Renesas CAT-M1 Cloud Kit CK-RA6M5

I'm very interested in this roadtest.

• I do have some LTE-M experience by completing RoadTest here on element14 on several LTE Evaluation kits
• Recently the Nordic nRF9160 DK
  • /products/roadtest/rv/roadtest_reviews/1608/nordic_nrf9160_dk_re
  • The sim card used here, was from iBasic. It worked very well here in Northeast USA. 

• Another being the ADVENT Monarch LTE-M DK
  • /products/roadtest/rv/roadtest_reviews/951/avnet_monarch_lte-m_1
  • I did have some issues with Verrizon LTE service though, but eventually got this working.
• I have also completed a RoadTest review on the Renesas EK-RA2L1
  • /products/roadtest/rv/roadtest_reviews/1483/ra2l1_evkultra-low_p
  • I am familiar with the Firmware development using The Renesas Flexible Software Package (FSP)

I just enrolled and I'll keep my fingers crossed

thanks for link. after further crosschecking, i also realize in my country Malaysia, there is no CAT-M1 (also called LTE-M) provider. the nearest is NB-IoT. I check from this URL. so for other roadtestester not supported by the sim card that comes with the RYZ014A pmod expansion board, i suppose can still get a local LTE-M sim card. 

From sensor to cloud in one module - pretty neat.

AVNET also published info needed to use the APIs:

Networking with Sequans Monarch Go - Part I (interesting article. With housing measures, also available here)

Sequans Monarch-Go Python Example  (for definition of the 4 enumerated ports, and interesting examples on MQTT and other client protocols available on board of the modem)

Yes. All these should be possible. Since sequans let all their docuemntation kept in secret and avalaible only under NDA, Renesas published their own document containing description of AT commands. It is here: https://www.renesas.com/eu/en/document/mah/ryz014-modules-users-manual-command?language=en&r=1503996 

I am not sure if all of these is implemented in Renesas FSP but at least with direct UART access it should be possible to use all of these features.

Ow that's great - it is a very good design.

If you are selected for the road test, you may want to check out the software stack of the modem. The Monarch Go that I reviewed had a MQTT(s) client stack on board (and HTTP(s), TCP, and UDP support). This frees your microcontroller from the burden to deal with the MQTT exchange. And your firmware, without network, ssl and mqtt libraries linked in, requires a decent amount of memory less.

RYZ014A is based on Sequans Monarch SQN3330, so you have chance to reuse your expeinces and face this issue again

For a Sequans road test I did earlier, the scenario was similar:

• modem firmware, example and SIM card for USA (Verizon)
• I worked with AVNET and their local partner to get an industrial data card (BICS) that supported my region.
• In parallel purchased the cheapest local SIM card (Mobile Vikings) with much data and little call credit
• Then worked with AVNET's field engineer to retrieve the settings of the local suppliers, and adapt the example to work for the right band, and some other settings.. I used my smartphone and an LTE analysis app to retrieve the settings that weren't published by the provider.
• In that case, it also involved getting a programming device to flash new firmware to the LTE modem - the version I had didn't have support for the settings yet, but newer firmware supported it. AVNET engineering support again helped me with that exercise.

This was a great learning path for me. If everything would have worked out of box, I would not have learned 20% of expertise I got out of the exercise.
It also shows that LTE international is not trivial. And if you aren't in a market covered by the biggest players, it's hard to find expertise. 

I don't recall seeing that yesterday either. I submitted the support ticket yesterday and I mentioned this product. Thanks for doing this. I would not have known.

I found list of supported countries by SIM card here: https://www.renesas.com/eu/en/products/interface-connectivity/wireless-communications/cellular-iot-modules/rtkyz014a0b00000be-pmod-expansion-board-ryz014a. I have no idea how did I miss this section yesterday. Maybe Renesas added this section yesterday? My country is not listed here, so I will have to order my own SIM If I decide to apply. Also note that SIM bundled with this Kit is more restricted than in previously offered Kits (nRF9160 and AVR Kit). It is not restricted only in data usage, but also by time. 50MB FUP is valid only 30 days after activation. Then it requires montly fee according to description on this page. This is big difference because if I remember correctly nRF9160 and AVR has bundled SIM card with 5/10 years validyty, so efficently only data limit apply.