If Arduino is your development platform of choice the tiny self-contained MicroLink board offers some interesting features. At just 50 x 32 mm it contains an ATmega328, an SIM800H quad band GSM module and on-board USB and battery charging capabilities. It has all the peripherals necessary to allow wireless remote control and monitoring and can use any standard 3.7 V LiPo battery for power which is charged when the USB port is connected. The charge state can be checked at any time from a remote location.

Key technical features:

  • Atmel Atmega328P microcontroller – same as Arduino UNO
  • Latest generation SIM800H module (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
  • Genuine FTDI USB chip
  • Interrupt pins available
  • An LED is connected to pin D13, same as the Arduino UNO
  • Gold plated IPEX u.Fl antenna connector
  • Quad-band multi-region antenna included
  • Accepts standard sized SIM card
  • 6 µA sleep current (Extra Flash: 11 µA)
  • Approx. 10 mA typical processing current
  • Approx. 400 mA net peak momentary current during GSM events
  • Can be powered and programmed by USB Micro USB
  • UART (Serial), SPI, and I2C peripherals
  • Atmega328P talks with SIM800H using AT commands (easy, reliable)
  • 0.1 inch pitch pins - can fit on a standard breadboard.

AALER Engineering is responsible for the design and they are hoping to raise $40,000 AUD from their Kickstarter campaign which still has around 30 days to run.