Ring, Ring! Who's that callin'? It's your Arduino! Introducing Adafruit FONA 800 Shield, an adorable all-in-one cellular phone shield that lets you add voice, text, SMS and data to your project in an easy to use pluggable shield.

This shield fits on top of any classic Arduino or compatible, and packs a surprising amount of technology into it's little frame. At the heart is a GSM cellular module (we use the latest SIM800) the size of a postage stamp. This module can do just about everything

  • Quad-band 850/900/1800/1900MHz - connect onto any global GSM network with any 2G SIM (in the USA, T-Mobile is suggested)
  • Make and receive voice calls using a headset OR an external 8Ω speaker + electret microphone
  • Send and receive SMS messages
  • Send and receive GPRS data (TCP/IP, HTTP, etc.)
  • Scan and receive FM radio broadcasts (yeah, we don't exactly know why this was included but it works really well)
  • PWM/Buzzer vibrational motor control
  • AT command interface with "auto baud" detection

Sounds delicious, right? So we plated this fine module onto a shield with all the extras you need to make your next project shine

On its own, this shield can't do anything. It requires a microcontroller like an Arduino to drive it!  You will also need some required accessories to make FONA work. These are not included!

Each order comes with one tested and assembled FONA shield and a stick of 0.1" male header. Required Arduino, SIM card, battery, antenna and other accessories are not included! Some light soldering is required to put the headers onto the shield. You can also grab some stacking headers if you would like to stack a shield on top

There's also some recommended accessories. They are not required but chances are you'll want them!

This guide was first published on May 15, 2015. It was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

This page (Overview) was last updated on May 14, 2015.

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