Arduino Nano+GPS+GSM+LoRA+WebServer+GoogleMaps

[southcoding]

Hello, I'm new to this forum. I hope I'm posting this in the right place.

I'm working on a project that involves the GPS location of safety lights on radio communications towers. I need to show on Google maps the location of each tower, the current state of the lights and battery state.

I'm thinking in using an Arduino Nano, a GPS Ublox 6 ,SIM 800l V2.0 GSM GPRS and Lora DRF1276DM modules.

The idea is to send data through the GSM Network to a WEB Server and in case of no availability, use the LoRa backup to send the data to the nearest tower with connectivity.

The Nano boards will act as clients to the Web server. To protect the info I need some kind of encryption/authentication, what's your advice on this?

It would be nice if the server is located on a local telecom, but if this is the case, I’ll have to log in into a VPN to access the servers.

To visualize the data I’d like to use a Simple web page with a link to google maps and some relevant info, like the current state of batteries, the cell phone availability and some kind of log to know the last month data.

I was planning on using a database server in order to do this.

Do you think I'm on the right path? Any suggestions will be highly appreciated.

Thank you for your time,
have a nice day.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Is 2G still available in your country?, and is it going to remain so? - it's already been closed in the USA.

However, there is an ESP32 board with a built-in SIM7000 4G modem, which also has GPS built-in - this would greatly simplify your design, to just that single board - plus the Lora board if you need that.

Server wise, as long as you have access to PHP and MYSQL, then you can do it all with a PHP script.

 

[sagor1]

Towers don't move, so why have a GPS module? Just go to each tower location with a GPS and record its location permanently, and program it as such. You could even use GPIO pins to select which tower location to use (read from a table in code) to make the code more universal. That could work for several towers. If you have hundreds of towers, then a GPS module makes more sense.
My other concern would be that the Nano does not have that much RAM and program space. Adding all those modules may overrun the storage/ram of that device. If physical size is still a concern, look at the Nano Every, it has 3 times the ram, and 50% more program storage in the same physical size.

 

[southcoding]

Thanks for your comments.

In my country we still have 3G networks, running at the same time as 4G and 5G.

The GPS is needed in order to "geofence" the lights because they steal them. The idea is to set up some kind of alarm or message and take some pictures in case it moves. There are lot of towers and the process of moving each light to another tower is sometimes easier for a technician than configuring the coordinates for each tower.

I noticed that the Nano doesn't have enough ram, I think that the migration to a ESP32 could be a great option because they share the same Arduino IDE or at least 90% of it.

Suppose you want to address some kind of flag to know when the GSM losses connection and you want to switch to LoRa, which flag would you like to take into account ? Besides the AT command at the serial port, what else can I do to check if the connection is still alive?

 

[Pommie]

With the amount you're already using, an accelerometer would not add much cost but instantly tell you if it gets moved.

Mike.

 

[southcoding]

True, that's a good option. I thought about it, more like a shock sensor ( accelerometer and vibration sensor) . It also has a faster detection time in order to take a picture for example.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Thanks for your comments.

In my country we still have 3G networks, running at the same time as 4G and 5G.

What about 2G? - the SIM800 (like all cheap GSM modems) is 2G only, not even 3G - and considering there are millions of 2G systems out there, it's crazy that countries are turning off 2G.

The GPS is needed in order to "geofence" the lights because they steal them. The idea is to set up some kind of alarm or message and take some pictures in case it moves. There are lot of towers and the process of moving each light to another tower is sometimes easier for a technician than configuring the coordinates for each tower.

I noticed that the Nano doesn't have enough ram, I think that the migration to a ESP32 could be a great option because they share the same Arduino IDE or at least 90% of it.

More like 100%, you don't need anything else other than the Arduino IDE (with the ESP32 added to it) to fully program the ESP32.

Here's a tutorial for the ESP32/SIM800L (2G) board, you can find a similar tutorial for the ESP32/SIM7000 (3G/4G) boards - but they are a lot more expensive, though they do include GPS.

ESP32 SIM800L: Send Text Messages (SMS Alert) with Sensor Readings | Random Nerd Tutorials

In this project we’re going to create an SMS notification system with the T-Call ESP32 SIM800L module that sends an SMS when sensor readings are above or below a certain threshold.

randomnerdtutorials.com

I use a lot of the ESP32/SIM800 boards, although I now have to import SIM cards from Italy (Things Mobile), as I find it impossible to locate UK SIM cards that works on 2G - and all the cell phone suppliers are clueless about it. If you have to do anything like that, be aware that SIM connects as 'roaming', which gives a different reply from the modem (I scratched my head for a while with that one).

Suppose you want to address some kind of flag to know when the GSM losses connection and you want to switch to LoRa, which flag would you like to take into account ? Besides the AT command at the serial port, what else can I do to check if the connection is still alive?

You need to wait until the modem times out - and it's NOT usually a quick occurance - the Arduino GSM libraries provide the required responses.

 

[southcoding]

Great, I'll take a look at that ESP SIM800L Tutorial. Thanks for your tip about the "roaming" part.