Let your ideas fly anywhere in the world with this all-new Adafruit board.
Another week, another Feather! Adafruit continues to expand its newest ‘all-in-one’ microcontroller family with the Feather 32U4 FONA. The latest in their constantly-growing lineup boasts the same form factor as its siblings along with a LiPo battery charger and microUSB. Unlike the others, however, this bad boy is equipped with a FONA 800 cellular module.
As you can see in the Lady Ada’s demonstration video below, the Feather 32U4 FONA can do quite a bit: make and answer calls (connect a microphone and an external speaker to make your own phone), transmit and receive GPRS data, send and get SMS messages, as well as scan and receive FM radio broadcasts. What’s more, it’s even pairable with Bluetooth, so you can connect from your computer and control data and/or have an audio link for your hands-free headset. Don’t forget, like the rest of the Feathers, you can add any of the wide range of FeatherWings to create your own unique device.
“Connect your Feather to the Internet or make phone calls with our trusted-and-tested FONA module. At the heart is a GSM cellular module (we use the latest SIM800) the size of a postage stamp. This module can do just about everything,” the crew writes.
Beyond that, the Feather 32U4 is built around an ATmega32U4 clocked at 8 MHz and at 3.3V logic. This chip packs 32K of Flash and 2K of RAM, and built-in USB.
Since you’ll be taking this on the road, Adafruit has added a connector for any 3.7V LiPo batteries and an integrated charger. It should be noted, though, that a 500mAh+ LiPo battery is required for use, as it “keeps the cellular module happy during the high current spikes.”
The board itself measures 2.4″ x 0.9” x 0.28”in size and weighs just over eight grams. It has plenty of GPIO, eight PWM pins, 10 analog inputs, a single analog output, a power/enable pin, four mounting holes and a reset button.
Intrigued? Head over to Adafruit to get your hands on this sweet $45 board!
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