RAKwireless loves to make IoT easy, so it was great to see them at Embedded World and get a look at the latest addition to their WISDUO family of devices. ipXchange has previously written about RAKwireless’ low-power RAK3172 LoRa module with built-in MCU, but the RAK11720 adds Bluetooth to the mix in a pin-compatible module that can slot straight into an existing RAK3172 design, without making changes to the PCB. For those unfamiliar with RAKwireless’ products, that’s LoRa, Bluetooth LE, and an ARM Cortex-M4F MCU in a stamp-sized package!
As Ken Yu explains, adding Bluetooth functionality can significantly expand the capabilities of your IoT device, which may benefit from control/monitoring through a smartphone app or remote updates, for example. A current draw of just 2.37 μA in sleep mode also solidifies this module’s status as a great heart for low-power IoT devices. For those already using a RAK3172, the shared SDK for the two devices means that there is no learning curve for switching to the RAK11720, slashing time-to-market for your upgraded end product.