Stratus Pro Pin Diagram

Warnings

  • This product shall only be connected to an external USB power supply rated at 5V DC.

  • This product shall only be connected to a LiPo battery rated at 2.8-5.5V with a battery capacity of > 300mAh.

  • This product should be placed on a stable, flat, non-conductive surface in use and should not be contacted by conductive items.

  • The connection of unapproved devices to the GPIOs may affect compliance or result in damage to the unit and invalidate the warranty.

Instructions for Safe Use

To avoid malfunction or damage to the Stratus kit please observe the following:

  • Do not expose it to water, or moisture, or place it on a conductive surface whilst in operation.

  • Do not expose it to heat from any source; the Conexio Stratus is designed for reliable operation between temperatures -20℃ to 85℃.

  • Take care whilst handling to avoid mechanical or electrical damage to the printed circuit board and connectors.

  • Avoid handling the Stratus PCB while it is powered. Only handled by the edges to minimize the risk of electrostatic discharge damage.

ESD Precautions

The Conexio Stratus contains highly sensitive electronic circuitry and is an Electrostatic Sensitive Device (ESD). Handling a Conexio Stratus without proper ESD protection may destroy or damage it permanently. Proper ESD handling and packaging procedures must be applied throughout the processing, handling, and operation. ESD precautions should be implemented on the application board where the Conexio Stratus is mounted. Failure to observe these precautions can result in severe damage to the Conexio Stratus board!

Connectors

Three connectors on the Stratus Pro will get damaged with improper usage. The JST connector on the circuit board, where you plug in the LiPo battery, is very durable but the connector on the battery itself is not. When unplugging the battery, take extra precautions to pull the connector using the wires, but instead hold the plug at its base to avoid putting stress on the wires. This can be tricky with bare hands - nose pliers are your friend here.

The USB-C connector on the Conexio Stratus Pro is soldered on the PCB with large surface pads as well as a couple of through-hole anchor points. Despite this reinforcement, it is very easy to rip out the connector if too much stress is put on in the vertical direction.

The U.FL antenna connectors are not designed to be constantly plugged and unplugged. The antenna pin is static sensitive and you can destroy the radio with improper handling. A tiny dab of glue (epoxy, rubber cement, liquid tape, or hot glue) on the connector can be used to securely hold the plug in place.

Breadboarding

The Stratus Pro is specifically designed to require low insertion force when using a breadboard. This makes it easy to plug the Stratus in and out of the breadboard. Always remember to pinch-hold your precious Stratus by the sides (along with the header pins) when plugging-unplugging and not by the USB or the battery connector.

Battery Charger

The Stratus dev kit can charge a LiPo battery using the USB port or the solar cell connected to the +PV pin. The onboard nPM1300 PMIC manages the power from the USB port while TI BQ25185 manages the input power from the solar cell.

Battery Voltage Monitoring

The Conexio Stratus Pro provides the user with the ability to monitor the battery voltage using the nPM1300 PMIC. Refer to the PMIC sample application on to how to enable this and read the respective battery and charging-related parameters.

Stratus Pro GPS Antenna Configurations

The GPS receiver on the Conexio Stratus dev kit is embedded into the modem of the nRF9161. To successfully get a GPS fix, and receive location data, a passive external GPS antenna must be connected to the u.fl connector labeled GPS on the board. A good reference is Molex LTE/GPS COMBO FLEXIBLE ANTENNA, Digikey MPN: 2133530100.

Antenna Configurations in nRF SDK

For proper operation and to activate the GPS antenna, configure the following in your prj.conf file before building your application. Refer to nRF Connect SDK documentation on how to read GPS data.

Refer to the GPS sample application to see all the required configurations for the Stratus device.

# Configuration of the onboard GPS Antenna 
CONFIG_GPS_SAMPLE_ANTENNA_ONBOARD=y
# COEX0 is used to enable the GPS power supply. We need to enable it first.
CONFIG_GPS_SAMPLE_AT_COEX0="AT\%XCOEX0=1,1,1565,1586"

Stratus Pro PCB

Coming Soon... Stay Tuned.

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