A flexible, cost-effective, and low-power IoT device with integrated GNSS & LTE connectivity.
Thinking Minds Tracker is a flexible, cost-effective, and low-power IoT device with integrated GNSS & LTE connectivity, whose purpose is to make the latest IoT technology available where it is required, which for economic or complexity reasons it is not accessible.
This device is the result of long research and extensive interdisciplinary development carried out as an academical project.
- Integrated GNSS & LTE antennas with switchable external antennas.
- High energetic efficiency, providing it a long battery life (~1 year on a single charge).
- Extremely small size (60x35mm).
- Low production cost (~30 USD per device), whereas other comparable devices cost more than 100 USD per unit.
- Low operating cost (~0.2 USD per month).
- Great flexibility for multiple use cases: industrial, logistics, regulatory and for the general public.
This 4-layer PCB with controlled impedance includes:
- LTE Antenna + Switch: Integrated / External
- GNSS Antenna + Switch: Integrated / External
- GNSS Low-noise Amplifier (LNA)
- Voltage Regulator / Protection Circuit
- UICC Card Slot
- LED (Status)
- Reset / Configurable Button
The design was sent to a PCB manufacturer, who delivered the product on-time with excellent quality.
The components were bought at Digi-Key Electronics, altough they arrived on time and perfectly packaged, the Argentinian Federal Administration of Public Income taxed them quite high, at around 120% of the product cost.
As the institution didn't have the required tools to assemble it, the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI) allowed the assembly to be done in their laboratories.
The device contains 35 components of different sizes, the smallest among them being the 0402 capacitors and inductors for the RF circuits, which were specially hard to place and assemble.
After applying the solder paste and once all the components were placed, the board was inspected to verify the correct placement of the components and that enough solder paste was applied.
After the inspection, the board was soldered using a hot plate soldering station and a heat gun. The core temperature was measured to prevent reaching a critical point.
The resulting product was successfully assembled and worked as expected. Currently it is being tested on field.
