Regional Vic ioT solution

Support Finding Parts
1

I am looking to work with an ioT board with the following properties:

  • <$200 (negotiable)
  • SMS capabilities in remote location
  • Receives SMS in <10 seconds
  • Has >= 5 GPIO pins
  • Can be charged by GPIO pin (the module has a solar panel on it)
  • Low power consumption
  • Reliable

The device is meant to send sms to up to 4 recipients upon GPIO input. It must also output on gpio pins upon receiving an sms (to a relay).

It will be in a metal box in the middle of a farm (reception is important. It will have an external antenna).

I have tried:

Thanks

1 Like
2

Hi Freddy
I don’t know much about what you are trying to do. BUT, if you have no radio reception for your SMS different equipments will have nothing to do with that. If you have no service in that particular area stere is not a lot you can do about it. If you have some signal directional antennas will help but cable runs should be short or you will lose most of your signal in the cable.
Cheers Bob

2 Likes
3

Hi Freddy, welcome to the forum!

I’ve read through your last thread, and it seems like the Arduino library and hardware have a bit of a poor SMS implementation, and there’s a chance that CAT-M1 coverage in your area could be spotty? It’s odd that it gave you 12 (excellent) then 99 (none).

If you’re looking for a completely different ecosystem, Waveshare has some SIMCOM breakouts (not u-blox SARA) that use CAT-4 LTE. The only catch is that you’d have to write up a decent amount of code to send and recieve AT commands.

Take a look:

And especially the wiki, which will give you an idea of what’s involved with getting these modules working:

I hope this gives you another route to look down, let me know if you need us to clarify anything.
-James

4

Thanks Bob,

I do have decent reception. I have tested the area on other (more expensive and larger) iot devices and on my phone. Unfortunately, there is just something not working for me with the Arduino board and I am looking for an alternative.

Cheers

5

Thanks a heap James!

Yeah the Arduino board was giving me a lot of trouble. However the reception in that area is confirmed to be better than what I was dealing with.

Does the hat need to be connected to a pi to run? or just for setup?

Cheers

6

Hi Freddy,

These modules communicate over serial, so no Pi is needed, Here’s a screenshot showing this from the product wiki:

image
image1226×475 154 KB

This part is still true. You’ll have to check whether someone has written a library for your platform, or write one yourself
-James

7

@James

Hey James, I bought the hat you suggested, and I’ve been having a lot of trouble talking to it over serial. I can’t get a connection at all. Could you help me please?

I’ve listed the details here: Cannot communicate with software serial on particular devices (SIM7600G-H) - Networking, Protocols, and Devices - Arduino Forum I’m the OP of this thread.

8

I fixed it, all good now

9

Hi Freddy,

Cheers for posting a link to your other thread and letting us know you got it fixed.

I had a read through that thread and didn’t quite make it to the bottom before having to jump on something else.

It’d be nice if you ended up finding out why soft serial didn’t work, and now it does, but I’m just glad to hear your project is back on track for now.

10

Yeah soft serial works now. I had TX and RX around because the SIM HAT has the labels the wring way around to mirror the rasp pi

2 Likes