Hello backers and creators,

The first week of the campaign has been a thrill and we are happy to see you backing and sharing about our campaign. We at Conexio are grateful for your support.

Throughout this campaign, and after, we will post updates on the Stratus Pro project so you can learn more about the hardware you will be receiving and the development work you are funding. For this first week’s update, we’ll be giving you a peek at our current progress and we’ll answer some of the frequently asked questions we have received via the technical question form.

FAQ

We have received a number of excellent questions, which we have summarized below:

• Can I modify the Stratus Pro sample applications/template firmware and distribute it?
  Yes! We have released the example templates under the Apache License 2.0 which includes applications on how to get started with IoT development using the Stratus kit. The git repository can be found here: conexio-firmware-sdk.

• Can I modify Conexio Stratus Pro hardware and produce my own?
  Yes! Once the campaign has ended, the PCB hardware production files will be released under the CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 - Weakly Reciprocal. See the CERN licenses page for more info. The git repository for the hardware can be found here: conexio-stratus-board-schematics.

• How can I power the Stratus Pro board?
  The Stratus Pro board can be powered from USB-C, LiPo battery, or a combination of USB-C and battery when charging the battery via the USB-C port. In addition, a solar panel connected via +PV PIN can be used to recharge the LiPo battery connected to the Stratus Pro kit.

• How can I add cellular support to my external board using Stratus Pro?
  Stratus Pro allows connecting peripherals via SPI, UART, or I2C. One can easily connect an external computer or MCU over UART to send AT commands to the onboard cellular modem of the Stratus Pro device, thereby adding cellular connectivity to a new or existing IoT solution for prototyping purposes.

• Do I need an external MCU with Stratus Pro for executing machine learning?
  No! The Stratus Pro combines a powerful ARM Cortex M33 with 1 MB of flash and 256 KB RAM. This gives Stratus Pro the capabilities to execute machine learning models such as Tensor Flow Lite or models generated using Edge Impulse right on the device.

• Can I use the MCU of Stratus Pro without the cellular modem?
  Yes! If your application does not use the cellular modem or call the modem APIs, it will remain disabled in the firmware. You can also explicitly disable it in the project configuration.

• Which wireless cellular standards are used by the Conexio Stratus Pro?
  Stratus can connect to the cloud over LTE-M, NB-IoT, and Cat-1 networks. It also supports DECT NR+ in the 1.9 GHz band for mesh networking. You can read more about the DECT NR+ features here.

• How much-prepaid data is available with Conexio Stratus?
  Stratus Pro comes with 500 MB of data and 250 SMS that is valid for a period of 10 years. Whether you use up the quota in a month or one year is up to you and your application. We will also allow Stratus Pro users to top-up or buy more cellular data through us.

• What type of external GPS antenna do I need for the Stratus?
  For accessing the GPS, Stratus Pro relies on a passive GPS antenna connected to its U.FL antenna port. A good reference is Molex LTE/GPS COMBO FLEXIBLE ANTENNA.

• Does the Stratus Pro provide a built-in way to measure shock/impact, voltage, and/or cellular signal strength data, and send it to the cloud?
  The Stratus Pro includes onboard LIS2DH accelerometer sensors that are accessible via the sensor API. The easiest way to learn how to access sensor data from the LIS2DH is by using one of the Stratus sensor applications.
  Device battery voltage and charging characteristics can be measured using the onboard nPM1300 fuel gauge while the modem voltage information can be captured by querying the nRF9161 modem API.
  Shock/impact detection can be reported by enabling the built-in accelerometer sensor, then querying it to enhance your data with “shock/impact” information. In addition, cellular signal strength data is fetched using the modem API.

• Does the Stratus Pro provide a way to perform cellular tower triangulation to get a location?
  Yes! Using Nordic’s nRF Cloud cellular location sample application to get a device’s position based on LTE cell measurements. This allows continuously tracking the device’s location for asset tracking applications without using a lot of power and draining the battery.

• When will the sample application or SDK support for DECTNR+ be made available?
  First, of all, Stratus Pro fully supports DECT NR+ in hardware. On the software side, it will be released in the next version of the Nordic’s nRF Connect SDK. This will include how to use the DECT NR+ physical layer (PHY) to set up a DECT NR+ application with the DECT PHY firmware. It’s a work-in-progress; you can get a glance of the sample code here.

• Routing and Transferring Data
  The Stratus Pro can route IoT data to AWS, Microsoft Azure, nRF Cloud, Datacake, and any other cloud service that supports MQTT/MQTTs, HTTPS, or TCP data transfer protocol.

Documentation and Getting Started Guide

We have also been busy crafting the full documentation and "Getting Started" guidelines for the Stratus Pro. In addition, we are creating more sample applications for the Stratus Pro kit and testing our prototypes. Our objective with these tests is to improve our firmware libraries and make sure everything works as expected.

In the coming weeks, you will also see more interesting sample applications in our git repo that we are working on right now, so keep an eye out.
All the current samples that have been tested and verified with the Stratus Pro and NCS 2.6.0 SDK can be found in the conexio-firmware-sdk repo.

Hardware Development

Besides the work on Conexio Stratus’s Pro software, we are verifying all the hardware functionality and operation to make sure the product’s operation and use are as user-friendly as possible.

Technical Support and Feedback

It is important for us to engage with our audience, so we are excited to hear from you, listen to your feedback, and get your suggestions. You are very welcome to post it on our discussions forum , join us on our Conexio Discord channel, or X account @conexiotech.

For any inquiries or assistance related to Stratus hardware, SDK, or documentation, please do not hesitate to seek information or collaborate with our engineers to address your technical challenges via our email: info@conexiotech.com.

So, stay tuned and we will keep you posted on our latest news and progress.

Help fund this project and spread the word!

Thank you from Team Conexio!!!