Sparkfun Cellular Shield

Wed Dec 28 2011

Sparkfun Cellular Shield 1 Sparkfun Cellular Shield 2 Sparkfun Cellular Shield 3

I bought the Sparkfun Cellular Shield SM5100B with an Arduino UNO, and Quad-band Wired Cellular Antenna SMA antenna. Hope to use it for an upcoming project. Here’s how I set it up. I followed the instructions at tronixstuff.wordpress.com to get the cell module working. Everything went well till I got to the part for setting up the band for the US. I was using a T-mobile post paid SIM card. T-mobile is on the GSM850&PCS1900 i.e AT+SBAND=7. This was the message on startup:

+SIND: 1
+SIND: 10,'SM',1,'FD',1,'LD',1,'MC',1,'RC',1,'ME',1
+SIND: 3
+SIND: 4
+SIND: 8 (loss of signal)

I eventually figured out that the band setting for the US was not set correctly on the module. I did that by using ZedLeps code modification at sparkfun.com/products/9607, uploading the sketch to the board, and then entering AT+SBAND=7 in the arduino serial monitor. This did the trick. I also had to hit the reset button on the UNO using a piece of plastic to reach under the shield once I made the change. This time around, success! Got +SIND: 11. Eventually managed to send text messages and receive a call.