B504e from B404X/B404/B402 migration guide

This guide discusses the minor changes required when moving from the B404X/B404/B402 (LTE Cat M1) to B504e (LTE Cat 1) in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

The B504e is a LTE Cat 1 cellular device for use in the Americas region, in particular the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

LTE Cat 1 offers better cellular coverage than LTE Cat M1 in some areas, and is also faster.

Migration

• Recompile source for b5som platform.
• Upgrade Device OS to 5.x or later if necessary.
• Verify that power requirements for VCC are met, as the B504e requires more power than the B404X/B404/B402.
• Use the antenna the B504e was certified with, not previous antennas.

These steps are explained in more detail, below.

Certification

Changing the Particle module will require unintentional radiator testing of your completed assembly. This is the least expensive and least complicated of the certification tests.

You generally do not need to perform intentional radiator testing if using the antennas used for the Particle certification.

Power

The B504e requires more power than the B404X/B404/B402 for the cellular modem (VCC/3V7 rail).

The Nordic nRF52840 MCU consumption (3V3 rail) is the same across all B-SoM modules.

If you have designed your B404X/B404/B402 power supply with sufficient spare capacity the B504e can be a drop-in replacement.

If you have designed your power supply for the B524/B523 or M-SoM, it will have sufficient power for the B504e.

B504e/B524/B523 power consumption

B404X power consumption

Platform

The B504e is the b5som platform (25), not the bsom platform (23). You must compile for the correct platform.

Products can only contain a single platform, so you will need separate products for B504e and B404X/B404/B402 devices.

You can share the same product for B524, B523, and B504e devices.

Antennas

The B504e uses a different cellular antenna than the B404X/B404/B402, and also the B524/B523.

The B504e uses the same antenna as the M-SoM.

The B504e is certified with the following cellular antenna:

Single quantity units and developer kits include a PARANTCW1EA antenna. Tray quantities of the do not include antennas.

The BLE and NFC antennas are the same. If you are not using these features, you can omit the antennas.

GNSS

The B504 (and B524) include optional GNSS (GPS) functionality. This requires an additional antenna.

Single quantity B-SoM units and developer kits include a PARANTGN1EA antenna. Tray quantities of the B-SoM do not include antennas. If not using the GNSS feature, the antenna can be omitted from your design.

• GNSS support requires a firmware library.
• Feature such of high-precision, dead-reckoning, and high updates rates will require an external GNSS chip.
• You can omit the antenna if you do not wish to use GNSS.

Size

The outline of the SoM module is unchanged between all B-Series SoM modules.

The top shield on the B504e is larger than the B404X/B404/B402 but this generally will not affect your design as the thickness of the SoM is unchanged.

The top shield on the B504e is the same size as the B524/B523.

GPIO and ports

There are no changes the pins on the M.2 for ports and GPIO.

Cellular providers

The B504e (B504MEA and B504MTY) is the same as the B504 (B504MEA and B504MTY), except it has a programmable e-sim in place of the MFF2 SMD Particle EtherSIM. The e-sim is not user-programmable.

The carriers programmed into the e-sim on the B504e are identical to the B404X and B404.

Ordering information