Last week the assembled boards have finally arrived and in no time I was able to get the VALTRACK-V2 up and running as the software was already written and tested for VALTRACK-V1 GPS tracker. Now i am able to test and run the SMS and GPRS version of VALTRACK-V2 without any problems. Even though everything went well with the design there were some issues which i will explain below.

This is a update post in the design of VALTRACK-V2 GPS tracker. The PCB i had sent for fabrication have arrived from PCB power and they are beautiful. I had ordered the boards in panel form, because PCB power doesn't support boards of size lesser than 20mm. Since VALTRACK-V2 design came to be around 52mm x 18mm, I had to accept their offer of making the PCB in the form of a panel instead of separate boards.

This is a introduction post regarding my new GPS tracker design VALTRACK V2. This is a second version of the GPS tracker i had designed and tested earlier. I made a few sales on the first version named VALTRACK V1 on my website www.valetron.com . 

In this article i am explaining the differences between different Ceramic capactior dielectric materials like X7R, X5R, X8R, Z5U,Y5V, X7S, C0G. I used to encounter these names X7R and X5R capacitors regularly but never bothered to look at what they are. Recently i took some time to study them realised how important they are and here are the details of what i learnt.

In this article i am explaining the 4 points to keep in mind when you are replacing batteries. When we are trying to replace a non functioning or damaged battery, we need to consider the following points mentioned below so that we select the right battery. 

This article gives a brief description of the difference between SIM908 and SIM808 GSM/GPS modules. SIM808 modules are upgraded version of its previously successful GSM/GPS/GPRS combo module SIM908. SIM908 is based on older SIM900 series where as SIM808 is based on the new SIM800 series. The main differences between SIM908 and SIM808 are that the SIM808 has additional features like Bluetooth, FM, SSL, Audio recording and support for GNSS in a smaller size of 24mm x 24mm whereas SIM908 is GPS only device in a bigger package of 30mm x 30mm. 

This article is about showing you how to use the bluetooth peripheral of SIM800 series GSM/GPRS modules. This video is applicable to all SIM800 series modules which have bluetooth peripheral on it including the SIM800, SIM800C, SIM800H, SIM808. SIM800 module has Bluetooth 3.0 on it and supports SPP,OPP,HSP/HFP, A2DP,AVRCP, PBAP profiles except SIM800C which only supports SPP,OPP,HSP/HFP profiles.  

In this article i am explaining how to upload a new firmware to your SIM800 family module. There are multiple modules in the SIM800 series like SIM800, SIM800C, SIM800L, SIM800H, SIM808, SIM800A etc. All these modules share the same firmware update procedure and the same tool described below can be used to update the firmware. 

Recently i had got this requirement to design a GSM/GPRS/GPS tracker product. The initial requirement was about having the product built to work with 2G networks. And we had chosen a 2G Quad band GSM module Telit GL865 for this purpose. But soon this news came, that the 2G networks were being shutdown in USA and Australia. 

Recently in a shocking(for me ) turn of events i heard form my client that SIMCOM (My bread and butter) got acquired by UBLOX (The expensive modules manufacturer). It got me concerned immediately, I don't know why, May be i am just over reacting. :-P