Telematics applications have been changing over the last few years from a niche into one of the fastest growing markets. With tracking and tracing applications finding use in more and more areas the telematics service providers are focusing on the application rather than on the hardware of the remote units.

Vincotech addresses this development with the offering of ready-to-use hardware platforms that can be utilized in diverse applications. As a leading supplier of GPS receiver modules Vincotech has been serving the telematics market for several years. This market includes fleet management, vehicle diagnostics, security and surveillance as well as insurance applications.

In the early stages of these telematics activities most of the companies active in this area developed their own hardware providing the platform basis for their firmware, server side software and customer service offered. With the rapid development of the market in recent times, there is a significant trend on the side of the telematics service providers to move away from the hardware business, as hardware is seen less and less as a differentiating element of the total solution provided by the telematics services provider.

The company delivers an answer to this trend with the development of standard hardware platforms targeted at telematics applications.

A1074 telematics platform

The A1074 is the first in a series of telematics hardware platforms that can be used by telematics service providers to implement their firmware application. It has been developed to cover the majority of applications in the area of fleet management and security and surveillance; this is specifically addressed with it's versatility in configurability, e.g. a Dallas 1-wire interface. A CANbus option also provides capability for remote diagnostics * reference 1.

Fig 1: The A1074 telematics hardware platform.

The A1074 is a complete solution including casing and is already type approved according to CE, E, FCC, PTCRB and A-Tick. The A1074 provides a GPS receiver, GPRS quad band modem, an automotive power supply unit and several interfaces such as serial port, IO ports, driver button and LED, Dallas 1-wire and CAN. While the A1074 holds a reasonable amount of memory to run the embedded application, an additional micro-SD card can be used to store logging or other data. As Vincotech does not offer the application firmware the A1074 has been designed to be easily programmed. The unit uses a fully modular approach with GSM and GPS working autonomously. The main microcontroller is only running the actual telematics application and has full control over the hardware. Almost all of the functionality can be addressed via software giving the programmer the maximum of control.

The main microcontroller of the A1074 is an industry standard STR71 from ST Microelectronics. The STR71 is based on the ARM7TDMI core and provides the best combination of available interfaces and low power modes.

The ARM7TDMI has been chosen since it is one of the most prevalent microcontroller cores used in embedded applications. Due to this widespread use of ARM microcontrollers there is a huge number of development tools available. 2 In addition there is a lot of support available from Vincotech, STM, ARM and the tool vendors as well as from the global ARM development community.

If the hardware and firmware are developed in different companies the interface definition is one of the most critical considerations. There are several interfaces possible, e.g. on the hardware (register) level, integration of an operating system or even a configurable standard application.

On the A1074 Vincotech has taken the approach to provide the unit with a board support package including the hardware drivers but without any operating system or application firmware.

In this way the customer has the maximum control over the hardware and can implement his application in the optimal way. This will lead to an application with minimal power consumption which is a primary concern particularly as the unit is used in a car or truck.

As telematics service providers typically have been developing their own hardware in the past, they already have embedded application firmware they would like to port to the A1074. With embedded applications the real-time operating system (RTOS) is typically part of the tool chain used and linked to the application firmware.

The company ships all versions of the A1074 pre- programmed with a boot loader, and provides a PC tool allowing easy installation of the customer firmware.

Development tools/support

Vincotech supports the firmware development with a complete development kit and a board support package. The firmware development kit EVA1070 consists of the unit (A1070) itself and all required cables and antennas to start immediately with tests and development. The A1070 is based on exactly the same electronics as the standard product A1074 but provides friendlier interfaces in terms of connectors, LED's and switches like ON/OFF and RESET.

Fig 2: The firmware development kit EVA1070 consists of the unit (A1070) itself and all required cables and antennas to start immediately with tests and development. The A1070 is based on exactly the same electronics as the standard product A1074 but provides friendlier interfaces.

In addition, software developed on the A1070 will run without any changes on the A1074. The A1070 comes programmed with the company's boot loader and a demonstration firmware allowing some initial tests after powering the kit straight out of the box. With the EVA1070 providing a standard JTAG interface to the STR71 almost any ARM development tool can be used to write programs for the A1074 telematics platform. If a customer already has an ARM tool chain they probably prefer to continue using that. Otherwise there are a lot of tools available, ranging from open source like Eclipse/GCC to highly optimized tools * reference 2

The company uses and recommends Rowley CrossWorks as a reasonable compromise between cost and performance * reference 3. CrossWorks is based on the GCC tool chain but adds optimized libraries as well as a very well integrated development environment.

Vincotech supports the development of firmware by providing a hardware abstraction layer (tHAL). This is a library of drivers allowing easy access to the hardware building blocks.

A typical example is the implemented NMEA parser: If the GPS module is switched on, it will deliver a stream of ASCII data via the UART (NMEA). But the application programmer is only interested in the actual values of time, velocity and position. The NMEA parser implemented in tHAL automatically parses the NMEA stream in the background and provides the information in variables allowing the firmware programmer to focus on the actual application logic.

The tHAL library is provided in full source code. For Rowley CrossWorks the tHAL is integrated into a board support package which can be easily installed and adds a project wizard, startup code, documentation and examples.

Vincotech is continuously expanding its portfolio of telematics hardware platforms. The next product being launched in 2009 will be a rugged outdoor tracking device that integrates the antennas and can be mounted on the outside of a truck, trailer or other asset.

With the ongoing reduction of hardware cost and the improvements in embedded operating systems like Linux and Windows CE, a hardware platform implementing such an operating system becomes a viable option. While it does not give the firmware programmer the degree of control that a deeply embedded RTOS does, it has the advantage of allowing the programming based on a well known OS-API. The company is currently working with key customers on the definition of such a platform.

Today telematics service providers have to make a decision on either designing and building their own hardware or buying a ready made platform.

While the self-built platform can meet 100 percent of the requirements and wishes, the purchased platform offers lower total cost of ownership and shorter time to market.

Design, qualification, tooling, approvals, maintenance, sourcing and manufacturing is handled by Vincotech, thereby reducing the NRE costs on the service provider side to the software integration.

Vincotech will continue to design and manufacture telematics platforms in close cooperation with its customers. These units are offered fully type approved and can be used by the telematics service provider without further certification (depending on local legislation). This allows the telematics service provider to focus on its core competencies and the areas where they generate their revenue stream.

References

1. Vincotech telematics platform A1074 www.vincotech.de/gps

2. STR7/STR9 32-bit ARM Microcontroller Tools Overview, ST Microelectronics www.stm.com/str7

3. Rowley CrossWorks for ARM, www.rowley.co.uk.

Ingo Skuras is the product marketing manager of positioning products at Vincotech GmbH.

Related links and articles:

The challenges of GPS in telematics

This story appeared in the November 2009 print edition of EE Times EuropeEuropean residents who wish to receive regular copies of EE Times Europe, subscribe here.

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