The Milli 5 Development Environment provides all of the tools necessary to enable Itron partners to quickly develop IoT application prototypes with the Milli 5 battery-powered mesh module. For example, with the Milli 5 providing communications for transmission of data over an Itron RF network, a third-party could develop a prototype sensor network to collect data such as:

• temperature
• humidity
• barometric pressure
• and many more​

The Milli 5 Developer Kit is comprised of Milli 5 battery-powered mesh module (NIC) on a Milli 5 Arduino form factor shield board. Together, these components make up the Milli Shield, which comes in multiple country-specific variants. These variants are compliant for the following:

• USA
• Australia
• Canada
• Other regions requiring +22dBm power output, operating in 902-928 MHz ISM Bands

Itron also offers a +14dBm European Union RED-compliant variant operating in 865-870 MHz, 870-875.6 MhZ with power restricted to 25 mW ERP.

Dev Kit Components

The Milli Dev Kit v1.0  and Milli Dev Kit v1.0 – Singapore (pictured at the right of this page) include the following components:

• Milli5 NIC Arduino shield board
• Antenna
• 3-pin USB/TTL smart console cable
• Micro USB Cable
• Quick Start Guide

The Milli Dev Kit v1.0 with Arduino and Milli Dev Kit v1.0 - EU contain the same components listed above with the addition of an Adafruit Metro M0 Express board.

The Milli shield included in the Milli Dev Kit is a communications processor and can be attached on top of any standard Arduino form factor boards, such as the Adafruit Metro M0 Express, which serves as an application processor. The Milli Dev Kit v1.0 has been tested for back-to-back CoAP-based communication to the Itron Active Edge Data Platform with one-minute read frequency.

You can purchase a Milli Dev Kit that comes with or without (Singapore only) an Arduino processor board using the following links: 

• Milli Developer Kit v1.0 with Arduino (USA & Australia)
• Milli Developer Kit v1.0 - Singapore 
• Milli Developer Kit v1.0 - EU

or with the starter kits found in our Dev Kit Catalog.

Additional Required Hardware

The following additional items are required to build out a Milli 5 Development Environment:

• WAN mode capable Iot Edge Router for your specific geographic area.
  
  • IoT Edge Router HW1 - USA, Canada & Jamaica
  • IoT Edge Router HW2 - Australia & Singapore
  • IoT Edge Router HW3 - Europe & Middle East
• An Arduino form factor processor board (if not already included in your Milli Dev Kit). Note that the reference application assumes use of the Adafruit Metro M0 Express board.
• Sensors, LEDs, and other devices to which you would like to connect. For example, a temperature sensor such as the Adafruit DHT11.
• A breadboard, wires, etc., to connect your sensor with the Arduino stack.​

Next Steps

For the kit to function on the Itron Starfish network, you will need to correctly set up the hardware (including the IoT Edge Router) and complete the provisioning process to allow the Milli to communicate on the network. Once powered up and provisioned, a reference application is available for installation to get you started with programing on the Starfish platform. Use the following links (in chronlogical order) to set up your Milli device:

• Setup your IoT Edge Router

• Setup and Provision your Milli Hardware

• Setup your Milli Developer Kit Reference Solution

​

A Note About FCC Compliance Information

This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions:

1. This device may not cause harmful interference, and
2. This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.​

The antenna of this transmitter must not be co-located or operating in conjunction with any other antenna or transmitter.

The device should be installed so that people will not come within 20cm of the antenna.

Changes or modifications not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the user’s authority to operate the equipment. This equipment has been tested and found to comply with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy, and if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception (which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on), the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
• Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.
• Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.
• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.