cellular_tracker

Cellular Tracking Application

The Cellular tracking application purpose is to periodically monitor the signal quality of the cellular environment, its location and scan the visible cellular base stations if the START_CELL_SCAN message is sent via MQTT to the device.

All collected information is sent to the cloud via the embedded MQTT/MQTT-SN client to an MQTT Broker.

The application starts monitoring the cellular signal quality and once there is a GNSS fix, the location is also published to the cloud. If the START_CELL_SCAN message is received over the NetworkScanControl MQTT topic, a base station scan is initialized.

Command line arguments

COM Number CellModuleType GnssModuleType [config]
COM number is either /dev/ttyUSBx for Linux or the com port NUMBER in windows
CelModuleType is SARA-R422, SARA-R5, LARA-R6 or LENA-R8
GnssModuleType is M8 or M9 or M10
You can opeiot specify the configuration file

Raspberry PI

Configuring the building environment

The Raspberry PI is used to compile the application.

clone this repository on to the raspberry PI:

• git clone https://github.com/u-blox/ubxlib_evk_applications

You will need to install cmake, libssl-dev and libgpiod-dev

• sudo apt-get install cmake (VERSION 3.19+)
• sudo apt-get install libssl-dev
• sudo apt-get install libsgpiod-dev

Configuring the application

Using the config.h file in the config folder you will find the basic application configuration settings, like the level of debug.
MAKE Sure you use #define BUILD_TARGET_RASPBERRY_PI for setting the build target platform

Compiling the application

The build system uses cmake and make to configure and compile the application. cmake will use the environment variable to configure the build.

1. Change the directory to the cellular_tracker folder
2. sudo cmake .
3. sudo make

Windows

Configuring the building environment

VisualStudio Code is used to compile the application.

clone this repository on to your windows machine:

• git clone https://github.com/u-blox/ubxlib_evk_applications

You will need to install VisualStudio Code, Microsoft C++ compilers and CMake Tools extension.

Configuring the application

Using the config.h file in the config folder you will find the basic application configuration settings, like the level of debug.
MAKE Sure you use #define BUILD_TARGET_WINDOWS for setting the build target platform

Compiling the application

Right click on the CMakeLists.txt file and selected Build All.

Debugging the application

Use the launch.json configurations to launch the application inside the VSCode debugger.
Set the "args" for the command line parameters.

Application remote commands

The application can be remotely controlled through various topics which are subscribed to by the application tasks.

A typical log output shows what the commands are for each task, and main application

Subscribed to callback topic: 351457830026040/SensorControl

With these commands:

1. MEASURE_NOW
2. START_TASK
3. STOP_TASK

<IMEI>\AppControl

SET_DWELL_TIME <milliseconds>

Sets the period between the main loop performing the location and signal quality measurements. Default is 5 seconds.

SET_LOG_LEVEL <log level>

Sets the logging level of the application. Default is '2' for INFO log level.

0: TRACE
1: DEBUG
2: INFO
3: WARN
4: ERROR
5: FATAL

It could be possible to increase the logging of an application remotely by changing the logging value from '2' to '1'.

<IMEI>\CellScanControl

START_CELL_SCAN

Starts a cell scan process, just as if you had pressed Button #2

NOTES

Thingstream SIMS

Thingstream SIMs can be used with two APNS; TSUDP or TSIOT.

TSUDP is ONLY for MQTT-Anywhere service (using MQTT-SN), and does not allow any other internet traffic. This means when using TSUDP the NTP date/time request is not performed. This 'TSUDP' APN is listed as a 'restricted' APN in the registrationTask.c file.

TSIOT can be used for normal internet services and as such should be used when using other MQTT brokers, or even other MQTT-SN gateways.