SIM8200EA-M2 5G HAT
SIM8200EA-M2 6x antennas

Mainly applicable for China, Europe, the Middle East, South America...

SIM8202G-M2 5G HAT
SIM8202G-M2 4x antennas

SIM8202G-M2 5G HAT (B)
SIM8202G-M2 4x antennas,Model B

RM50XQ-AE 5G HAT (with case)
RM500Q-GL / RM500Q-AE / RM502Q-AE 4x antennas

SIM8200EA-M2：6x antennas version, size:30×52mm
SIM8202G-M2：4x antennas, size:30×42mm,
compatible hardware interface, identical software function.

Overview

Introduction

SIM8200EA-M2 5G HAT With Antennas, 5G/4G/3G Support, Snapdragon X55 Onboard, Multi Mode Multi Band, Applicable For China, Europe, The Middle East, South America, Etc.

More

Feature

Standard Raspberry Pi 40PIN GPIO extension header, supports Raspberry Pi series boards, Jetson Nano.
Comes with SIM8200EA-M2 core module, based on Qualcomm snapdragon X55 platform, with multi mode multi band support.
5G/4G/3G communication support.
USB3.1 port for testing AT commands, sending messages, cloud communication, making a phone call, getting GNSS positioning data, etc.
SIM card slot, supports 1.8V / 3V SIM card.
2 x LED indicators, easy to monitor the working status.
AT command support, based on 3GPP TS 27.007, 27.005, and V.25TER command set.
Onboard audio jack and audio decoder, allow audio operation like making a phone call.
Multi-constellation dual-band positioning: GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, and QZSS.
Operating system support: Windows/Linux/Android.
Comes with quality acrylic case and cooling fan, nice looking, better heat dissipation.

Parameter

Working frequency
Sub-6G	n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n20, n25, n28, n40, n41, n66, n71, n77, n78, n79
LTE-FDD	B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B12/B13/B14/B17/B18/B19/B20/B25/B26/B28/B29/B30/B66/B71
LTE-TDD	B34/B38/B39/B40/B41/B42/B48
WCDMA	B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B8
GNSS	GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo and QZSS
data transmission
Sub-6G	2.4 Gbps (DL) / 500 Mbps (UL)
LTE	1 Gbps (DL) / 200 Mbps (UL)
HSPA	42 Mbps (DL) / 5.76 Mbps (UL)
Software function
Operating system	Windows/Linux/Android
Letter of agreement	TCP/IP/IPV4/IPV6/Multi-PDP/FTP/FTPS/HTTP/HTTPS/MQTTS/DNS/SSL3.0
Text Message (SMS)	Support MT, MO, CB, Text, PDU
Firmware upgrade	Supports firmware upgrade via USB interface
Hardware Description
SIM card	1.8V/3.0V
Antenna interface	6 × IPEX-4 ports for 3G/4G/5G/GNSS
Supply voltage	5V 3A
Application scenario
Applicable area	Countries or regions that cover the 5G Sub-6G frequency band, such as China, the United States, Japan and South Korea, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas
Typical application	CPE/Intelligent Gateway/UAV/Live Video/Telemedicine/Intelligent Security

Assembly drawing

Working with Windows PC

Install Driver

Downlaod the SIM8200 Driver from Resources part to your PC and unzip it.
Enter the SIM8200_OS_Driver\Windows directory
Enter the 1_install directory and run the setup.exe file to install.

After connecting, a mobile network icon appears, you can disconnect other network and test the mobile network.

Install driver manually

For some of PC, you need to add driver manullay. If your PC doesn't recognized any COM ports in Device Manger, find unkown devices and upate the driver manually:
d Power on the 5G module and set the Switch into ON. four(it may be more than four) unkow devices are recognized by Windows PC.

Right-click the device , update the driver manually, choose SIM8200_OS_Driver\Windows, and then choose thd driver according to the version of your OS. You need to update for all the four/five/six devices.:

Four COM ports: AT is used for AT command controlling, Audio is used for dailing Diagnostics is used for debuggging, and NMEA is used for GPS.；

A mobile network will be setup automatically after updating, you can disconnect other network and test it.

Manual NDIS dial-up Internet

After installing the driver, some computers cannot automatically dial up to access the Internet, so you need to dial manually, the operation is as follows：

AT$QCRMCALL=1,1

After dialing is successful, as shown in the figure below, the computer can go online normally

GPS Positioning

Connect the passive GPS antenna to the ANT5 of the module, and place the antenna outdoors facing the sky.Then send the AT command to turn on the GPS:

AT+CGPS=1

Now open the NEMA port, you can get GPS data:

Finally, turn off the GPS, you can use the AT command:

AT+CGPS=0

Working with Raspberry

The use of Raspberry Pi OS

Please download the newest Raspberry Pi OS2020-08-20-raspios-buster-armhf, All the settings are based on Kernel 5.4, if you use old version, plase udpate first.

Configuration

This configuration is only needed at the first time.
Open a terminal and run the following commands:

sudo apt-get install p7zip-full
wget https://www.waveshare.com/w/upload/f/fb/SIM8200-M2_5G_HAT_code.7z
7z x SIM8200-M2_5G_HAT_code.7z
sudo chmod 777 -R SIM8200-M2_5G_HAT_code
cd SIM8200-M2_5G_HAT_code
sudo ./install.sh

Please do not modify option, qmi_wwan_simcom, default.script,install.sh files or directorys, otherwise the dirver cannot be installed normally.
If you get error information, please check ifyou use the 2020-08-20-raspios-buster-armhf OS and take screenshot of error information and contact our support team for help.

Run ifconfig -a command to check WWAN0 interface.

Testing with AT command

sudo apt-get install minicom
sudo minicom -D /dev/ttyUSB2

5G Networking

cd Goonline
make
sudo ./simcom-cm

After running codes, DNS information are shown as figure below:

After connecting two SIM820X to Raspberry Pi through USB, two network cards—wwan0 and wwan1 can be recognized, and the two network cards can be dialed at the same time through the following commands: (The network speed cannot be superimposed)

sudo ./simcom-cm -i wwan0
sudo ./simcom-cm -i wwan1

Note: If the IP cannot be obtained or the networking is not successful, use the following commands to obtain the IP and set the DNS networking:

sudo dhclient -v wwan0
sudo route add -net 0.0.0.0 wwan0

Auto-run

If you want to set the codes auto-run after booting, you can modify rc.local file:

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

Add the line to file as below:

sudo /home/pi/SIM8200-M2_5G_HAT_code/Goonline/simcom-cm &

Note that you have to add "&" to the end of the command, make sure that the command can be run in the background, or the Pi may not boot normally.。

The use of OpenWrt

Introduction to OpenWrt

Soft routing is using desktops or servers and other equipment with software. It mainly depends on the settings of the software to achieve the functions of the router. The hard routing is a unique hardware device, including a processor, power supply, and embedded software to provide router functionality.
OpenWrt is a very popular soft routing system. It is a highly modular and highly automated embedded Linux system with powerful network components and scalability. It is often used in industrial control equipment, routers, and other equipment.
In addition to the functions of general home routers, OpenWrt soft routing can also achieve port forwarding, intranet penetration, 4G networking, FTP server and more powerful functions.

Burn the image

Download the RPI OpenWrt system, unzip the system in the Imgs directory, and use the burning tool to burn the system to the SD card.

Login and initial settings

After the OpenWrt system is turned on, and the Raspberry Pi is equivalent to a router. Therefore, use a network cable to connect the Raspberry Pi to the computer according to the use of the router (you can also use the mobile phone to search for WIFI, the default name is "OpenWrt").
You can set the language to auto frist.

Enter 192.168.1.1 on the web page, the default user name: root, and the default password: password, enter the OpenWrt web management interface

Set WIFI password: Network —> Wireless —> interface configuration —> Wireless security

Create the new interface: Network -> Interface -> Create interface
Modify the IPv4 address of the lan port to a different IP that is not the same as the lan port IP of other routers in your home. (Many routers default the lan port IP to 192.168.1.1. If you do not modify the IP of the OpenWrt, it will easily lead to conflicts and fail to connect to the Internet)

If necessary, it is also recommended to disable the IPv6 allocation length. After the modification is completed, click "Save & Apply", and re-use 192.168.10.1 to access the OpenWrt console.

In addition, it is recommended to adjust the Firewall setting to connect the OpenWrt terminal and Web management interface through the local area.

Network —>Firewall, change all "reject" to "accept", click "Save & Apply" after modification, as shown in the picture below:

And then select System -> Administration, modify the allowed interface for SSH access to "unspecified" (that is, any interface can be accessed by ssh), check the Gateway port, and click "Save & Apply" after the modification is completed.

At this point, you can connect to the OpenWrt web management interface or terminal through the IP address of the lan port or wan port.

Check the working status of the drive

Connect to the OpenWrt terminal via SSH, and run the following commands to view the qmi driver, USB device, network port registration, and network port status:

dmesg | grep qmi
dmesg | grep ttyUSB 
ls /dev | grep cdc-wdm 
ifconfig wwan0

Configure networking

Select System -> FileTransfer, select and upload simcom-cm in the simcom-cm directory of the folder:

Use the above "File Transfer" to upload, the uploaded program is located in "simcom-cm" under the /tmp/upload/ directory.

Enter the following commands in the terminal:

cp /tmp/upload/simcom-cm /
chmod a+x simcom-cm
./simcom-cm

【Note】: Closing this terminal will cause the networking program to stop, which will cause the network to be disconnected. It is recommended to run in the background.

At this time, open a new terminal of OpenWrt and enter the command: ifconfig wwan0. You can see that the wwan0 network port has successfully obtained the operator IP and can ping the external network.

Enter the Web management interface of OpenWrt, click Network —>Interface —>Create a new interface

Enter the interface as shown in the picture below and confirm that the interface selection in "Physical Settings" is "wwan0".

Confirm that the interface selection in "Firewall Settings" is "wan"

Click "Save & Apply" to complete the network port settings, then return to the interface below, network-interface, you can see that the network port has been correctly identified.

Then the other devices can be connected to the OpenWrt wireless "OpenWrt" or through the network cable to connect to OpenWrt's own network port for networking.

5G network speed test

In the speed measurement part, because the Raspberry Pi comes with a Gigabit Ethernet port, and there are few USB network cards above Gigabit, we use the SpeedTest For Python tool to perform speed measurement by the commands. Connect to the terminal of OpenWrt and enter the commands one by one to measure the speed:

## Raspberry Pi OS
sudo apt install speedtest-cli
speedtest      # or use speedtest_cli

or

## OpenWRT
opkg update   
opkg install python3
opkg install python3-pip
pip install speedtest_cli 
speedtest      # or use speedtest_cli

Use with Jetson Nano

It is recommended that you use the system image jetson-nano-sd-card-image (updated in October 2020). The Linux kernel version of this system is 4.9.140-tegra. The previous system is 4.4. This tutorial is based on the 4.9 kernels. If there is a difference, please update to the same version as this one, which will minimize the chance of your using it incorrectly.
If you are using other linux systems, please download the driver under SIM8200_OS_Driver\linux and port it according to the documentation under it.

Configuration Required for First Use

Please don't type the wrong letter, it's better to copy and paste:

sudo apt-get install p7zip-full
wget https://www.waveshare.net/w/upload/0/07/Sim8200_for_jetsonnano.7z
7z x Sim8200_for_jetsonnano.7z -r -o./Sim8200_for_jetsonnano
sudo chmod 777 -R Sim8200_for_jetsonnano
cd Sim8200_for_jetsonnano
sudo ./install.sh

Please do not delete or modify the option directory, qmi_wwan_simcom directory, default.script, install.sh these four directory files, otherwise it will affect the loading of the driver.
If there is an error, please confirm whether the system kernel is 4.9.140-tegra, and take a screenshot of the error message so that engineers can help you analyze and solve the problem.
Run ifconfig -a to see that WWAN0 has been generated.

AT Test Command

sudo apt-get install minicom
sudo minicom -D /dev/ttyUSB2

5G Network

cd Goonline
make
sudo ./simcom-cm

You can successfully see that DNS has been generated at the bottom.

About the Speed

Due to the differences between actual and laboratory conditions, the 5G speed will not be ideal and stable at 100MBPS. There are the following points:

Base station distance, the closer to the 5G base station, the better the signal and the faster the speed;
Base station load, the fewer people using it, the faster the speed will be, and the rush hour will be slower;
Number of base stations: Due to spectrum relationships, the same amount of 4G coverage requires double the number of 5G base stations.
Operator: You need to confirm whether your 5G card is limited in speed, you can periodically ask the operator to reset your network.
Indoors is worse than outdoor: building penetration loss, and indoor diffraction loss.
PS: The current number of base stations still does not have good coverage, and the speed measurement in different locations is not the same.

Resouces

Schematic

SIM8200 Schematic

Assembly drawing

Assembly drawing

Demo Codes

Software

Document

Related application cases

FAQ

Question:Why is my 5G speed not as fast as the Internet says?

Answer:

First of all, it is necessary to understand the laboratory data and actual data. In practice, due to insufficient base stations, poor signal coverage, and many 5G coverage holes, the network speed may not reach the highest peak. Under normal circumstances, the 4G upload speed is stable at 20-40Mbps, and the 5G upload speed is stable at 100Mbps (less people, the faster the speed is closer to the base station)

Question:Type of SIM card?

Answer:

SIM820X 5G HAT support Standard SIM card; SIM8202G-M2 5G HAT (B) supports Nano SIM card;

Question:SIM820X-M2 5G HAT does not recognize the SIM card, what should I do?

Answer:

The default is to use SIM card 1, it may be switched to SIM card 2, please use the following command to switch to SIM card 1:

  AT+SMSIMCFG=1,1

If it still doesn't work, consider that the airplane mode is turned on, and use the following command to turn off the airplane mode:

  AT+CFUN=1

Question:Why does the NET light not flash after power on for a period of time and cannot access the Internet?

Answer:

In this case, it may be that you have not successfully connected to the network. You can follow the steps below to troubleshoot:
1. First confirm the hardware problem:

Confirm whether the connected SIM card can communicate and surf the Internet normally on mobile phones and other devices:
Confirm whether the antenna is connected properly;

2. After confirming that the hardware is OK, you can use the following command (AT LOG) to further confirm the network situation:

Check the firmware version information: AT+SIMCOMATI
Check if the sim card is in good contact: AT+CPIN?
Check whether the radio frequency is turned on: AT+CFUN?
Check if the network mode setting is correct: AT+CNMP?
Check the signal quality of the current environment: AT+CSQ
Check operator access: AT+COPS?
Check internet connection: AT+CPSI?
Check if the registration to the network is successful: AT+CGREG?

Question:Why return NO CARRIER after NDIS dialing on the computer?

AT$QCRMCALL=1,1

Answer:

Under normal circumstances, SIM820X has been automatically dialed after receiving the Windows system, and there is no need to repeat dialing. Repeated dialing will return NO CARRIER
If you still can't dial-up Internet access, please use the following command to change to Windows default dial-up Internet access mode
```
AT+CUSBCFG=USBID,1E0E,9001
```

The display is turned off, the mobile network is not enabled, you can ignore it and go online directly;

You can also install the driver SIM7600X dial-up Driver to update the network card

The network card display is enabled after installing the driver

Question:SIM820X module NDIS dialing failure, what should I do if the driver cannot be installed?

Answer:

It is recommended to use the more convenient ：

RNDIS dial

You can burn the latest Raspberry Pi Raspbian system, reconfigure NDIS dial-up
Or use the image that has already been configured with the driver (driver installed)

Question:SIM820X has no network after fixed 5G, what should I do if the 5G network speed is very slow?

Answer:

It is necessary to use an operator that covers the following 5G frequency bands. If the following frequency bands are not covered, it is time to replace an operator that supports the following 5G frequency bands:

Confirm that the SIM card connected to the SIM820X can use 5G in mobile phones and other devices through test and other methods：

The fact that the mobile phone can obtain 5G means that there is a 5G signal in the local area, but the mobile phone supports much more 5G frequency bands than the module, and the 5G module may not necessarily be registered to the 5G network; or ask the local operator's 5G frequency, Compare with the 5G module support; or go to the local city center (where there are 5G NR cells) to test. !

After confirming that the SIM card is normal and the local 5G network is covered, follow the steps below to fix 5G (to increase the network speed)

AT+CNBP? //(Can copy the frequency band to Notepad) Backup frequency band
AT+CNBP = 0x100600000FC00000, 0x000000000000000046004600001e2000908dd, 0x00000000000000000000000000000070420081a00808d7, 0x0000000000000000000000 //
AT+CNMP=71 // Fixed 5G

The SIM card frequency band of the 5G operator should cover the frequency band of the SIM820X; sometimes the 4G network is queried, and the speed has reached 5G. You can directly measure the speed to confirm that the 5G network speed is available.
Some cards do not support 5G, such as some IoT cards and some niche operator SIM cards; at this time, you can replace the mainstream operator's SIM card and open a better 5G package to see.
Confirm whether the test environment has 5G network coverage. You can install Cellular-Z on a 5G mobile phone (downloadable from major app stores) to view detailed network information:

Question:Use spi or usb to transfer data?

Answer:

usb, running sudo ./install on the Raspberry Pi will load the USB driver, and we will connect and communicate with the 3B/4B USB connector; Windows also loads the USB driver according to the tutorial. If there is no USB driver, it will be displayed as an unknown device. .

sudo ./simcom-cm -i wwan0
sudo ./simcom-cm -i wwan1