One Module, Three Networks - Meet Notecard for Skylo

Blog Posts
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Introducing Notecard for Skylo, the only module combining Cellular, WiFi, and Satellite connectivity on a single board with bundled data and no fees.
Read the full blog post at https://blues.dev/blog/one-module-three-networks-meet-notecard-for-skylo and continue the discussion here.
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This is an amazing combination of RATs, congratulations to the Blues team on bringing this to market.

After reading the announcement, I have a few newbie questions:

  • I understand that it’s positioned as a drop-in for existing Notecards. Are there firmware changes required? I believe note.template must be used? Is there a migration how-to for how to incorporate Notecard for Skylo as a revision of an existing product currently using cellular?

  • Given the very low bandwidth available with NTN networks, is there a firmware notification that that informs the host of which RAT is in use when it changes?

  • 10kb NTN data usage is bundled - how many events does that correspond to? For reference, we could use an event that reports the current device temperature. How much of that 10kb is “real data” vs overhead used by the system?

  • How much does it cost to add additional NTN data?

Thanks!

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Hi @devElert,

Answers below:

I understand that it’s positioned as a drop-in for existing Notecards. Are there firmware changes required? I believe note.template must be used? Is there a migration how-to for how to incorporate Notecard for Skylo as a revision of an existing product currently using cellular?

There are likely firmware changes needed when incorporating satellite (NTN) connectivity (mostly using note.template as you mentioned). They are best described in the Notecard for Skylo quickstart guide and our guide on Satellite Best Practices.

Given the very low bandwidth available with NTN networks, is there a firmware notification that that informs the host of which RAT is in use when it changes?

A card.wireless request will always tell you the most recent RAT used.

10kb NTN data usage is bundled - how many events does that correspond to? For reference, we could use an event that reports the current device temperature. How much of that 10kb is “real data” vs overhead used by the system?

When you go through our guides you’ll see we’ve done a lot of work to minimize overhead (e.g. compact templates).

How much does it cost to add additional NTN data?

75 cents/KB, which is extremely competitive for satellite data.