4G LTE-E click (Europe)

4G LTE-E click carries the LARA-R211 multi-mode cellular module from u-blox. The board is designed to use 5V power supply. I/O voltage levels could be 3.3V or 5V. It communicates with the target microcontroller over UART interface, with additional functionality provided by the following pins on the mikroBUS™ line: AN, RST, CS, PWM, INT.

Note: The North America version of the 4G LTE click is also available.

LARA-R211 overview

With a range of interface options and an integrated IP stack, the modules are designed to support a wide range of data-centric applications. The unique combination of performance and flexibility make these modules ideally suited for medium speed M2M applications, such as smart energy gateways, remote access video cameras, digital signage, telehealth, and telematics.

4G LTE-E click overview

The board has a rich set of components to simplify development: two SMA connectors, a MicroUSB port, as well as a SIM card slot.

The LARA-R211 module specifies data rates of up to 10.3 Mb/s for Download, and 5.2 Mb/s for Upload. The network protocol stack includes support for TCP, UDP, PPP, MMS, FTP, SMTP, SMTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, PING, and SSL. It covers following LTE bands: 3, 7, 20.

Antenna interfaces - The module has two RF pins with a characteristic impedance of 50 Ω. The primary antenna pin (ANT1) supports both Tx and Rx, providing the main antenna interface, while the secondary antenna pin (ANT2) supports Rx only for the LTE Rx diversity configuration.

A diversity antenna only covers the Rx frequencies, and its job is to acquire an independent sample of data. The application in which you are using the click board can then choose the receive signal it wants to use.

Free u-blox software

u-blox offers m-centre, a free evaluation software for all their cellular modules. It is an easy to use graphical interface where you can configure the module and save the changes on EPROM. You can also view and edit SIM phonebook entries, send text messages, and communicate with the wireless module using AT commands.

4G LTE explained

Simply put 4G is the fourth generation of the cellular network standard. This fourth generation does not support traditional circuit-switched telephony service, but all IP based communication such as IP telephony.

If you are not familiar with cellular network standards and protocols and are not sure whether you need GSM or 3G or 4G, read our learn.mikroe.com article about 2G/3G/4G to get a better understanding.

LTE or Long Term Evolution, or 4G LTE as it is most commonly called has different categories defined. There are nine different ones so far. LARA-R211 module supports the LTE Cat 1. 

Specifications

Pinout diagram

This table shows how the pinout on 4G LTE-E click corresponds to the pinout on the mikroBUS™ socket (the latter shown in the two middle columns).

Notes	Pin					Pin	Notes
Module status	STA	1	AN	PWM	16	RI	Ring indicator
Power up module	PWK	2	RST	INT	15	CTS	UART Clear to send
UART Ready to send	RTS	3	CS	TX	14	TXD	UART Transmit data
	NC	4	SCK	RX	13	RXD	UART Receive data
	NC	5	MISO	SCL	12	NC
	NC	6	MOSI	SDA	11	NC
Power supply	+3.3V	7	3.3V	5V	10	+5V	Power supply
Ground	GND	8	GND	GND	9	GND	Ground

Jumpers and settings

Buttons and LEDs

Programming

Code examples for 4G LTE-E click, written for MikroElektronika hardware and compilers are available on Libstock.

Code snippet

The following code snippet shows the SMS composing function. The SMS_RECEIVER is a phone number which will receive the SMS.

01 void C4G_replyToCaller()
02 {
03     char tmp[ 30 ];
04     char cmdContent[ 30 ];
05     char replyContent[ 256 ];
06     strcpy( cmdContent, "AT+CMGS=" );
07     strcat( cmdContent, SMS_RECEIVER );
08     strcpy( replyContent, "4G LTE by MikroE rocks!" );
09     AT_cmdDouble( cmdContent, replyContent );
10 }