DFRobot SIM7000E Shield not attaching to network

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1

Hi,
I purchased the SIM7000E shield for the Arduino UNO. I am using it on the Telstra network in Australia. I purchased it because it has GPS built-in. I am also using a separate power supply to ensure there is enough current for the unit.
The red power LED comes on. The blue LED next to it flashes on boot up and the green LED near the antenna flashes about once per second.

In GPRS mode the signal strength is always 0. In NB-IoT mode the strength varies between 0 and 20+.

I both modes, I can never successfully attach to the network.
I am trying to use the HTTP and the MQTT demos. Both will not attach to the network.
I know my SIM card works because I can use it in my phone, pocket wifi and Sparkfun LTE Cat/M1 NB-IoT shield.

Am I missing something?
Am I not doing something that I should be doing?

I noticed that for the Sparkfun sheild I needed to provide an APN before it connected. However there is no place in the DFRobot demo programs for this value. Could this be the issue?

Best Regards
Manuel

2

GPRS is the old 2G standard and has been turned off in Australia. For the Telstra NB-IoT I believe you need to get Telstra to activate it for your service. You’ll need to contact Telstra to activate it but I believe it’s different from a standard voice/data plan.

3

Thanks Shaun

I will see Telstra about this today. However, the SIM7000E only has 2 modes, GPRS or NB-IoT. What about 3G and 4G. How can I get the SIM7000E to use one of these, or is NB one of these.

Regards

4

I haven’t got one of these but when you go through the documentation it talks about LTE NB-IoT which is a subset of LTE. It doesn’t appear to implement LTE 3G/4G.

If you want LTE 3G/4G with GPS you would need to use the following board:

1 Like
5

Thanks,
Things are starting to make more sense to me now.

Regards