9

FIELD TEST

here are times, especially when

gathering vast amounts of data

from a sensor network, that some

extra storage would be really,

really, handy. That’s where the

Adafruit Feather 32u4 Adalogger with

its built-in microSD card slot comes into play. The

processor is the ever popular ATmega32u4 clocked

at 8MHz. It has 32kB of flash and 2kB of RAM. And

just like all the other Feather boards, it has built-in

USB and LiPo battery-charging circuitry. Now, for just

a few dollars, you can easy add a few gigabytes of

memory to your project.

ust a few years ago, connecting your

microcontroller to a cellular network

was virtually impossible. Now it’s

actually fairly simple, with the help of the

Adafruit Feather 32u4 FONA. The board

features all the usual Feather niceties like

USB and LiPo battery charging, but it also includes a

quad-band 850/900/1800/1900 MHz FONA800 module

for cellular connectivity. Keep in mind you’ll need to get

an activated 2G mini SIM card and an external antenna

prior to connecting to your network. After that, sending

data such as SMS messages is fairly trivial thanks to

the included libraries and examples provided online.

One thing to note: if you are in the US, Adafruit

recommends any carriers that use the T-Mobile

network, as some US carriers have shut down their

2G network. And if you want to make phone calls,

you’ll also need to add a microphone and speaker. But

that’s it!

T

J

Adafruit Feather 32u4 Adalogger

Adafruit Feather 32u4 FONA

ADAFRUIT $21.95 adafruit.com

ADAFRUIT $44.95 adafruit.com

Keep data safe from power cycles

When WiFi just won’t reach

Adding a ton of

storage is as

easy as adding

a microSD

VERDICT

8 / 10

Need cellular

connectivity?

Yep, Feather has

that too!

VERDICT

8 / 10

Left

Tons of space for

logging your data

Left

Cellular connectivity

made simple