Overview

The Nano Series devices are engineered to be a portable and durable solution for outdoor adventures such as hiking, piloting, skiing and more. They are designed to strike a balance between RF performance, size, ruggedness, and power efficiency, providing users with a reliable solution in various outdoor environments.
For the firmware, all Nano Series devices come with pre-installed Meshtastic. More detials could be found in the The Latest Firmware section.

The primary design goal of the Meshtastic[2] Mesh Device Nano G2 Ultra is to reduce power consumption and improve battery life by using the low power MCU NRF52840 and optimizing the power relatived designs. The typical battery life is optimized to be about 3.5 days. Nano G2 Ultra and Nano G1 Explorer have exactly the same Lora front-end circuit design and internal wideband Lora antenna, which supports frequencies from 815 Mhz to 940 Mhz. The wideband antenna, combined with an optimized wideband Lora RF frontend circuit, enables the Nano G2 Ultra to work with the majority of regions' LoRa frequency bands around the world without the need for antenna changes. The design of the Nano G2 Ultra also takes into account the potential effect of the human body on its antenna performance, ensuring optimal RF performance even when carried in a pocket.

Power Consumption and Features Comparison of Nano G2 Ultra and Nano G1 Explorer

In general, Nano G2 Ultra is not designed to replace Nano G1 Explorer, Nano G2 Ultra focuses on low power, and Nano G1 Explorer supports WIFI.

Typical RF Performance:

Electrical Characteristics:

Dimension:

Hardware

Switch/Button Definition

PCB

  1. Power ON/OFF Switch
  2. LED or Buzzer Switch for Enhanced Message Notification Circuit
  3. GPS ON/OFF Switch
  4. Message Read Button - Clear New Message LED
  5. User Button
  6. Internal Bluetooth Antenna
  7. Real-Time Clock (RTC), Part No. NXP PCF8563
  8. 10 Pin FPC Connector (0.5mm Pitch, 1x I2C, 6x GPIO, VCC3V3 and GND)
  9. Enhanced Message Notification Circuit and New Message LED Indicator (Green)
  10. Buck-boost converter, > 95% efficiency, Texas Instruments(TI) TPS63051
  11. Quad SPI 16Mbit Flash
  12. nRF52840 - Multiprotocol Bluetooth 5.4 SoC
  13. 32MHz TCXO (+-1.5 ppm), Part No. 1XXD32000MBA from DAISHINKU CORP. (KDS)
  14. RF Switch
  15. USB Type C Socket
  16. Battery Charging LED Indicator (Red)
  17. Battery Standby LED Indicator (Green)
  18. Reset Button for nRF52840
  19. Semtech SX1262 Lora Transceiver
  20. FPC Connector for OLED Screen
  21. Serial Wire Debug (SWD) Port for nRF52840
  22. JST 1.25mm Connector for optional 3.7V 603450 Rechargeable Li-Polymer Battery
  23. Active Buzzer
  24. ATGM336H-5N Whole Constellation Positioning and Navigation Module
  25. Internal Wideband Lora Antenna
  26. GPS Pulse Per Second (PPS) LED Indicator, the PPS LED is functional if and only if the board is powered by the external power. (Improving the battery life)
  27. GPS Omni-directional Antenna
  28. 1.3 Inch OLED Screen

Mechanical Design

Similar as Nano G1 Explorer, the Nano G2 Ultra is also constructed by stacking up PCB boards.This method offers a good balance of cost and mechanical strength. An optional 3.7V 603450 JST 1.25mm Rechargeable Li-Polymer Battery could be installed.

Note: Blue Rectangle - Nylon Machine Screws and Nuts

Power Consumption Measurement

Instrument Setup

To test the power consumption when powered by battery, connect the Micro Power Analyzer to the Nano G2 Ultra's JST 1.25mm Connector for optional 3.7V 603450 Rechargeable Li-Polymer Battery. The power supply voltage is set to 4.3V.

The following items will be measured:

  1. Average Power Consumption
  2. Power Consumption when GPS OFF a. Lora TX mode, GPS OFF, Screen OFF b. Lora RX mode, GPS OFF, Screen OFF c. Lora RX mode, GPS OFF, Screen ON
  3. Power Consumption when GPS ON e. Lora TX mode, GPS ON, Screen OFF f. Lora RX mode, GPS ON, Screen OFF

Measurements

  1. Average Power Consumption nano_g2_ultra_average_power_consumption.png Average Power Consumption = 14.24 mA @ 4.3V, Measurement Duration: 13 minutes and 32 seconds, Lora TX Power = 22 dBm, GPS OFF, Screen OFF, Two Nodes in Network According to the figure above, Meshtastic Firmware sometimes enters...
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