Arduino & GSM Shield & 2G

Delphi91

Hi,

I'm working on a project at the moment which hopefully will involve an arduino sending a text message under certain circumstances. For this I plan to use a GSM shield like this one: https://store.arduino.cc/arduino-gsm-shield-2-integrated-antenna.

My question is this - the details of the shield suggest that I need a 2G sim card. Are these available or will a normal 3G/4G card throttle back to 2G speeds to send the text?

Chet T16

I'm not sure with networks still support 2g - three might i think but you may need to call them

ozmo

Delphi91 wrote: »

For this I plan to use a GSM shield

Consider also Sigfox network

I have one of these:
https://www.arrow.com/en/campaigns/smart-everything-board

- and its pretty cool - you dont need a sim card - and for something like 20 euros a year you can send wireless messages from an arduino - plus it has gps and lots of other sensors built in.

witnessmenow

Delphi91 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm working on a project at the moment which hopefully will involve an arduino sending a text message under certain circumstances. For this I plan to use a GSM shield like this one: https://store.arduino.cc/arduino-gsm-shield-2-integrated-antenna.

My question is this - the details of the shield suggest that I need a 2G sim card. Are these available or will a normal 3G/4G card throttle back to 2G speeds to send the text?

Does it have to be GSM, is it in an area with Wifi?

Chet T16 wrote: »

I'm not sure with networks still support 2g - three might i think but you may need to call them

I don't think three ever supported 2g, unless that has changed with the buying of O2. I know for certain they didn't support it 6 years ago when I was looking into it

Delphi91

witnessmenow wrote: »

Does it have to be GSM, is it in an area with Wifi?



I don't think three ever supported 2g, unless that has changed with the buying of O2. I know for certain they didn't support it 6 years ago when I was looking into it

Yea, I think that might be an issue alright. The idea of the device is it is in a vehicle and it sends a message to a central location, based on certain conditions. Wifi is probably not going to work as there's no guarantee of being near a free wifi service, especially out in the countryside. Hence why I was looking at a text message or something similar. But it looks like that's not viable unless I can find a shield that uses 3G or 4G.

ozmo

Delphi91 wrote: »

Yea, I think that might be an issue alright. The idea of the device is it is in a vehicle and it sends a message to a central location, based on certain conditions. Wifi is probably not going to work as there's no guarantee of being near a free wifi service, especially out in the countryside. Hence why I was looking at a text message or something similar. But it looks like that's not viable unless I can find a shield that uses 3G or 4G.

Again-- check out sigfox- you dont need wifi or 2g- its a new type of network for putting iot devices on cars and trucks etc.

Delphi91

ozmo wrote: »

Consider also Sigfox network

I have one of these:
https://www.arrow.com/en/campaigns/smart-everything-board

- and its pretty cool - you dont need a sim card - and for something like 20 euros a year you can send wireless messages from an arduino - plus it has gps and lots of other sensors built in.

Hi,

I picked up one of the Smarteverything boards and it seems ideal for what I want.

I have one question though, and Ive looked all over the place to try to find an answer and have failed. The board's onboard accelerometer will detect g-forces in the range +/-2g, +/-4g, +/-8g & +/-16g. Are you aware of how I can set a specific range to use? I cant find the code necessary to do it anywhere.

ozmo

Delphi91 wrote: »

Are you aware of how I can set a specific range to use? I cant find the code necessary to do it anywhere.

Looks like they ever got round to adding that to the library:
see: https://github.com/ameltech/sme-lsm9ds1-library/issues/3

But you could add it yourself maybe if you are determined..

File to modify is here:
https://github.com/ameltech/sme-lsm9ds1-library/blob/master/src/accelerometer/LSM9DS1.cpp

and the registers to modify should be found in these docs
http://www.st.com/en/mems-and-sensors/lsm9ds1.html

Delphi91

ozmo wrote: »

Looks like they ever got round to adding that to the library:
see: https://github.com/ameltech/sme-lsm9ds1-library/issues/3

But you could add it yourself maybe if you are determined..

File to modify is here:
https://github.com/ameltech/sme-lsm9ds1-library/blob/master/src/accelerometer/LSM9DS1.cpp

and the registers to modify should be found in these docs
http://www.st.com/en/mems-and-sensors/lsm9ds1.html

Yea, I found that reference to the question the other day. At this moment in time, I dont know enough C++ to be able to change the code to make it do what I want - maybe at some point in the future. I'll find a work-around the sensitivity issue another way. I just want to be able to show a proof of concept with this project, so I'll survive with the current sensitivity.

Many thanks for your help.

Delphi91

One further question for you - Is it possible to read data from two different sensors on the board at the same time?

My plan is to have the board measure acceleration and then to output both the value of the acceleration AND the GPS coordinates of the board to the serial monitor at the same time. I have succeeded in getting it to read the g-force and the GPS independently of each other but I cannot get it to read both at the same time.

Delphi91

Delphi91 wrote: »

One further question for you - Is it possible to read data from two different sensors on the board at the same time?

My plan is to have the board measure acceleration and then to output both the value of the acceleration AND the GPS coordinates of the board to the serial monitor at the same time. I have succeeded in getting it to read the g-force and the GPS independently of each other but I cannot get it to read both at the same time.

Panic over, I got it working......