Thales Cinterion TX62
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The Cinterion® TX62 Wireless IoT Module supports global frequencies of LTE Cat M-1 and NB-IoT (Cat NB1 and Cat NB2).
Monogoto SIM
Getting started with the Arduino Portenta CAT.M1/NBIOT shield
When connecting to the Cinterion modem, keep the AT Commands manual next to you to look up details about commands. To download the latest version, click here.
Reset the modem to its factory default configuration:
Set the error reporting to verbose, resulting in more descriptive error messages (optional):
Check if the SIM card is attached and is not locked with a PIN, expected response: +CPIN: READY:
If you receive an error, the SIM may not be inserted properly or the SIM is protected with a PIN. By default, Monogoto SIMs are not PIN protected.
Request the product type number:
Expected response: Cinterion TX62-W REVISION 01.001
Request the IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity):
Request the ICCID (Integrated Circuit Card ID), which is the identification number of the SIM card
It is possible to let the modem select the network automatically, or to manually define a network to connect with.
To set the modem to automatic network selection enter the command:
Check the network and cellular technology the modem is currently using:
Expected response: +COPS: 0,0,"<name of operator>",X. The last digit indicates the cellular technology:
7 indicates LTE Cat-M1
9 indicates NB-IoT
Start with searching for available networks:
It may take several minutes before the modem responds.
The modem responds with the names and the MCCMNC codes of the available networks. It also shows the cellular technologies the networks support:
Example response:
To find which of the networks Monogoto has roaming agreements with, review the Coverage lists.
Check the network and cellular technology the modem is currently using:
Expected response: +COPS: 0,0,"<name of operator>",X. The last digit indicates the cellular technology.
Manually set the network and the cellular technology:
Replace XXXXX with the MCCMNC code of your operator, for example"20404" for Vodafone NL. Use 7 for LTE Cat-M1.
Check the radio signal strength and signal quality:
+CSQ returns 2 values separated by a comma. The first value represents the signal strength and provides a value between 0 and 31; higher numbers indicate better signal strength. The second value represents the signal quality indicated by a value between 0 and 7. If AT+CSQ returns 99,99, the signal is undetectable or unknown.
The AT^SXRAT command specifies the Radio Access Technologies to be used for network selection and registration.
To set a preferred technology, use:
Replace <RAT> with:
7 for LTE-M
8 for NB-IoT
10 for LTE-M and NB-IoT
Replace <RAT_pref> to define an preferred radio technology (optional):
7 for LTE-M
8 for NB-IoT
Example: To enable both LTE-M and NB-IoT, and use LTE-M as the preferred RAT, use:
Test if the RAT selection is properly set:
It is possible to lock the modem to one or more specific bands. This may result in a faster boot cycle as the modem does not need to scan for available bands at startup.
To find the bands the modem has currently enabled for CatM, use:
Expected response:
0f0e189f,10000200000000 indicates that all available bands are enabled.
To find the bands the modem has currently enabled for NB-IoT, use:
Although the modem may support many a variety of bands, your local network operator may not. Have a look at the LTE Cat-M1 overview to find the available band(s) in your region.
To lock the modem to a specific CatM band:
Replace <band> with your band of choice. E.g. 80000 represents band 20.
To lock the modem to a specific NB-IoT band:
To find out more details about what values represent what bands, visit the Cinterion AT Commands Manual, section 2.11, page 63-65
Test if the Cat-M1 band is properly set:
Example response: ^SCFG: "Radio/Band/CatM","0f0e189f","0010000200000000"
To test the NB-IoT band, use:
Set the APN to data.mono:
Validate if the APN is set correctly:
Expected response: +CGDCONT: 1,"IP","data.mono","0.0.0.0",0,0,0,0,0,0
Activate the PDP (packet data protocol) context:
Test if the PDP context is activated:
Expected response: +CGACT: 1,1
To test what cellular technology and what band the modem is using, request the network information from the serving cell:
Example response:
The first variable Cat.M1 indicates the cellular technology used. The third variable 20 indicates the current frequency band.
Expected response: +CGPADDR: 1,XX.XXX.XX.XXX
Do you see an IP address? Congratulations! You’ve successfully connected the Cinterion TX62 modem to Monogoto 🎉
A PING test can be performed to test if the modem has an active data connection with a mobile network.
When cellular modems are idle for a long period of time, cell towers might drop the data connection to save resources. Sending regular PINGs is a good method for testing the data connection, as well as for keeping the connection alive because the operator registers your device as being actively used.
Start by activating the Internet service connection for PDP context 1:
To use PDP context 1 to send 5 PINGs to IP address 8.8.8.8 with a timeout of 5000 milliseconds, use:
If the connection is active, you will see 5 PINGs with a number representing the response time in milliseconds. Example response:
Great work on connecting the Cinterion TX62 to Monogoto! Have a look at the Things logs in the Monogoto Console to find more details about the established connection.
To find the profile of your SIM, visit the Monogoto Console, open the page Things and select a specific Thing. Scroll down to Mobile Identities to find your profile in the column Network Provider Name.
