Fona 3G + GPS board - european mobile network

Description

Do you you need advanced communication capability for your project? Great, we have now the Adafruit's 3G Cellular Modem breakout! The FONA 3G offer a better coverage, a built-in GPS module for geolocation (and tracking) and is backwards-compatibilite with GSM network.
With this module you to add voice, SMS, DATA and position tracking to your project with only an additionnal board.

This small module (50.0mm x 46.0mm x 7.0mm) contains a lot of technology under the cover. At the heart we have a powerful GSM cellular module (the latest SIM5320E, GPS integrated) that can do just about everything

• European Version with dual-band UMTS/HSDPA 900/2100MHz WCDMA + HSDPA
• Quad-band 850MHz GSM, 900MHz EGSM, 1800MHz DCS, 1900MHz PCs.
  Can connect on any global GSM network (with 2G SIM card).
• Fully-integrated Qualcomm PM8015 GPS.
  The GPS can be controlled and queried over the same native serial port
• Can make voice call, can receive voice call.
  You can use this with a headset or an external speaker (8 Ohms) + electret microphone
• Can send and receive SMS messages
• Can use GPRS to send and receive data (TCP/IP, HTTP, etc.)
• AT command interface (baudrate: 300, 600, 1200, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200, 230K, 461K, 961K, 3.2M, 3.7M and 4.0Mbps)
• Native USB support.
  So you can use it with your computer and you will get a serial ports to send AT commands.
  The serial port will also be used for GPS NMEA (as a modem, note Adafruit only tried the AT&NMEA ports on Windows)

GPS specifications:

• 16 satellite acquisition channels
• GPS L1 C/A code
• Sensitivity
  
  • Tracking: -157 dBm
  • Cold start : -144 dBm
• Time-To-First-Fix
  
  • Cold starts: 100s (typical)
  • Hot starts: 1s (typical)
• Accuracy: ~2.5 meters
• Please note that the GPS is not as fast and low-power than on the FONA 808

We strongly recommend to use an active GPS antenna for the GPS. You can get a fix with a passive antenna but this will take a long time.

The 3G module is placed on a breakout board. You will need some useful extra to make you project shine

• Onboard LiPoly battery charging circuitry. So you can create itinerant project.
  Use any 500mAh+ LiPoly or LiIon battery. The lipo will recharge over the MicroUSB when necessary. Two LEDs to know the charging status (charging or done)
• Standard 4-pole TRRS headphone jack. Use any 'Android' or 'iPhone'-compatible headset with mic
• Breakouts for external 8Ω speaker and electret mic if you don't want to use a headphone
• Level shifting circuitry so you can run it with 2.8V to 5V logic.
• uFL connections for external antennas
• Indicator LEDs for power and network connectivity
• Standard SIM slides into the back

Technical details

• Datasheets, schematic, PCB and Fritzing files are available in the tutorial
• Breakout size: 50.0mm x 46.0mm x 7.0mm
• Weight: 50.0g

Fona 3G vs Fona 80x

This module 3G support advance feature making it really great. Please, note the many small differences between the FONA 800/808 and this 3G module. As a consequence, it cannot be used as a drop-in replacement!
In particular the data functionality is more difficult to use. Adafruit is adapting the FONA library to also support the 3G chipset. The FONA library have SMS, calling, and basic functionality working but it will be a while until Adafruit gets full support for GPRS TCP/IP and HTTP.