authors, at a reasonable price.

• $ 2.99 / month for the first MB (about 20 thousand messages)
• $ 0.99 for each additional MB
• No subscription

20,000 messages is enough for everyone.

Although it is not necessary to pay them, you can put your local SIM card. To save money, the firmware is downloaded via USB (Spark is usually updated via WiFI).

Specs

• STM32F205 ARM Cortex M3
• 1MB Flash, 128K RAM
• Modem: U-Blox SARA U-series (3G) or G-series (2G)
• 36 pins: 28 GPIOs (D0-D13, A0-A13), plus TX / RX, 2 GND, VIN, VBAT, WKP, 3V3, RST
• Dimensions: 51 x 20 x 7.6 mm (12.7 mm with pins)

The campaign will last until March 1st. So there’s still time to decide if you need it.
On my own, I will say that Spark Core was very successful. The project has a large community, a low entry threshold and rich functionality out of the box. Sending devices will begin in October this year. The first Sparks set off on time. We can hope that this time the creators will not fail.

By the way, the 3G version uses the very chip that was praised on the Intel blog . So soon it will be possible to get it for your Internet of Things projects in a ready-made, digestible form.