Arduino’s Nicla Sense ME is a feature-packed, industrial-grade low-power AI/ML module that enables easy integration of always-on sensor-fusion workloads thanks to its compact size of just 22.86 x 22.86 mm and compatibility with the familiar Arduino ecosystem. Key application areas include IoT, smart building, industrial, smart agriculture, wearables, predictive maintenance, and more, with the following state-of-the-art sensors from Bosch Sensortec onboard:
- BHI260AP motion sensor system with integrated AI
- BMM150 magnetometer
- BMP390 pressure sensor
- BME688 4-in-1 gas (air quality, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Volatile Sulphur Compounds (VSCs), + more), pressure, temperature, and humidity sensor with integrated AI
The heart of the board is Nordic’s nRF52832 Bluetooth (4.2 LE) SoC, which is built around an Arm Cortex-M4 MCU running at up to 64 MHz and supported by 512 kB flash, 64 kB RAM, and 2 MB SPI flash for storage; an additional 2 MB QSPI memory is dedicated for the BHI260AP. The ultra-low power consumption of Nicla Sense ME enables 24/7 sensor data processing while running on a 3.7-V Li-po battery as a standalone unit – a battery charging circuit comes integrated – or integrated with other hardware with power via the micro-USB port (also used for programming and debugging) or the VIN pin header (3.5-5.5 V). Example current draws are as follows:
- Standby: 460 µA
- Running blink sketch: 960 µA
- Advertising with sensor polling at 1 Hz: 2.5 mA
- Advertising with sensor polling once per hour: 1.15 mA
The pinout of this module is illustrated in the diagram below:
At a glance, users are granted immediate access to 1x I2C bus (with ext. ESLOV connector), 1x serial port, 1x SPI, and 2x ADCs via the castellated pins. The I/O voltage is programmable at 1.8-3.3 V as per your interfacing requirements.
For more information, for example regarding the individual specifications of the onboard sensors, please consult this official datasheet.
If you have a commercial project and would like to evaluate the performance of Arduino’s Nicla Sense ME module, fill out the form below, and ipXchange will facilitate evaluation through our official partnership with Arduino.
(Images sourced from Arduino)
