Departments:
  1. Electronics Engineering
  2. Mechatronics Engineering
Microcontrollers:
  1. Arduino MKR WAN 1310
Codings:
  1. Arduino C
Softwares:
  1. Arduino IDE
Introduction to arduino mkr wan 1310, arduino mkr wan 1310 pinout, arduino mkr wan 1310 features, arduino mkr wan 1310 applications
Hi Guys! Hope you’re well today. I welcome you on board. In this post today, I’ll walk you through the Introduction to Arduino MKR WAN 1310. The Arduino MKR WAN 1310 includes Lora connectivity that can perform very long-range transmission operations consuming low power. This device is an ideal pick for the hobbyists requiring to develop IoT devices using the minimum networking experience using low power devices. The MKR WAN 1300 is incorporated with the Microchip® SAMD21 which is the low-power processor, the MKR family’s characteristic crypto chip (the ECC508), and the Murata CMWX1ZZABZ LoRa® module. Before you read further, I recommend you have a look at Introduction to Arduino Nano Every and Arduino MKR Vidor 4000 that I have uploaded previously. I suggest you read this post all the way through, as I’ll cover the complete Introduction to Arduino MKR WAN 1310 covering pinout, features, pin description, programming, and applications. Let’s jump right in.

Introduction to Arduino MKR WAN 1310

  • The Arduino MKR WAN 1310 includes Lora connectivity that can perform very long-range transmission operations consuming low power.
  • A range of technologies available for the communication between IoT devices including WiFi and Bluetooth. But there is one major problem with these technologies – they consume a lot of power.
  • This leads to the introduction of Lora technology that not only offers communication between devices using low power but it is also cost-effective and efficient compared to other technologies.
  • The MKR WAN 1310 is an improved version of its predecessor, the MKR WAN 1300. It is still incorporated with the Microchip® SAMD21 which is a low-power processor, the MKR family’s characteristic crypto chip (the ECC508), and the Murata CMWX1ZZABZ LoRa® module. This board features a new battery charger, a 2MByte SPI Flash, and the board’s power consumption is incorporated with improved control.
Introduction to arduino mkr wan 1310, arduino mkr wan 1310 pinout, arduino mkr wan 1310 features, arduino mkr wan 1310 applications
  • The operating voltage of the circuit is 3.3V while the voltage through Vin and USB is 5V.
  • There are total 8 digital I/O pins incorporated on the board while the number of analog pins is 7. And the pins that can be used for the PWM motor control are 13.
  • The board controller comes with a flash memory of 256KB while the SRAM memory is 32KB. There is no EEPROM memory available on the board. The flash memory is mainly reserved to store the Arduino program (sketch). While the SRAM memory is reserved to generate and manipulate variables when it runs.
  • Interface this MKR board with Arduino IoT cloud that guarantees safe communication between all connected devices.
  • The carrier frequency of this board is 433/868/915 MHz which is termed as the frequency of a carrier wave, calculated in cycles per second, or Hertz, mainly modulated to transmit signals.

Arduino MKR WAN 1310 Pinout

The following figure represents the pinout diagram of Arduino MKR WAN 1310.
Introduction to arduino mkr wan 1310, arduino mkr wan 1310 pinout, arduino mkr wan 1310 features, arduino mkr wan 1310 applications

Arduino MKR WAN 1310 Pin Description

This is the brief idea of the WAN board. In this section, we’ll cover the pin description of each pin available on the board. Let’s jump right in.

Analog Pins

There are 7 analog pins available on the board. These pins can get any number of values in opposed to Digital pins that get values in two states only i.e. HIGH or LOW

Digital Pins

Total 8 digital pins are installed on the board which you can use either as an input or output based on the requirement. These pins offer only two states HIGH or LOW. When voltage is 5V these pins are in the HIGH state and when the voltage is 0V these pins remain in a LOW state.

PWM Pins

The number of pins that can be used as PWM pins is 13. These pins generate analog results with digital means when PWM pins are activated.

UART Pins

The board contains two pins Rx and Tx for the serial UART communication. The Rx line is used to receive the serial data and the Tx pin is used to transfer the serial data.
Introduction to arduino mkr wan 1310, arduino mkr wan 1310 pinout, arduino mkr wan 1310 features, arduino mkr wan 1310 applications

SPI Pins

This device also offers an SPI communication protocol that is mainly used to develop communication between the microcontroller and other peripheral devices like shift resistors and sensors. Two pins: MISO (Master Input Slave Output) and MOSI (Master Output Slave Input) are employed for SPI communication between devices. These pins are used to send or receive data by the controller.

I2C Pins

The WAN board comes with a two-wire communication protocol known as the I2C protocol. This features two pins SDL and SCL. The SDL is a serial data line that carries the data while SCL is a serial clock line that is mainly employed for the synchronization of all data transfer through the I2C bus.

Arduino MKR WAN 1310 Features

Microcontroller = SAMD21 Cortex®-M0+ 32bit low power ARM MCU Radio module = CMWX1ZZABZ Supported Batteries = rechargeable Li-Ion, or Li-Po, 1024 mAh minimum capacity Digital I/O Pins = 8 Circuit Operating Voltage = 3.3V Board Power Supply (USB/VIN) = 5V PWM Pins = 13 UART = 1 SPI = 1 I2C = 1 Analog Pins = 7 SRAM = 32KB CPU Flash Memory = 256 KB (internal) LED_BUILTIN = 6 EEPROM = no USB = Full-Speed USB Device and embedded Host QSPI Flash Memory = 2MByte (external) DC Current per I/O Pin = 7mA Carrier frequency = 433/868/915 MHz Size = 25x67mm Weight = 32 gr. External Interrupts = 10 (0, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16 / A1, 17 / A2)

Related Boards

If you’re getting confused about buying the right device for wireless communication, the Arduino MKR series also offers other boards that you can pick for wireless communication.
  • MKR NB 1500
  • MKR GSM 1400
  • MKR WAN 1300
  • MKR FOX 1200

Programming

  • This board is programmed using Arduino IDE software which is an official software to program all Arduino boards.
  • When you open the software, you’ll be offered a basic LED blinking program which you can use to test the board if it’s working fine.
  • The WAN board carries a USB port which is used for direct communication with the computer system. You can send a number of instructions to the Arduino board using this USB protocol.
  • This device incorporates a built-in Bootloader that is used to burn the program inside the board. This means you don’t need to buy an external burner to program the microcontroller inside the board.

Arduino MKR WAN 1310 Applications

The WAN board is used in a range of applications. And it is the best pick for the development of IoT devices that require low power. The addition of Lora technology makes this device cost-effective and efficient for developing communication between devices compared to devices that only use WiFi or Bluetooth for communication. That’s all for today. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this article. If you have any questions, you can approach me in the section below. I’d love to help you the best way I can. Feel free to share your valuable suggestions and feedback around the content we share, so we keep producing quality content based on your needs and requirements. Thank you for reading the article.