Arduino MKR GMS alternative

Question

I’m starting on a project about monitoring the soil in the agriculture field and also to visualise the data remotely. The aim of this project is collect the atmospheric data as well as the soil related parameters and then send them to cloud where they’ll be presented on the dashboard. I decide to use Arduino as my development board and Arduino MKR GMS 1400 would be perfect for this project. However this board is quite expensive. So just wondering that are there any alternative I can use for this project

Thank you

• jsotola: sounds like any microcontroller would be sufficient ... not really an Arduino question

Answer 1

There are multiple options for this project as you just want to send/ upload data on the cloud server rather than using Arduino MKR 1400 you can use any of the following.

1. Arduino UNO with GSM module: As per your requirement you can use Arduino UNO to read the data from the sensor and the GSM module will be used to upload the same on the cloud server. There are various GSM modules available in the market which are cheap also and good. You can also use SIM800 one of the GSM module.

Other GSM modules which you could use can be,

SIM900, Quectel EC-20, Quectel M95. You can also visit SIMCONN website where you can find multiple GSM module options.

2. You can also use ESP8266 or ESP32 which are Wi-Fi modules but in this case you will require a internet/ Wi-Fi connection near the controller. ESP8266/ ESP32 will read data from the sensors and can also upload the same to the cloud servers. But as you said you are using them to monitor agriculture field it won't be possible to have a Wi-Fi which will cover such long range.

3. One of the possible solutions to the problem is to use RF-link to transmit data and collect it at a base-station and from the base station you can upload/ send them to the server.

4. You can also make use of the LoRa Network to communicate along the fields and then receive data from the whole field at a base station and then upload them to the server. But this could be a more expensive solution.

• Python Schlange: Instead of using the LoRa network you also could use 433mhz modules with an antenna to extend range communicating with a base station, but I'm not sure if the Antenna is helping enough and the range might not be covered though.