ST87M01 user application program

[roland van straten]

Dear,

I have an application that is very simple and instead of hooking up a STM32C01x to the ST87M01 I would like to know if I can program my own application inside of it?

Regards,

Roland

[Tesla DeLorean]

My initial hot-take is no, and it would likely complicate certification and power management. 

[Andrew Neil]

Wavecom (which became Sierra Wireless; now Semtech) did it with their "Open-AT"

I think Quectel has (had?) a similar arrangement.

And the likes of Nordic do it by having an "Application" core separate from the "Comms/Network" core.

But I see no sign of any of that on this part.

[roland van straten · Accepted solution]

Dear Andrew,

That is just to bad.

The ST87M01 is not the cheapest around, but real volume could be interesting.

Now, it seems it is at least twice the price of a Quectel NB-IoT only.

The one thing that is interesting is the longevity program and its size.

Thanks,

R.

[Didier HERROUIN]

Dear Roland,

This is correct, actually the ST87M01 core is not opened to customer application hosting.
ST87M01 is probably not the cheapest, but as you mentioned, this is the smallest and it embeds a GNSS positioning with a Wifi scanning back-up in the same 12.8*10.5 mm package. Moreover, it proposes a unique embedded Energy estimator, at no cost, which accurately measure the modem consumption for battery lifetime monitoring.

Finally, the 15 years longevity program, the lowest CO2 eq and a product 100% made in Europe should be also considered in the global picture.

Thank you for your inquiry,

[roland van straten]

Dear Didier,

The reason I ask was that I triggered on some blog/news about the module stated: ""The module is capable, the company claims, of running "simple applications" directly"". I have a simple application :-).

It would be interesting to know if and when NTN will be supported? IMHO that would really make a difference.

It may hit a sweet spot in logistics, not necessarily in need of seamless hand-over as with LTE, but Western GNSS (GPS/Galileo), indeed European, and suitable for in- and out-door navigation/localisation

I'll put it on my Christmas wish list together with the STM32WL3 or maybe I wait for the next time eStore offers free shipping :)

Happy holidays,

Roland

[Andrew Neil]

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@roland van straten wrote:

I triggered on some blog/news about the module

---

Have you got a link for that?

[Didier HERROUIN]

Dear Roland,

If you can provide the blog/news link where you found this assessment, it would be helpful, thank you ! I do not say that hosting a customer application is not feasible, but it requires huge support from our SW team to integrated your application in our stack, so it is not proposed to "mass market" customers.

Concerning NTN, it requires a much more powerful radio, it will not be proposed in ST87M01.
The embedded GNSS and WiFi scanning features are suitable for outdoor/indoor positioning. For navigation, ST proposes dedicated GNSS chipsets.

Regards.

[roland van straten]

The mention was in this post (mhh. bit outdated)

https://www.hackster.io/news/stmicro-unveils-the-st87m01-a-wholly-in-house-nb-iot-module-with-gnss-location-capabilities-a2d57fb46a59

Fine: thanks for pointing out what is possible and not. Still a neat solution (kudos).

[Andrew Neil]

The specific quote "The module is capable, the company claims, of running 'simple applications' directly":

https://www.hackster.io/news/stmicro-unveils-the-st87m01-a-wholly-in-house-nb-iot-module-with-gnss-location-capabilities-a2d57fb46a59#:~:text=The%20module%20is%20capable%2C%20the%20company%20claims%2C%20of%20running%20%22simple%20applications%22%20directly

He doesn't say where he got that from.