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The Nordic nRF9151 Development Kit (DK) is an excellent launchpad for evaluating Myriota’s 5G NB-IoT Non-Terrestrial Network (a.k.a HyperPulse™). It facilitates 5G NTN connectivity, utilising Myriota's HyperPulse™ Library for enhanced RF performance and extended battery life. The nRF9151 SMA DK from Nordic serves as a good starting point, enabling rapid prototyping and accelerating product development for Myriota's HyperPulse™ network. This guide provides all the information required to evaluate the HyperPulse™ network using nRF9151 SMA DK

Pre-requisites

Firstly, check if HyperPulse™ service is active in your region.

To begin development with Myriota’s HyperPulse™ 5G NB-IoT NTN service using Nordic’s nRF9151 platform, ensure you have the following components:

Nordic nRF9151 SMA DK

Purchase an nRF9151 SMA DK from an authorised Nordic Semiconductor distributor or directly via Nordic’s official channels. This kit provides the essential hardware foundation for HyperPulse™ integration.

If you're using the SMA DK, access to Nordic's NTN modem firmware (MFW) is provided via their private JFrog Artifactory. To obtain the latest version, please contact Nordic directly.

Myriota HyperPulse SIM (NTN only, No TN)

Purchase a HyperPulse SIM with a suitable data plan from Myriota to enable satellite NTN connectivity. Contact here to purchase a HyperPulse SIM card for evaluation.

After purchasing the HyperPulse SIM, you’ll receive access to the Myriota Device Manager portal. Log in and ensure your device’s IMSI is correctly registered to your account. Please contact  Myriota Support if you are having trouble accessing Myriota Device Manager or if you are not seeing the IMSI listed in your account.

NTN and GNSS Antenna

In order to communicate with the HyperPulse network you need a  NTN antenna with a SMA connector that matches your device’s form factor and performance requirements. Refer to the HyperPulse Antenna Selection Guide (requires Myriota Device Manager account for access) for validated models and specifications tailored for satellite NB-IoT connectivity. Alternatively, the antenna supplied by Nordic with the SMA DK is also suitable for the initial evaluation.

If you would like to use nRF9151's onboard GNSS you need a GNSS antenna with a SMA connector.  GNSS antenna provided with your SMA DK is suitable for this purpose. 

Programming

Once you’ve acquired the necessary hardware and SIM, follow these steps to program your Nordic nRF9151 SMA DK with the HyperPulse Demo application.

Access Pre-Compiled Binaries

Upon purchasing a HyperPulse SIM from Myriota, you’ll receive access to pre-compiled binaries of the HyperPulse Demo application tailored for the nRF9151 SMA DK.

HyperPulse Demo Application is a great starting point to gain practical experience of the HyperPulse network. The Demo application reads battery voltage and internal temperature once every hour and schedules a telemetry message for transmission through the HyperPulse network. Once you deploy the SMA DK you should expect to see a message every hour. Refer to Message format section for details on the content of the message

To program the nRF9151 for NTN operation, start the nRF connect for desktop SW framework
(download latest version here: nRF connect for desktop. ) and install/open the Programmer app.
 

Programming the Modem Firmware (MFW)

To program the LTE modem with the new MFW, download the latest version of the MFW_nRF9151-
NTN_v1.x.x zip
Follow the steps below to program/flash MFW_nRF9151-NTN zip on nRF9151 :

• Install and open the nRF Connect for Desktop. In the main APPS page open the Programmer App (or
  install it if not installed yet). 
• Next another window for the Programmer appears.

• Program the modem firmware:
  1. Click SELECT DEVICE and a pull-down menu list of nRF kits connected to the PC will show up.
  For simplicity, you should only have a single Devkit attached to your PC.
  2. Select the kit to be programmed: nRF9151 SMA DK
  3. Click Add file and use Browse.. to locate your downloaded modem firmware zip file, unless it is
  already listed in the pull-down menu list you will be presented.
  4. Select the firmware package zip file provided by Nordic.
  5. Click Write Note: you will get a pop-up window with a warning.
  • Since the MFW_nRF9151-NTN is still an alpha release, it is not yet a commercial modem
  firmware from Nordic, you will get the warning about this from the Programmer APP
  when you click Write. Ignore this warning and proceed to the next step.
  6. Click Write in the pop-up window. Programming the modem will take about ~30 seconds.

Programming the Application

• Download the Demo Application binary from Myriota Device Manager

• To program the application firmware:

1) Click Add file and a file selector window will show up.
2)  Locate the downloaded HEX file you want to program.
3) Click Erase & write. The programming should take less than 10 seconds.

Programming the HyperPulse Network Information

The Network Information file contains satellite connectivity parameters. 

• Download the Network Information binary from Myriota Device Manager

• To program the Network Information:

1) Click Add file and a file selector window will show up.
2) Locate the downloaded HEX file you want to program.
3) Click Erase & write. The programming should take less than 10 seconds.

Deployment

Insert SIM

Insert the HyperPulse SIM card into the SIM slot on the nRF9151 DK.

Connect Antenna

Connect the NTN and GNSS antennas securely to the DK’s SMA connectors.

In the example below we have used a Quectel YETN001L1A NTN antenna and a Kyocera X1005247 GNSS antenna 

Enclosure (optional)

The following third party supplier provides enclosure for the nRF9151 SMA DK.  An enclosure is highly recommended for outdoor testing.

https://www.printables.com/model/1317110-nrf9151-sma-dk-box

Locating the Satellite

To ensure optimal RF performance of your Hyperpulse DK, it is essential to follow the steps below using Myriota’s HyperPulse DeployAssist Mobile App to locate the HyperPulse satellites at the point of install and ensure there is clear line of sight to the satellite. A suboptimal deployment may significantly impact message delivery. Links to download the Android / iOS app and the user guide are available here.

Retrieving Messages

Within 60 to 90 minutes, your first message from the device should appear in the Device Manager dashboard, confirming successful deployment and satellite connectivity.

Viewing Your Messages in Device Manager

To view messages from Myriota Device Manager, ensure your device includes the Message Store destination. The latest 10 messages will be displayed under User Messages History.

Re-directing messages to your own destination

You can configure custom AWS and HTTP Destinations for your devices in Device Manager.

The following Destination types are currently supported:

• AWS Lambda (Not sure what this is? Read more at AWS)
• HTTP 

To create a new Destination via the Device Manager, do the following:

1. Log into Device Manager
2. Select Destinations in the left bar, then click the Create button
3. Select your preferred type from the drop down, and populate the URL
   • Lambda - enter the ARN for the Lambda Function and Role into the respective fields
   • HTTP - enter your URL
4. Click Create to complete the creation process

Assign your new Destination to one of your devices to begin receiving message data.

Message Format of the HyperPulse Demo App

The message format of the default firmware is as follows. All the data is in little-endian format.

Message Decoding Example

Assume the raw message payload is 04000000 20158768 88712FEB 6B099E52 3200 18 3610 (spaces added for clarity). The decoded message content is as follows: