I did write to ST microelectronics support engineers, but for no avail. I did not receive any reply from them. We had ordered the part from Digikey. The datasheet showed that the pin no 1 for the SO-8 package will be identified by half circle notch but, the part i had ordered didn’t have any […]
But for hobbyists and students who want to order parts for their projects in small quantities, this $40 shipping charge is going to be disappointing. If you are thinking of ordering components from Digikey to India in small quantities, and don’t want to incur this heavy shipping charge, Then consider ordering your parts from the […]
Then soon we were in a dilemma whether to go with this 2G only modules like SIM900,SIM800,GL865 or not. If we designed our product using a 2G module then the product would be useless when there are no more 2G networks functioning. So, there was this option, where we could always go with a 3G module like SIM5320 or […]
Requirement: A transport company wanted to track there concrete walls which they transport all over the country and beyond. These concrete walls are loose equipment and are switched form on truck to another on trailers. So, they needed to track the wall itself instead of the truck. They were already using a 3G based GPS tracker […]
NSK-EDK-125-TTL NSK-125 as the name itself suggests is a low cost Low frequency(LF) RFID reader from NSK Electronics, Bangalore. Its the cheapest, as it is engineered and manufactured entirely by NSK electronics itself. Features : LF 125KHz carrier frequency Built-in Antenna with external antenna option Supports UNIQUE and TK5530 read only transponders over the air […]
Like the Yellow card for poor which allots them a certain amount of groceries like Rice, Sugar etc. We can design a system which when entered the card number or swiped (RFID cards) will dispense the quantity of groceries allocated for that card every month. The quantity to be dispensed is maintained by a database or […]
The MMA8652 chip is available in very small DFN 10 pin 2mm * 2mm package and is available at bare minimum price of Rs.60/- (1 USD) even in small numbers, Has two nice interrupt outputs which can be used to trigger the MCU on motion event with adjustable thresholds. The device is extremely low power and […]
Watch this video if you want to see the live demo, To communicate with a web server using a FTP account we need a username and password for logging in. In this example i am using my Linux shared hosting which i had purchased for my old company website. If you are having a cPanel […]
Watch this video if you want to see the live demo, SIM800 GSM module provides a set of AT commands which can be used for Scanning devices, Pairing with them using different authentication methods, Sending and receiving data using Bluetooth SPP profile, Controlling the smartphone by using Bluetooth headset profile etc. Once you have basic […]
In this post I will explain about the new LORA WAN GPS tracking device we designed for a client in Switzerland. This device is based on the same old VALTRACK-V2 GPS tracker design with a few changes. Why we selected the Murata CMWX1ZZABZ LoRaWAN module? This GPS tracker was supposed to use the MURATA CMWX1ZZABZ […]
List of my MQTT tutorials you can go through to understand the below code, Blog posts : MQTT Protocol tutorial using Mosquitto and CloudMQTT MQTT Protocol tutorial using SIM900/SIM800 modules – MQTT over TCP Learn, How to save MQTT messages into a MySQL Database Videos : MQTT Protocol tutorial – LIVE DEMO using Mosquitto and […]
Display showing black boxes: This problem tends to occur if you have chosen a very low value of the display contrast control resistor. The contrast control resistor is connected from pin#3(VEE) to pin#1(VSS/GND). This resistor value should be 4.7K ohms. Also, display may show black boxes even when you are writing the data very fast […]
Since i have tested the below commands in the SIM900 GSM modem, I will only explain the DTMF decoding functionality with regards to SIM900. When i set out to test the inbuilt DTMF decoder in SIM900, the first thing i came to know was that the DTMF commands are not supported in all firmwares, SIM900 […]
Before we begin, It should be noted that both the sleep modes have the same current consumption and the only difference between them is the way the module enters and exits the sleep mode. Prerequisite: To enter the sleep mode the module needs to meet the following conditions, – DTR pin is HIGH – No interrupts […]
The CALL READY message from the SIM900 indicates that the modem is powered up and has acquired a valid network. Next thing is to make sure you have set the SIM900 into TEXT mode by sending the command AT+CMGF=1; followed by a carriage return(rn). If you are facing any problem with respect to modem not […]
Doctors measure our heart rate manually. By holding our hands they feel the pulse in the nerve and look at their watch to count our heart beats per minute. Even we also can feel the pulse on our finger when our heart pumps blood into our blood vessels. This pulse is felt […]
I have listed down all the PCB manufacturers whom i came across and i have not had any real working experience with these manufacturers other than PCB Power. I didn’t need to look anywhere else PCB Power [CSIL]: PCB power is the only PCB manufacturer i have experience working with and i liked the transparency […]
We get modules that can provide RF range from 80m to 1000m and data rates of 100KBps to 1MBps. We need to choose the one best for us depending on our requirements. More the range more the cost. What are Zigbee modules: Zigbee/Xbee modules are advanced RF transceivers operating in the license free 2.4GHz frequency […]
My hosting service expired: Recently my hosting service on Hostgator expired and i was migrating my site to AWS. I migrated everything but AWS doesnt seem to have a simple email hosting platform. Its quite complicated to use their services as everything is distributed. Zoho was the way to go : Zoho was a better alternative […]
What i mean is, given the same circuit which was built for a 16×2 LCD display can be used with a 16×4 LCD display with no hardware changes needed at all. Even the program/code written for the 16×2 display works fine with the 16×4 LCD display except that you will only be able to display […]
Since i had started designing the VALTRACK GPS trackers, I have always had trouble with maintaining the correct time on the tracking device because once i remove the battery, the STM32 RTC lost its synchronization. I didnt have the space or luxury to maintain a separate backup battery for the STM32 RTC. So, i was only […]
The idea was to use SIM908 to send data to server through TCP at set intervals to server. Problem faced: We used long wire active antenna and designed according to the reference circuit but were not able to get the signal even when the device was kept in the open sky. The board image is […]
Wireless charging would be a solution for our travelling-charger-forgot-pin-different problem. Even, Students used to ask me to do a project for wireless charging of a mobile battery. But i had denied them that its not possible as it would be highly energy inefficient and the solution would take huge space and include a lot of power […]
Since i have tested the below commands in the SIM900 GSM modem, I will only explain the DTMF decoding functionality with regards to SIM900. When i set out to test the inbuilt DTMF decoder in SIM900, the first thing i came to know was that the DTMF commands are not supported in all firmwares, SIM900 […]
You can possibly divide the industry options for the E&C engineers into the following domains, Career in Automotive domain : Includes companies which develop electronic control units (ECU’s) for vehicles, If you end up in this domain, you will possibly be designated as a Embedded software engineer and will be developing RTOS applications for microcontrollers […]
, 2 GB memory card. I bought this mobile for developing a application for a project which controlled Electrical appliances using Bluetooth. I used a Linvor bluetooth module which operates at +3.3V & provides a UART interface for communication with microcontroller. Linvor Bluetooth Module The microcontroller i used was PIC16F877A and the android application was […]
BQ24266: The first charger chip which we are talking about is the BQ24266 battery charger made by Texas instruments. I had studied the data sheet and found that, – It can operate from 12V inputs also as well as from USB (5V) input. – It is having Power Path Management feature which means it can take […]
There are navigation satellites launched by different countries and USA was the first one to do so. Here are some major players in the navigation space, Global Positioning System – GPS : The satellite constellation launched by USA covered the whole world and it was called the NAVSTAR and later as Global Positioning System abbreviated […]
Watch this video if you want to see the live demo, Before you begin make sure your SIM900 GSM module has acquired the network and it is ringing when you make a call to it. Then test the basic AT commands and then proceed further. Once you are ready, you can start by first […]
Details of the Requirement : The requirements were very simple, The device should be able to connect to the OBD II port of any car and read data periodically and send to server via MQTT It should have 3G internet connectivity and should be able to connect to OPTUS/VODAFONE network of Australia Device should have a […]
1) Simcom SIM900A : SIMCOM manufactured SIM900A is a very low cost GSM/GPRS module used widely in India for cost sensitive applications. Features : Dual-Band 900/ 1800 MHz GPRS multi-slot class 10/8 GPRS mobile station class B Compliant to GSM phase 2/2+ Class 4 (2 W @900 MHz) Class 1 (1 W @ 1800MHz) Dimensions: […]
This didn’t sound right to me and a lot of questions were arising in my mind, There are so many open source and commercial brokers available, doesn’t any of them allow saving data to a database? So many IOT platforms including AWS, Google & IBM support MQTT, How are they able to store the incoming […]
In this post i am excited to share about the new super tiny form factor GPS tracking device we designed for pet tracking and hidden installation applications. The device is so small that it can easily fit in constrained places like inside laptops or expensive machinery and gadgets. We designed this application based on demands from people […]
How it works : The way the network location feature works is that the GSM device gets the location of the network tower it is connected to. The server in the network towers is programmed to a hard coded location coordinate values which can be retrieved by the GSM module through a GPRS connection. On […]
This post is the first among the series of posts in which I will be sharing my hardware design experience as tips so that new designers can be benefited from it. These tips are related to design and development of a hardware prototype. So lets get started with the first one, Timing is everything during […]
The 3d plot used to show the pressure distribution is a shown using the surf() funtion of MATLAB. The plot will display pressure variations from low pressure ares with a lighter color/higher peaks and higher pressure areas with darker colors/ lower peaks. The design would involve many flat pressure sensors(FSR) distributed to form a sensor bed. The […]
Here is the image and the block diagram of the TCS230 color sensor, The first block that comes into picture is the Photodiode array. The photodiode array consists of three sets of diodes each for sensing Red, Green and Blue color respectively. So, when you are measuring the intensity of Red light you need to […]
Recently, i got a requirement to design a audio announcement system which would play an audio every hour. So i came across a MP3 player chip and this idea crossed me that why shouldn’t i just make one multipurpose control board which would control home appliances and give audio feedback like Amazon Alexa. So i designed this board, which can control the […]
Click here for the SMS/CALL commands for SIM300 and verify what you are sending, SIM300 SMS Not Working: 1) Give a ring to the number/SIM which you have put in the modem and check whether its ringing or not, this way you can confirm that the MODEM is up and its getting proper network. If […]
We were sending and logging device event data to a server along with the vehicle location details. Problem faced: We used long wire active antenna and struggled to get the GPS signal fix for a long time. What we observed was that the device never acquired satellite fix when the antenna was connected to the coaxial connector. […]
This is the image of the first version of the GPS tracker the VALTRACK V1, Testing of VALTRACK V1 : I had manufactured some pieces and had kept one device for testing in my HONDA SHINE motor cycle for around 6 months. During […]
The logic is quite simple, We just look for consecutive occurrence of commads like @C1, @C2 or CMD. Whenever the if condition is satisfied the code can take an action like turning ON or OFF a device which might be useful in building automation application for example. This code is applicable for SIM800,SIM808,SIM908,SIM800C,SIM800H,SIM900A etc all modules […]
There are 4 main stages of electronics product manufacturing, once you have completed the design with PCB gerber files, Bill of materials (BOM), and Firmware (if a processor is present): 1) Component sourcing There are a lot of electronics components distributors in India who stock the parts locally. If you are going to get a bigger order […]
SIM800 vs SIM900 GSM modules There exist multiple versions of these modules, SIM900 comes in the form of full version Quad band SIM900 & dual band version SIM900A, SIM900D SIM800 comes in the form of full version Quad band SIM800 & stripped down compact size versions like, SIM800C, SIM800L, SIM800F etc. Each module caters to a […]
About the modules SIM900 is a Quad band GSM/GPRS module, which you can use for Call, SMS, GPRS functionalities, SIM908 is a Quad band GSM/GPRS/GPS combo module, which you can use for Call, SMS, GPRS, and GPS functionality. SIM908 has an inbuilt GPS which makes it useful for tracking related applications. The image shown is a board […]
This problem we had never observed before in any of the boards we had got assembled earlier. It was a very peculiar problem as if someone has put a time bomb inside the boards. How did we come across this problem ? Initially we got an order for test run of a Passenger bus vehicle tracking […]
What i do? I am a freelance Embedded systems designer, I design electronics products and provide end to end service to my clients, starting from Schematic/PCB design to Firmware development. What led me to register the company? I had always wanted to own a company, it was like my dream since long time. But never […]
SIM800 vs SIM900 GSM modules There exist multiple versions of these modules, SIM900 comes in the form of full version Quad band SIM900 & dual band version SIM900A, SIM900D SIM800 comes in the form of full version Quad band SIM800 & stripped down compact size version SIM800C. There are other SIM800 & SIM900 versions but very […]
Since we are already very familiar with interfacing the SIM900 modem and have played around with the AT commands, the questions that come to our mind are listed below. I have tried to answer them after doing a bit web research. “What extra does SIM900 give me compared to SIM900A?” : SIM900 is a quad […]
The MQTT protocol only defines the format of the data being transmitted and provides a pub-sub kind of communication interface between multiple devices. There are three main entities involved in MQTT, 1) Publisher : The device which publishes messages on a particular topic. 2) Subscriber : The device which receives messages by subscribing to a particular topic. 3) […]
Before you begin make sure your SIM900 GSM module has acquired the network and it is ringing when you make a call to it. Then test the basic AT commands and then proceed further. Once you are ready, you can start by first setting up the GPRS connection as follows, Text in RED is typed […]
Free test servers for demo, Mosquitto, the creator of open source Mosquitto MQTT software also provides a free test server/broker at test.mosquitto.org, The commercial MQTT services provider CloudMQTT.com also provides free and commercial versions for users who want to test their services. Adafruit Industries also provides free and commercial versions of MQTT broker services at io.adafruit.com, They […]
The goal of the project is to design an acquisition system which increases the efficiency by automating certain procedures to measure patients body parameters. The system includes, Blood pressure measurement: A blood pressure measurement unit is provided in a booth which will automatically measure the blood pressure of the patient and log into the patients […]
SIM900 and SIM800 GSM modules provide a set of commands to check the balance of the SIM card. Here they are, Before you dial a USSD code, you need to enable USSD commands and response notification using the command AT+CUSD=1. Once you enter AT+CUSD=1 and receive a OK string as response , your USSD command response notification will […]
your hardware and software development i suggest you guys to go ahead and register in these sites and make use of the vast pool of experience available. And the list is not extensive, readers please suggest any more sites you know so that i can add them here. You can leave suggestions in a comment or […]
Now EasyEDA has launched a new tool that is Online Gerber Viewer. Gerber file is generated by PCB CAD tool and basically used to fabricate the PCBs, it is an open ASCII vector format for 2D binary images, used to describe the PCBs images: copper layers, solder mask, legend, etc. Generally any PCB manufacture would […]
ZXing is a good library having a lot of features but it was not the right fit for my requirement, The initial setup of the library was very time consuming and i realised soon that i have to look for something other than this. Fortunately I came across another open source project ZBar bar code reader at […]
In this post I want to update on the new series of tracking devices we are designing. The highlight of this series is that these will be ready to use consumer grade devices which will be made to fit in readymade IP67 rated water proof enclosures. Waterproof design : The first one among these is the […]
Why do we need auto turn on : Let me explain why this auto turn on feature is important and where to we need this feature, Sometimes in applications where there is no microcontroller present, that time we need the GSM module to boot up by itself and start functioning. One such application is a […]
SIM868 is a more advanced, cheaper and smaller version with improved specs compared to SIM808 and below are the differences i observed between them, SIM868 has DUAL SIM card interfaces : SIM808 and SIM868 are both quad band 2G modules and can work globally in 850/900/1800/1900 MHz frequency bands without any problems. What sets SIM868 apart is […]
Why did i buy the T-960 reflow oven? The reason i send my boards for assembling is, The parts are extremely difficult to hand solder as i use 0402 and QFN package parts in most of my designs. The 0402 parts are terrible for hand soldering as they are almost invisible and cant even be […]
When i heard this news i was not so happy because i am a big fan of SIMCOM and its products, especially the super cheap GSM,GPRS modules they make. I would not trade working with them for anything. I just love them, because they all are basically the same thing over and over in different packages and […]
Baud rate : You need to check at what baud rate your SIM900/SIM800 module is set to, using the command AT+IPR? . And use the same baud rate in your UART configuration. If your SIM900/SIM800 is set into auto baud mode(AT+IPR=0). Then the first AT command you send to the module from your controller should be in capital letters. […]
Before you start accessing internet on SIM300 you need to make sure that, Internet service is active on your SIM card. The APN, username, password for accessing internet, It depends on your network operator, for vodafone and airtel the APN is “www” and username and password are blank. ( not sure about other networks) You […]
Australia has completely shutdown 2G networks: Since the advent of the shutdown of 2G networks, All the Australian network providers have completely migrated to 4G networks, with 3G fallback wherever 4G is not available. USA was the first to announce the shutdown of 2G networks but they are still using 2G networks and even Europe […]
When i entered the credit card number 52 Rs was charged automatically. I don’t know the reason. The card which worked was HDFC bank Credit card (Master card enabled). I wanted to register as an android developer and create an Android developer account on Google play to sell Android applications. So it required to pay […]
SIM908 vs SIM808 GSM,GPS,GNSS modules SIM908 is a quad band module and comes in a 30mm x 30mm LCC package with simple GSM and GPS functionality SIM808 is a quad band module and comes in a smaller 24mm x 24mm LCC package with GSM, More sensitive GNSS, Bluetooth, F.M, Audio recording functionality. The common questions that come to […]
The only way to trigger the scanner is to Create a file with name “HTA02100.000″ in the mass storage device. Since the USB scanner detected as a mass storage device is a external memory there is no straight forward way to access it in Android Lollipop OS. Because, starting from Android Kit Kat release, Google […]
In this post i want to share about the new LTE-CAT-M1 and NBIOT enabled GPS tracker we designed for the UK market. This device is based on the VALTRACK-V2B device and has everything similar except few changes. This device was designed based on a clients requirement who needed the GPS tracker to connect to Google Cloud IOT Platform by […]
Pre-requisites : First download the tools, files and documents used for the firmware update from the below links, SIM800 series firmware update tool SIM800 Firmware upgrade Application note Bluetooth enabled firmware for SIM800C Firmware update methods: We can program a new firmware image to our SIM800 module using either UART interface or USB interface. USB […]
SIM900 supports TCP communication in both client mode and server mode. Client mode is straight forward and you can see the tutorial at this link, https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6peP1Mv7tr9SwnGYfLsweYuuE9COKG9H How to get SIM900 running as a TCP server? Now if you want to use SIM900 as TCP server you need to get its Public IP address and […]
Convert to Audio Formats accepted by Google : For the demonstration, I had recorded some audio on my phone and converted them to FLAC format and LINEAR PCM 16bit format for sending to the API. For converting the audio to FLAC format i used this online tool – CONVERT TO FLAC For converting the audio to LINEAR16 format i […]
SIM5360 is a more advanced version of SIM5320 and below are the differences i observed between them, Network connectivity : SIM5320 is a Dual band HSDPA module and can provide data download speeds upto 3.6Mbps. SIM5360 is a Dual band UMTS/HSPA+ module and can provide data download speeds upto a whopping 14.4Mbps. Both modules support […]
Right click on Mycomputer->Properties->Advanced System Settings Environment variables User variables for Windows 7 Variable Value CDS_LIC_FILE C:CadenceLicenseManagerlicense.dat LM_LICENSE_FILE 5280@sony-VAIO;C:CadenceLicenseManagerlicense.dat System variables CDS_LIC_FILE 5280@sony-VAIO;C:CadenceLicenseManagerlicense.dat CDS_LIC_ONLY 1 LM_LICENSE_FILE 5280@sony-VAIO;C:CadenceLicenseManagerlicense.dat
This is an update post on the miniature GPS tracking device VALTRACK-NBIOT designed for NBIOT network operation. This device is based on VALTRACK-V2 GPS Tracker and very closely resembles it. The functionalities also remain same except that it operates on the LTE NBIOT network compared to the 2G based VALTRACK-V2. Size : The form factor remains […]
Uploading a file to the server using HTTP POST We will upload a file to the server using HTTP POST multipart/form-data method. You can search in google for more information on multipart/form-data method of sending data in HTTP POST. In this method the POST variables are sent between demarcation strings called boundary. The server will be […]
SIM300 GSM module had the default baud rate set to 9600 bps, and as soon as you power on the modem you will be able to communicate with the module only at a fixed baud rate of 9600 bps (Ofcourse baud rate could be changed later). SIM900/SIM908 GSM modules on the other hand have autobaud mode enabled, […]
The module is available for purchase in India at a price as low as Rs.900 /-. I am talking about the MRF24J40 zigbee transceiver based MRF24J40MB 2.4GHz long range RF module with onboard antenna, power amplifier and a SPI interface for communication with the microcontroller. The details of the module are given below, Microchips MRF24J40MB: The […]
Before we begin, It should be noted that both the sleep modes have the same current consumption and the only difference between them is the way the module enters and exits the sleep mode. Prerequisite: To enter the sleep mode the module needs to meet the following conditions, – DTR pin is HIGH – No interrupts […]
VALTRACK V2B will support all the features that are present in the VALTRACK-V2 except the battery charging feature and it will have the same 2G GSM module and the GPS module. Here are the major changes done in the design for V2B, Increased voltage input range : We have added a MP1584 switching regulator. It can take […]
In addition to the latitude and longitude values of the location, altitude and the direction in which the photo or video was shot can also be added. The concept can be implemented as follows, Capture device or Camera: First of all we will need a camera which will capture a picture or video. The camera […]
SIM900 and SIM800 family GSM/GPRS modules from SIMCOM are the low cost,well documented and most widely used modules across the world including USA. These devices have gained popularity among the student, hobbyist community over time after taking over from their predecessor SIM300 which made the GSM M2M market access easier to beginners in Embedded systems […]
Let us talk about DTMF first. DTMF : Which is dual tone multi-frequency is method of transmitting button press information during an ongoing call. Each button we press on the dial pad during a call generates a combination of frequencies in the audio spectrum, these are the sounds or tones that we hear when we […]
The design requirements : Originally this device was intended to be a foaling alarm prototype with a GPS tracking option to be used in Australia. Foaling alarm is a device used to detect and alert the horse owner when the horse is about to give birth to a baby so that the owner can take […]
The logic is quite simple, We just look for consecutive occurrence of commads like @C1, @C2 or CMD. Whenever the if condition is satisfied the code can take an action like turning ON or OFF a device which might be useful in building automation application for example. This code is applicable for SIM800,SIM808,SIM908,SIM800C,SIM800H,SIM900A etc all modules […]
The motor controlling the belt movement will be controlled by a microcontroller. The micro-controller reads the color information or the card number incase a RFID is used and controls a bifurcation mechanics which will be either a moving robot arm for pushing the object to a tray or doing a pick and place operation. The color can […]
This post is regarding the 3D printer i purchased recently from Prusa Printers from Czech Republic. I imported their latest version Original Prusa i3 MK3 to India. Since the printer is a little expensive, i had to pay a large amount as customs duty for the import. Now lets get into the details. Why i bought […]
