Pico-SIM868-GSM/GPRS/GNSS

GSM, GPRS, GNSS, and Bluetooth module designed for Raspberry Pi Pico

Overview

The Pico-SIM868-GSM/GPRS/GNSS is a GSM, GPRS, GNSS, and Bluetooth module designed for Raspberry Pi Pico. This small size and low power module will easily enable your Raspberry Pi Pico multiple functions including making phone calls, sending SMS, 2G communication, global positioning, as well as Bluetooth transmission.

Feature

Standard Raspberry Pi Pico header, supports Raspberry Pi Pico series boards.
UART communication, serial AT commands control.
Supports SMS, phone call, GPRS, DTMF, HTTP, FTP, MMS, email, etc.
Bluetooth3.0 support allows Bluetooth data transfer.
RTC real-time clock, with rechargeable Li-po battery.
Integrates 3.7V Li-po battery connector and recharge circuit, allows being powered from external rechargeable Li-po battery, or recharge it in turn.
Onboard microphone, together with speaker header, can be used to make phone calls.
2 x LED indicators, for monitoring the module operating status.
Onboard nano-SIM card slot supports 2G SIM card *

* Depending on the local network service provider.

Specification

Product type	SIM868	SIM7080G	SIM7020E
Working frequency
NB-IoT	N/A	B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B8/B12/ B13/B18/B19/B20/B25/B26 /B28/B66/B71/B85	SIM7020C: LTE-FDD: B1/B3/B5/B8 SIM7020E： LTE-FDD：B1/B3/B5/B8/B20/B28
Cat-M	N/A	B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B8/B12/B13 /B14/B18/B19/B20/B25/ B26/B27/B28/B66/B85	N/A
2G	GSM 850/EGSM 900/DCS 1800/PCS 1900 MHz	N/A	N/A
GNSS	GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou	GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo	N/A
Available Area	Most of Countries and areas	Global	SIM7020C：China SIM7020E：Europe/Africa/Australia/Southeast Asia
Data transmit
NB-IoT(Kbps)	-	136(DL)/150(UL)	26.15(DL)/62.5(UL)
Cat-M(Kbps)	-	589(DL)/1119(UL)	-
2G(Kbps)	85.6(DL)/85.6(UL)	-	-
Other specification
Communication protocol	TCP/UDP/HTTP/SSL/FTP /POP3/SMTP/MQTT, etc.	TCP/UDP/HTTP/HTTPS/TLS/DTLS/PING/LWM2M/COAP/MQTT, etc.
Power type	External Li-po battery OR Raspberry Pi Pico USB port
Li-po battery	3.7V ~ 4.2V
Logic level	3.3V
Module standalone current	Idle mode: 12mA	Idle mode: 10mA	Idle mode: 5.6mA
	Sleep mode: 0.65mA	Sleep mode: 1.2mA	Sleep mode: 0.4mA
	Backup Mode:8uA	PSM Mode: 3.2uA	PSM Mode: 3.4uA
Audio input/output	onboard microphone,with speaker header	N/A
Indicator	NET: network indicator Charge：recharge indicator
Switch	Li-po battery and USB power supply switch	Li-po battery power supply switch
SIM card	2G SIM card (1.8V/3V)	NB-IoT/Cat-M card (1.8V ONLY)	NB card (1.8V/3V)
Antenna connector	LTE, GNSS, BT	LTE, GNSS	LTE
Dimensions	76.15 × 24.00mm	73.5 × 24.00mm

Pinout

Dimensions

Hardware connection

Pico-SIM868-GSM/GPRS/GNSS x 1 (Pin header should be soldered)
Raspberry Pi Pico x 1
SIM card x 1 (Support supports 2G service)
Micro USB cable x 1

Description:

If you need to use audio, you need to connect a speaker.
When in use, it is recommended to connect to the lithium battery: when there is no additional USB power supply, turn on the USB to turn off the lithium battery power supply, switch to VBAT to use the lithium battery power supply; When connected to USB power, the USB can be used to charge the lithium battery, power the Pico or write firmware and programs.

How to Use

Python Examples

Use in Windows

1. Press and hold the BOOTSET button on the Pico board, connect the pico to the USB port of the computer through the Micro USB cable, and release the button after the computer recognizes a removable hard disk (RPI-RP2).
2. Copy the pico_micropython_xxxxxxxx.uf2 file in the python directory to the recognized removable disk (RPI-RP2)
3. Open Thonny IDE (note: use the latest version of Thonny, otherwise there is no Pico support package, the latest version under Windows is v3.3.3).
4. Click Tools->Settings->Interpreter, select Pico and the corresponding port as shown in the figure.

5.File -> Open -> main.py, click to run, as shown below:

This demo provides a simple program...

Use in Raspberry Pi environment

1. The process of flashing the firmware is the same as that on Windows, you can choose to copy the pico_micropython_xxxxxxxx.uf2 file into pico on PC or Raspberry Pi.
2. Open Thonny IDE on the Raspberry Pi (click the Raspberry logo -> Programming -> Thonny Python IDE ), you can check the version information in Help->About Thonny.

To make sure your version has a Pico support package, you can also click Tools -> Options... -> Interpreter to select MicroPython (Raspberry Pi Pico and ttyACM0 port).
As the picture shows:

If your current Thonny version does not have the pico support package, enter the following command to update the Thonny IDE.

sudo apt upgrade thonny

3. Click File->Open...->python/main.py to run the script.

AT Test

This demo is mainly to facilitate the user can through the Thony software, directly test and verify the AT instruction transceiving module. The main program will start the module directly first and then check the network condition. After that, it will check the AT instructions entered by the user, send them to the module through the serial port, and then send the AT instructions back to the Pico serial port for printing.
For more details about AT commands, please check the manual: SIM800 Series_AT Command Manual_V1.11

Expected result

GPS Positioning

This example mainly demonstrates GPS positioning-related tests. To perform this example, the GPS antenna receiver must be placed outside (or in a window where the sky can be seen), and the GPS location cannot be obtained on rainy days。
For more details about AT commands, please check the manual: SIM868 Series GNSS Application Note V1.02

Expected result

Taking calls

This example mainly demonstrates the phone call test. The module has an onboard microphone so that calls can be made directly to each other, and speakers are needed to hear the sound.
For more details on AT commands, please check the manual: SIM800 Series_AT Command Manual

Expected result

TCP

In this example, the Raspberry Pico is connected to the Internet through NB-IoT, and the data is transmitted through TCP and the server. The server that obtains the public network IP needs to be used (this example uses the Alibaba Cloud server):

Description of the instructions

AT+CSQ   #Query the network signal quality, the first parameter is that the network signal quality which the maximum value is 31, the larger the value, the stronger the network signal
AT+CREG?  #Query the network registration status, where the second parameter is 1 or 5, it means the registration has been successful.
AT+CGATT?   #Query whether the module is attached to the GPRS network
AT+CSTT="CMNET    #set the APN according to the actual network, here we take CMNET as an example
AT+CIICR    #activates the mobile scene
AT+CIFSR     #get the local IP address
AT+CIPSTART="TCP","113.81.232.4",5000    #Establish a TCP/IP connection, as shown in the following figure

Download the Python demo: the TCP part of the code is as follows:

def tcp(sms_info="qixi"):
    send_at('AT+CIPSHUT', 'OK')
    send_at("AT+CSQ", "OK")
    send_at("AT+CREG?", "OK")
    send_at('AT+CGATT?', 'OK')
    send_at('AT+CSTT=\"CMNET\"', 'OK',5)
    send_at('AT+CIICR', 'OK')
    send_at('AT+CIFSR', 'OK')
    send_at('AT+CIPSTART=\"TCP\",\"120.79.2.0\",\"2317\"', 'OK')
    send_at('AT+CIPSEND', ">",5)
    uart.write(bytearray(sms_info))
    uart.write(bytearray(hexstr_to_str("1A")))

Expected result

Screenshot of Pico running on Thonny client:

Server receives data

HTTP

Description

In this example, Raspberry Pico is connected to the Internet through NB-IoT and gets the weather information from the weather website through HTTP GET. Meanwhile, the temperature information on Pico is pushed to the server through HTTP POST.
Users can access the website and view the data uploaded in real-time. The software schematic is as follows:

Server Web Page Deployment

User http://pico.wiki/esp-chart.php as an example.

1. Server setup PHP, mysql, and other environments create database files. For example:

Database: example_esp_data
Password: your_password
user name: your_username
Create database table:

CREATE TABLE Sensor (
   id INT(6) UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
   value1 VARCHAR(10),
   value2 VARCHAR(10),
   value3 VARCHAR(10),
   reading_time TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP)

2、Example PHP files on the server are post-data.php and esp-chart.php

post-data.php: HTTP POST API that the SIM7080G module can call to POST data to the server.
esp-chart.php: The latest data uploaded by SIM7080G can be obtained from a web page accessed by the client and displayed in a graph.

Pico software setup

Download Python example: Demo codes, Part of the HTTP codes:

HTTP GET：

# HTTP GET TEST
def http_get():
   send_at('AT+HTTPINIT', 'OK')
   send_at('AT+HTTPPARA=\"CID\",1', 'OK')
   send_at('AT+HTTPPARA=\"URL\",\"'+http_get_server[0]+http_get_server[1]+'\"', 'OK')
   if send_at('AT+HTTPACTION=0', '200', 5000):
       uart.write(bytearray(b'AT+HTTPREAD\r\n'))
       rec_buff = wait_resp_info(8000)
       print("resp is :", rec_buff.decode())
   else:
       print("Get HTTP failed, please check and try again\n")
   send_at('AT+HTTPTERM', 'OK')

HTTP POST：

HTTP POST TEST

def http_post():
   send_at('AT+HTTPINIT', 'OK')
   send_at('AT+HTTPPARA=\"CID\",1', 'OK')
   send_at('AT+HTTPPARA=\"URL\",\"'+http_post_server[0]+http_post_server[1]+'\"', 'OK')
   send_at('AT+HTTPPARA=\"CONTENT\",\"' + http_content_type + '\"', 'OK')
   if send_at('AT+HTTPDATA=62,8000', 'DOWNLOAD', 3000):
       uart.write(bytearray(http_post_tmp))
       utime.sleep(5)
       rec_buff = wait_resp_info()
       if 'OK' in rec_buff.decode():
           print("UART data is read!\n")
       if send_at('AT+HTTPACTION=1', '200', 8000):
           print("POST successfully!\n")
       else:
           print("POST failed\n")
       send_at('AT+HTTPTERM', 'OK')
   else:
       print("HTTP Post failed，please try again!\n")

For more details on the HTTP function, please refer to the manual: SIM800_Series_IP_Application_Note_V1.05.pdf

Expected result

Results of web page access on the server：http://pico.wiki/esp-chart.php

C

Environment Setup

【C/C++】 Windows Tutorial 1——Environment Setup
【C/C++】 Windows Tutorial 2——New project

Demo

1. Open the C demo folder.

2. Open through Vs coed, select the corresponding compilation tool and the demo to be run (annotate the demo you don't use, delete annotation in the demo you need, and run one demo each time).

3. Click compile.

4. Press and hold the BOOT button of Pico and then power it on, and enable Pico to enter the disk mode. Drag the UF2 file under the build file to the RPI-RP2 drive letter.

5. At this point, Pico starts to run the corresponding demo, and you can check the running status through the serial port assistant.

Resources

Document

Schematic

Sample Demo

Tools

SIM868 Documents

Development Software

FAQ

Question:I was wondering how to charge the provided Li-po battery?

Answer:

You need to connect the PICO board with Pico SIM868 GSM/GPRS/GNSS, connect PICO with the PC via USB cable you can see the charging LED indictor turned on.

{{{5}}}

Support

Technical Support

If you need technical support or have any feedback/review, please click the Submit Now button to submit a ticket, Our support team will check and reply to you within 1 to 2 working days. Please be patient as we make every effort to help you to resolve the issue.
Working Time: 9 AM - 6 PM GMT+8 (Monday to Friday)

Submit Now

Navigation menu

Pico SIM868-GSM/GPRS/GNSS

Contents

Overview

Feature

Specification

Pinout

Dimensions

Hardware connection

How to Use

Python Examples

Use in Windows

Use in Raspberry Pi environment

AT Test

Expected result

GPS Positioning

Expected result

Taking calls

Expected result

TCP

Expected result

HTTP

Description

Server Web Page Deployment

Pico software setup

Expected result

C

Environment Setup

Demo

Resources

Document

Sample Demo

Tools

SIM868 Documents

Development Software

FAQ

Question:I was wondering how to charge the provided Li-po battery?

Support