SparkFun Electronics, InPlay, and Bosch Sensortec partner to release two new NanoBeacon boards to accelerate development of wireless IoT solutions

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Feb 17, 2023, 10:07 ET

Based on the NanoBeacon IN100 SoC, the boards are Qwiic enabled, ultra-low power, require no coding, support Bosch Sensortec's BME280 and BMA400 sensors, and connect to InPlay's new NanoBeacon BLE Scanner App

BOULDER, Colo., Feb. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In collaboration with InPlay and Bosch Sensortec, SparkFun® is pleased to release two new IoT development boards: the SparkFun NanoBeacon™ Board - IN100 and SparkFun NanoBeacon Lite Board - IN100. The two versions allow for prototyping with the "Lite" version and then employing the production version in large installations once design is complete. These boards are great options for wireless sensor monitoring, asset tracking, retail beacons, or even making your own beacon tag for real-time location monitoring.

The boards feature the IN100 NanoBeacon from InPlay, which is Bluetooth® Low Energy compliant and transmits at a 2.4GHz frequency. Primary highlights include:

Low power: power consumption to below a microamp - allowing it to be left in the field sending data packets for multiple years on a coin cell battery.
Programming-free design: eliminates the need for embedded software programming; a PC configuration tool is provided to configure the IN100 device according to application needs.
Qwiic® enabled: on-board Qwiic connector enables developers to utilize 400+ products in the Qwiic rapid prototyping ecosystem.
Configured for Bosch Sensortec sensors: ready to connect the BME280 3-in-1 humidity sensor, measuring humidity, air pressure and ambient temperature, and the BMA400 ultra-low power accelerometer sensor breakouts.
Exceptional range: up to several hundred meters.
NanoBeacon BLE Scanner App: direct connection to newly released mobile app allows users to easily access and utilize the data provided by surrounding BLE peripherals and beacons.

"We believe this partnership with SparkFun, who has integrated our NanoBeacon SoC with their Qwiic connector interface and Bosch Sensortec's high-performance sensors, will bring tremendous value to the IoT industry," said Jason Wu, co-founder and CEO of InPlay, "We look forward to seeing the creativity and innovation from the developer community with this new technology."

"With its NanoBeacon SoC technology, InPlay delivers an innovative, programming-free solution to the IoT that we're excited to bring to market," said Kirk Benell, CTO at SparkFun. "Merging this solution with SparkFun's plug-and-play Qwiic ecosystem delivers a frictionless IoT development solution. Pairing this rapid IoT system with Bosch Sensortec's incredible sensors allows the development and deployment of low-power, high-value IoT sensor nodes in minutes."

"This partnership helps to leverage synergies through the competencies of the partners: SparkFun's easy-to-use Qwiic ecosystem combined with InPlay's state-of-the-art wireless chip go hand-in-hand with Bosch Sensortec's low-power, high performance and innovative sensing solutions, making them more accessible to developers and reducing time-to-market with lite and production versions of the new IoT development solution," said Dr. Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO of Bosch Sensortec.

About SparkFun Electronics (www.sparkfun.com)

Since 2003, SparkFun has been helping turn ideas into reality – whether you're creating a smart weather station, exploring the frontier of machine learning, building a robot for school or prototyping your first (or tenth) product. We believe new technology helps make great ideas happen. We are dedicated to providing services, hardware, and documentation to make emerging technology easy to use and save you time.

About InPlay Inc. (https://inplay-tech.com/)

InPlay Inc is a fabless semiconductor company whose mission is to provide highly scalable, low-latency, low-power wireless communications technologies that unlock the vast potential of the VR/AR, healthcare and wireless industrial IoT markets. The company was founded by a group of wireless engineers experienced in wireless and mobile communication systems with unique technologies in RF, analog mixed-signal circuits and low-power circuit design. InPlay has a research and development team in Irvine, California, with operations and business development in both the United States and China.

About Bosch Sensortec GmbH (https://www.bosch-sensortec.com/)

Bosch Sensortec GmbH, a fully owned subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH, develops and markets a wide portfolio of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors and solutions tailored for smartphones, tablets, wearables and hearables, AR/VR devices, drones, robots, smart home and IoT (Internet of Things) applications. The product portfolio includes 3-axis accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers, integrated 6- and 9-axis sensors, smart sensors, barometric pressure sensors, humidity sensors, gas sensors, optical microsystems and comprehensive software. Since its foundation in 2005, Bosch Sensortec has emerged as the MEMS technology leader in the markets it addresses. Bosch has been both a pioneer and a global market leader in the MEMS sensor segment since 1995 and has, to date, sold more than 15 billion MEMS sensors.

SOURCE SparkFun Electronics