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Implementation of GPRS-Based Positioning System Using PIC Microcontroller

Conference Paper · July 2010

DOI: 10.1109/CICSyN.2010.76 · Source: DBLP

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 Implementation of GPRS-Based Positioning System using PIC Microcontroller

Wael M El-Medany, and Alauddin Alomary Reyadh Al-Hakim, Sufyan Al-Irhayim, and
Computer Engineering Department Mustafa Nousif
University Of Bahrain, 32038 Bahrain Computer Engineering Department
Email: [email protected] University Of Bahrain, 32038 Bahrain

Abstract— This paper presents a hardware design and

implementation of GPRS based positioning system using PIC II. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
microcontroller. The system is implemented using the The tracking system architecture comprises three main
microchip PIC 16F877A microcontroller. The system has been modules: the GPS location module, the GSM delivery
tested on a test board, and then a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) module, and the backend system that collects the information
layout has been implemented for the final system prototype.
and displays it when requested.
The system provides the ability to track current position of the
vehicle or its position in any specific time and date by A. The GPS Location Module
analyzing the received data from the GPS receiver. The
The GPS receiver unit (attached to the monitored
prototype has been tested experimentally and the results are
analyzed and discussed. vehicle) is built using the GM862-GPS quad band cellular
modem, which combines a powerful GSM engine with a
Keywords- GPS; GPRS; ITS; PIC; Positioning System. SIRF III 20-channel high sensitivity GPS receiver. The
receiver uses triangulation to calculate its location. The
coordinates (latitude, longitude, altitude) will be calculated at
I. INTRODUCTION predetermined regular intervals and passed along with a
Vehicle positioning technique currently has been applied time-stamp to the GSM delivery service.
to many popular applications, including vehicle navigation, B. The GPRS Delivery System
vehicle tracking, fleet management, and location based
services [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. Recently, it has developed into The GSM module communicates with the
a powerful and marketable package due to its low-cost and microcontroller to access and send this data to the server via
varying facilities such as Anti-theft modules, client a previously established GPRS connection. First, the unit
identification and real time performance monitoring [6], [7]. will establish a GPRS connection with the server, and then
The objective of this research is to design and implement establishes a TCP/IP socket connection with the data that is
a Vehicle Positioning System (VPS) based on GPRS sent as IP data packets over this connection. In the event that
(General Packet Radio Service) [8], [9],[10]; and GPS there is no GPRS available, the GPS data is stored in the
(Global Positioning System) [11], [12]. To design an memory unit and will be sent to the server along with the real
affordable and fast system the GM862 cellular quad band time location details as soon as GPRS becomes available
module is used. GM862 has GPS and GPRS integrated again.
together to decrease the time delay and give an accurate C. The Backend System
measurements for the real time tracking [13]. The Microchip PIC 16F877A microcontroller is the main
The system provides the ability to track the vehicle operational unit of the tracking device. It communicates with
current position or its position in any specified time and date. each of the other operational GPRS delivery service units via
It also provides information regarding the vehicle status such its built-in UART interfaces. The monitoring server is
as speed and mileage. By monitoring these information in integrated with a Web Portal that allows users to access the
real-time, a person or a company will have fully updated tracking device location data for analysis and display. This
information regarding their vehicle status. This gives the web-based architecture allows the common infrastructure to
option of using this information to avoid vehicle theft, or to be leveraged by a variety of different users. The monitoring
manage their fleets [14], [15], [16], [17]. server provides the data processing to convert the GPS
The materials in this paper are organized as follows; sensor data into locations, and it is integrated with Goggle
tracking system architecture is presented in section two. maps to provide a visual interface for tracking the vehicle
Section three presents the hardware implementation of the location. There are three LEDS attached to the output pins of
Vehicle Positioning System (VPS). The results and the microcontroller to indicate the GSM signal availability,
discussion will be reported in section four. Finally a 3D-GPS signal fix is locked, and when the microcontroller
conclusion and future work is presented in section five. sends data to the monitoring server.
 III. HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION B. Microchip's PIC16F877 Microcontroller
The hardware of the system is based on Telit GM862- The Microchip's PIC16F877, 40 pins 8-bit (with 8 Mhz
GPS module and supported with a microcontroller by which clock) processor is used as the system controller [18]. It has
the communication requirements are configured, activated 8K x 14-bit of FLASH program memory, 368 bytes of data
and GPS data are analyzed, as shown in Figure 1. RAM, 256 bytes of data EEPROM and 33 I/O lines. Only 6
lines of the I/O lines have been used. Two of these lines are
for TxD and RxD signals of the USART of the
microcontroller; the baud rate is set at 4800 bps. The third
line is used for driving the ON/OFF pin of GM862. The
remaining 3 lines are used to drive 3 status LEDs as follows:
GSM signal LED: this led will be on when GSM signal is
available; GPS signal LED: will be on when 3D GPS fix is
locked; Data LED: will be on whenever the microcontroller
sends data to the monitoring server.
The Mikrobasic Complier [19] is used to compile the
microcontroller program with BASIC syntax. A simple WIN
PIC Programmer [20] is used to save the hex files into the
microcontroller flash. The program size is 2359 x 14-bit and
uses 188 bytes of the RAM.
C. GM862 Antennas
The GM862-GPS module has two 50 ohm micro-
miniature (MMCX) antenna connectors, one for the GPS
antenna and the other for the GSM antenna. The GM862-
GPS module is not provided with an internal LNA amplifier.
The use of an active antenna is therefore important to
Figure 1. Schematic Circuit achieve a good performance. A VSWR <= 2:1 is
recommended. A Quad-band antenna for the GM862 GSM
A. GM862 GPS/GPRS Module modem with a frequency range of 824 ~ 960 MHz // 1710 ~
The GM862 has 50 pins formed in a MOLEX connector 1990 MHz, and a GPS Antenna 3V Magnetic Mount SMA
[13]. Out of the 50 pins, only 4 of the signal pins are required have been implemented.
(see Figure 1). The GM862 is a GPRS + GPS module with D. Printed Circuit Board Layout and Prototyping
simple AT-based communication protocol. The serial port on
the GM862 is the core of the interface between the module The layout for the printed circuit board has been designed
and external hardware. Two serial ports are available on the using TraxMaker tools. Two PCB layouts were designed in
module: MODEM serial port and GPS serial port (NMEA order to minimize the size of the tracking device and to be
protocol). able to print them using a single face PCB, where the double
The MODEM serial port on the GM862-GPS is a +2.8V side PCB was not available. The two PCB layouts are
UART with all the 7 RS232 signals of which only 2 pins connected using a ribbon cable. Figure 2 present the top side
(TxD and RxD signals) are used. These 2 signals are of PCB design. The prototype of the tracking system is
connected to RxD and TxD signals of the USART of the shown in figure 3.
PIC16F877 microcontroller. The connection is not direct, but
through some level translation (+5V/+2.8V) circuit. Two
cascaded RS232 Converters MAX3232 are used for level
translation. The upper one (in Figure 1) converts +5V to
RS232 and the lower one converts the RS232 to 3V.
The third implemented pin is the ON/OFF pin. The
fourth implemented pin is the STAT_LED pin. This pin is an
Open Collector output where it is possible to directly connect
a LED to show information on the network service
availability and Call status.
The remaining implemented pins are the power supply
pins, +Vcc and GND. The GSM system is made in a way
that the RF transmission is not continuous, it is packed into
bursts and the relative current peaks can be as high as about
2A.Therefore the power supply has to be designed in order to
withstand with these current peaks without big voltage drops. Figure 2: Tracking System PCB Layout
 Figure 3: Tracking System PCB Prototype

E. Flow Diagram for PIC Firmware

The firmware has been written using BASIC syntax, and
has been compiled using Mikrobasic complier from
MIKROE Corporation. This compiler is easy, powerful, and
provides many examples and tutorials. It also provides
debugging capabilities for the code. WIN PIC Programmer
software is used to send the hex files to the microcontroller
in order to program the chip and JDM 2 is chosen as the
interface type for the programmer. The flow diagram for the
PIC microcontroller program is shown in figure 4, which
Figure 4. Microcontroller Firmware Flow Diagram
describe the communications between the microcontroller
and the GM862 module. At the initial states the controller
check for the GSM MODEM operation, set the baud rate to
the required baud rate, stop the MODEM flow control, and
then check the GSM network registration.
After creating and activating the GPRS connection, the
microcontroller will request data from GPS, and then analyze
the GPS data before sending them to the server. The
microcontroller will calculate the difference in time and
distance between current GPS data request and the last GPS
data sent. Then it will decide wither to send the data or not
based on comparing the calculated time and distance
difference with the fixed time and distance intervals. The
state of requesting and analyzing the GPS data is described
in more details in figure 5, in that state the controller check
to see which satellite is in view, and check for the
transmission intervals to trigger the time and distance
intervals to see if there is a GPS data is available or not. If
GPS data is ready, it will resume the socket connection, and
then send the data to the server through the GPRS network as Figure 5. Flow Diagram for Requesting and Analyzing GPS Data
shown in figure 5.
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