This article guides users to incorporate PIC Easy R1 and GSM / GPS SIM908 Easy into an extremely compact coordinates unit. Users can monitor the coordinates of the system via SMS, which is displayed directly on any Smart Phone. More specifically, AT-COM supports Android SMS2Map application users displaying both the location and address of the system.

    1. Introduction to PIC Easy R1

    PIC Easy R1 is an AT-COM product that gives users the convenience of combining ATCBus with Microchip's PIC18F4550-I / PT microcontrollers. The board supports USB Full Speed V2.0 USB connection, with USB HID Bootloader, which allows users to download firmware directly to PIC18F4550-I / PT without any other load. In addition, the 48MHz PIC18F4550 high performance microprocessor meets the needs of programmers deploying applications such as Wifi, Ethernet, USB, CAN, PWM.

     2. Introduction of GSM/GPS SIM908 Easy  

  Designed for the international market, the SIM908 module is equipped with a GSM / GPRS module and a powerful GPS receiver. Quad band GSM / GPRS GSM 850MHz, EGSM 900MHz, DCS 1800MHz and PCS 1900MHz. The SIM908 supports GPRS class 10 / class 8 GPRS and encodes CS1, CS2, CS3 and CS4. The SIM908's GPS unit gives you the best start-up time, accuracy and sensitivity. With its compact packaging, the SIM908 can provide good space for applications such as M2M, Smart phones, PDAs, navigation devices and other mobile devices.

    GSM / GPS SIM908 Easy is a product developed by AT-COM based on the features of the SIM908 module. GSM / GPS SIM908 Easy is designed to help users easily research and deploy applications related to GSM, GPRS such as control, monitoring, data transmission, ... and GPS applications such as positioning coordinates display on Google maps, speed, time ... with high accuracy. With its compact size, convenient data output, the GSM / GPS SIM908 Easy will bring you the most modern and sophisticated design inspiration.

 3. The application coordinates through SMS and display on Google Map

      To implement the application we perform the following steps:

   Step 1: Prepare

   Hardware:

        + Board GSM/GPS SIM908 Easy.

        + Board PIC Easy R1.

        + Điện thoại sử dụng hệ điều hành Android đã cài đặt phần mềm bản đồ Google Map và phần mềm SMS2Map.

   Software:   + USB HID Bootloader

                    + SMS2Map

  Step 2: Connect the hardware

 

    Insert the SIM card, GSM antenna, GPS antenna into the GSM / GPS board SIM908 Easy then connect to the PIC Easy R1 board via ATCBus and then connect the system to the computer via USB mini on PIC Easy R1.

     Step 3: Load the application code for PIC Easy R1

      SIM908 Easy GSM / GPS code source is presented in the article using the CCS Compiler compiler for the PIC18F4550 microcontroller. The code is written in the USB HID Bootloader of PIC Easy R1, which allows the microcontroller to run at a clock frequency of 48MHz. Source code can be downloaded in GSM / GPS SIM908 Easy (PIC Easy SIM908 Code demo).

      After downloading the code to the computer, it should be edited and recompiled with PIC C compiler software.

     We proceed to edit the phone number that the system will send back the message with link coordinates.

   

Next, we modify the board password, password is a sequence of 6 digits.

    Edit the code, we compile to .hex file: in the compiler, select Compile.

 

   

After the compilation is completed, we proceed to load firmware for PIC18F4550 via USB HID Bootloader.

    To enter the USB HID Bootloader mode of PIC Easy R1, do the following:

    Connect the PIC Easy R1 to PC via USB mini on the board. Then press and hold the SW1 / RD0 button and press the RESET button. The PIC Easy R1 will enter the HID Bootloader mode. When entering the Hid Bootloader mode, the LD2 / RD3 LED will flash continuously, waiting for the user to update the firmware for the PIC18F4550.

    In order to load firmware for user application running on PIC Easy R1, user can use Microchip USB Bootloader V2.9j program to flash Firmware to Program Memory of PIC18F4550.

    After downloading the USB Bootloader V2.9j program to your computer, extract the winrar file and click on the HIDBootloader.exe file to run the USB HID Bootloader program on your computer.

 

After running USB Bootloader V2.9j, select Import Firmware Image and navigate to file.hex.

 

  When you have successfully imported the file.hex, select Erase / Program / Verify Device to load the file.hex to the Program Memory of the PIC18F4550.

 

    Load the .hex file, you can select Reset on the program or press the RESET button on the PIC Easy R1 board to PIC18F4550 run the application that you have programmed.

 

Step 4: Make the Controls Get Coordinates and display them to Google Map

           + After the GSM and GPS function is activated, the system will send a notification message to the user's phone number (the phone number is changed in step 2).

 

   

When the system starts up, you can get the coordinates of the system in two ways:

     Option 1: Press the SW2 button on the PIC Easy R1 board, the system sends the message containing the link coordinates.

    The message return system has the following coordinate link:

     Option 2: SMS with the following syntax to get coordinates:

     After receiving the correct syntax message, the system returns the message with the link coordinates

     Sau khi nhận được tin nhắn đúng cú pháp thì hệ thống trả về tin nhắn có link tọa độ

The user click on the link in the message to display on the map, we are positioned as follows:

   

* Use SMS2Map software to display the location of the system

     + Install the SMS2Map software to your phone.

     + Open SMS2Map on phone then we can press SW2 button on PIC Easy R1 or text to get coordinates to phone by syntax:

    + When the message contains the coordinates sent to the user's phone number, SMS2Map will automatically display the location on the map of the software.

  When the user clicks on the map, the software displays the address of the current system.

    4. Video demo