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Wio Tracker - GPS, BT3.0, GSM, Arduino Compatible

What is Wio Tracker? Wio Tracker is an Arduino compatible development board that helps you to track any moving things on the planet. By integrating GSM&GPRS as well as GPS&BeiDou in one board, it provides an all-in-one solution for your out-door IoT project.

If you are following the latest news about Low-Power Wide-Area Network(LPWAN), you may know that 2016 is a special year because there are new technology like LoRa and Sigfox came out, which remarkably pushed the development of WAN. The Wio Tracker has similarities as LoRa and Sigfox but also quite different. It is more suitable for out-door moving tracking and situations that has high frequency customer interaction and medium volume of data, for example sharing bicycle, logistics location, pet tracking.

Comparing to traditional GPS tracking solution, Seeed’s Wio Tracker is much more easier to use and customize for the fast changing IOT market. As a user-friendly Grove development board, the look of Wio Tracker may remind you of Wio Link, another started product of Seeed. So you can also find 6 grove connector on the board. As an Arduino compatible board, users can use the Wio Tracker with Arduino IDE directly.

Why do we call the Wio Tracker a solution, because it is really not just a board. At SeeedStudio, we have the ability to help customer customize the Wio Tracker for their own project and finish the project all the way to mass production. As Wio Tracker uses standard module that is mass production, we are ready to mass production even when customer is at their prototyping stage.

We have prepared everything, the last thing we need is your creative projects, so if you are making an out-door IOT tracking project, please don’t hesitate to use the Wio Tracker!

caution
Please always plug 3.7V Lipo battery in case USB power supply is not sufficient.

Features​

  • Multi-GNSS engine for combined GPS and BeiDou, higher precision location
  • EPO™ Technology, providing predicted Extended Prediction Orbit to speed up TTFF without need of extra server
  • Based on EPO™ data, QuecFastFix™ Online function further reduces TTFF in cold start, making cold start TTFF comparable to that in hot start
  • GLP(GNSS Low Power) Mode, 40% power consumption for normal mode and slightly lower precision
  • Period Mode, also reduce power consumption by controlling the sleep time
  • Always Locate™ Technology, an intelligent algorithm for power saving
  • Easy™(Embedded Assist System) Technology, self-generated orbit prediction for instant positioning fix, reducing the Time To First Fix(TTFF)
  • LOCUS™ Technology, innate navigation data logger solution with no need for host and external flash
  • AT Command: GSM 07.07, 07.05 and enhanced AT Command
  • Bluetooth 3.0 with SPP and HFP-AG
  • 6 Grove Connectors
  • Nano SIM and TF card 2 in 1 socket
  • Arduino IDE compatible
  • Low power and small size

Quectel MC20 Module​

  • Ultra compact size: 18.7 × 16.0 × 2.1mm
  • Multi navigation constellation: GPS/ BeiDou/ QZSS
  • GNSS receiver channels: 99 acquisition/ 33 tracking channels
  • Powerful AGPS functions: Autonomous AGPS EASY™/ Offline AGPS EPO™/ Online AGPS QuecFastFix
  • Built-in LNA for better GNSS sensitivity (-167dBm@Tracking): able to use passive GNSS antenna without the need of any extra LNA
  • Enhanced GNSS features: SDK command/ AIC/ LOCUS/ GLP
  • GSM quad-band: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
  • Multi internet protocols: TCP/ UDP/ PPP/ HTTP/ FTP/ SSL
  • Support Voice, SMS, QuecFOTATM, DSSS, OpenCPU
  • Support Bluetooth V3.0: SPP & HFP-AG profiles
caution
Unlike most Arduino & Genuino boards, the Wio Tracker runs at 3.3V. The maximum voltage that the I/O pins can tolerate is 3.3V. Applying voltages higher than 3.3V to any I/O pin could damage the board.

Specification​

ItemFunctionValue
MicrocontrollerProcessorATSAMD21G18A-MU, ARM Cortex-M0+, 48MHz
Flash Memory256KB
SRAM32KB
Operating Voltage3.3V
DC Current per I/O Pin7 mA
Clock Speed48 MHz
GSM/GPRSGSM850/900/1800/1900MHz, Class 4 (2W @850/900MHz), Class 1 (1W @1800/1900MHz)
AT Command: GSM 07.07, 07.05 and enhanced AT Command
Low Power Consumption: 1.2mA@DRX=5
GPRSGPRS Multi-slot Class 12: Down to 85.6kbps, Up to 85.6kbps
Protocol: TCP/UDP/FTP/HTTP/PPP/SSL
SMSPeer to Peer Message, SMS broadcast, Text and PDU mode
AudioEcho cancellation, Noise elimination
BluetoothBluetooth 3.0: SPP, HFP-AG
GNSSSystemGPS L1 1575.42MHz, BeiDou B1 1561.10MHz
Precision<2.5 m CEP
TechnologyEASY/LOCUS/AlwaysLocate/EPO/GLP/AIC
PeripheralGrove2 x Grove Digital Port
2 x Analog Port
1 x UART
1 x I2C
AntennaGSM Antenna
Bluetooth Antenna
GNSS Antenna
OthersUSB: Power supply and upload program
JST 1.0 connecter for battery
3.5mm Audio Jack
GSM Power Button, Reset Button
1 x User RGB LED SK6812
Speaker Interface
Nano SIM and TF card 2 in 1 socket
SizeLength54.7mm
Width48.2mm
Weight

Application Ideas​

  • Intelligent Transportation
  • Pet Tracker
  • Outdoor sports equipments
  • Driving recorder
  • Wearable device
  • Property Security
tip
Use Grove modules to expand your application

There are 6 Grove connects on board. If this is your first time to hear about Grove, please put had on Grove System for more details. In brief, Groves is hundreds of sensor that in standard style, which is consist of sensors, actuators, displays as well as communication.

Hardware Overview​

tip
If you want to use the on-board Grove connector, please use digitalWrite(12, HIGH) to open 3V3_B. Otherwise you can't provide power to Grove modules.

Pin Map​

Pin NameExternal InterruptPWMAnalog InAnalog OutFunction
RXYESYESGrove UART
TXYESYESGrove UART
D2YESYESGrove Digital
D3YESYESGrove Digital
D4YESGrove Digital
D5YESYESGrove Digital
D6YESUser LED Control
D7YESPower of MC20
D10YESYESUser LED
D11YESYESCheck Earphone
D12YESYESGrove Power Control
D13YESYESGSM Power Button
SDAYESGrove I2C
SCLYESGrove I2C
A0YESYESYESGrove Analog
A1YESYESYESGrove Analog
A2YESYESYESGrove Analog
A3YESYESYESGrove Analog
A4YESYESCheck battery
note
All pins can act as Digital Input and Output

Getting Started - Arduino IDE​

note
This chapter is based on Win10 and Arduino IDE v1.6.0

First you need to install the latest Arduino IDE, and ADD Seeeduino SAMD to your Arduino IDE.

Install the Driver (For Windows)​

When the first time to insert the board, you should get a USB COM device name Wio Tracker that need to install a driver. Click here to download driver for the board.

To make sure the driver was installed successful, open your Device Manager to see if Wio Tracker exists.

Install the library of Wio Tracker(For Windows, Linux and Mac)​

Click here to download the library(zip file) of Wio Tracker and import the zip library into your Arduino IDE. If you are new to this, please click here for more information.

Different from other boards, there is an User LED SK6812 on Wio Tracker, which is an intelligent control LED light source and similar to ws2812b. Now we are going to upload our first demo - Blink to Wio Tracker, which will introduce how to use the User LED.

First, we have to install Adafruit NeoPixel Library(for ws2812b LED) and import it into Arduino IDE.

Then open your Arduino IDE and click on File > Examples > MC20_GPS_Traker > Blink to open the sketch or copy the blow code:

#include "MC20_Arduino_Interface.h"
#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>

#define RGBPOWER     6          //To use User LED, D6 should be HIGH.
#define RGBPIN       10
#define LED_NUM      1

Adafruit_NeoPixel pixels = Adafruit_NeoPixel(LED_NUM, RGBPIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);

void setup() {
  pinMode(RGBPOWER, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(RGBPOWER, HIGH);
  pixels.begin(); // This initializes the NeoPixel library.
}

void loop() {

  // For a set of NeoPixels the first NeoPixel is 0, second is 1, all the way up to the count of pixels minus one.
  // pixels.Color takes RGB values, from 0,0,0 up to 255,255,255
  pixels.setPixelColor(0, pixels.Color(0,0,100)); // Moderately bright blue color.
  pixels.show(); // This sends the updated pixel color to the hardware.
  delay(1000);   // Wait for 1 second
  pixels.setPixelColor(0, pixels.Color(0,0,0));   // Turn off the led.
  pixels.show();
  delay(1000);
}

And Then,

  • Click on Tools > Board > Wio Tracker
  • Click on Tools > Port to select a right port number. (Don't choose COM1)

Then click on the Upload button on the left-top of Arduino IDE, seconds later the sketch was uploaded successful.

If the uploading is success, you should the some info in red and you will see the User LED, it's blinking in blue.

Check battery​

Wio Tracker is designed for tracking moving things outdoor. So you can power the board via a 3.7V Lipo battery with JST1.0 connector and check the voltage of your battery easily.

caution
Make sure the positive and negative end of your battery is connected right, otherwise the board may be damaged.

Battery status pin had beed connect to A4, which allow you to measure voltage of the battery via coding.

Open your Arduino IDE and click on File > Examples > MC20_GPS_Traker > Check_Battery to open the sketch or copy the blow code:

#include "MC20_Arduino_Interface.h"

const int pin_battery_voltage = A4;

void setup() {
    SerialUSB.begin(115200);
}

void loop() {

    int a = analogRead(pin_battery_voltage);
    float v = a/1023.0*3.3*2.0;        // there's an 10M and 10M resistor divider
    SerialUSB.print("The voltage of battery is ");
    SerialUSB.print(v, 2);
    SerialUSB.println(" V");
    delay(1000);
}

Use Grove modules to expand your application​

To use 6 Grove connectors on Wio Tracker, we have to use digitalWrite(12, HIGH) to open 3V3_B to power the Grove modules(D12 defaults to LOW in order to reduce consumption).

  • The following code shows how to use Analog and Digital Grove modules:

Open your Arduino IDE and click on File > Examples > MC20_GPS_Traker > Button_LightSensor to open the sketch or copy the blow code:

#include "MC20_Arduino_Interface.h"

#define GrovePowerPin   12
#define LightSensorPin  A0
#define ButtonPin       2


void setup() {
  SerialUSB.begin(115200);
  pinMode(ButtonPin, INPUT);
  pinMode(GrovePowerPin, OUTPUT);
  // write high to grove power pin to enable all the Grove ports,
  // or only Grove D2 port is usable.
  digitalWrite(GrovePowerPin, HIGH);   
}

void loop() {
    // print analog data when the button is pressed
    if (digitalRead(ButtonPin)) {
        SerialUSB.print("The value of light sensor:");
        SerialUSB.println(analogRead(LightSensorPin));
    }
    delay(500);
}
  • The following code shows how to use Grove UART port:
#define GrovePowerPin   12

void setup() {
  pinMode(GrovePowerPin, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(GrovePowerPin, HIGH);    //power Grove
  //SerialUSB.begin(115200);
  SerialDBG.begin(115200);    //set Grove UART baud rate 115200
}

void loop() {  
  //SerialUSB.println("Grove UART is sending message");
  SerialDBG.println("This is Grove UART");
  delay(1000);
}

Please use USB To Uart to read the Grove UART port data.

caution
If both SerialUSB and SerialDBG are used in the code, please open SerialUSB's com port when using, otherwise SerialDBG will not work.

GNSS​

MC20 module provides the AT Commands Set for MCU to communicate with its GSM/GPRS, GNSS and Bluetooth modules.

And we have installed a well written library for the Wio GPS, for simple applications you even don't need to know much about how to use the AT commands, which is complex and hard to read.

The following example shows how to read longitude and latitude and print them out in Serial Monitor. Please note that Wio Tracker should be placed outdoor to get GPS signal. And this example needs a SIM card in Wio Tracker, the following pictures show how to install/uninstall a SIM card:

Open your Arduino IDE and click on File > Examples > MC20_GPS_Traker > MC20_GNSS > GNSS_Show_Coordinate to open the sketch or copy the blow code:

#include "MC20_Common.h"
#include "MC20_Arduino_Interface.h"
#include "MC20_GNSS.h"


GNSS gnss = GNSS();

void setup() {
  SerialUSB.begin(115200);
  // while(!SerialUSB);

  gnss.Power_On();
  SerialUSB.println("\n\rPower On!");

  while(!gnss.open_GNSS()){
    delay(1000);
  }

  SerialUSB.println("Open GNSS OK.");
}

void loop() {
  // gnss.dataFlowMode();

  if(gnss.getCoordinate()){
    SerialUSB.print("GNSS: ");
    SerialUSB.print(gnss.longitude, 6);
    SerialUSB.print(",");
    SerialUSB.println(gnss.latitude, 6);  
  } else{
    SerialUSB.println("Error!");
  }

  delay(1000);
}

SMS Message Read​

The following example shows how to read sms messages on Wio Tracker. Nano SIM card is needed in this example.

Open your Arduino IDE and click on File > Examples > MC20_GPS_Traker > MC20_SMSRead to open the sketch or copy the blow code:

#include "MC20_Common.h"
#include "MC20_Arduino_Interface.h"

#define RGBPIN 10

char phone[32];
char dateTime[32];
char buffer[64];
int i = 0;
char *s = NULL;
int inComing = 0;

GPSTracker gpsTracker = GPSTracker();

void setup() {
  // MC20_init();
  pinMode(RGBPIN, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(RGBPIN, LOW);
  SerialUSB.begin(115200);
  // while(!SerialUSB);

  gpsTracker.Power_On();
  SerialUSB.println("Power On!");

  // gpsTracker.deleteSMS(1);

}

void loop() {

  if(MC20_check_readable()){
    inComing = 1;
  }else{
    delay(1000);
  }

  if(1 == inComing){
    MC20_read_buffer(buffer, 64);
    SerialUSB.println(buffer);

    if(NULL != (s = strstr(buffer,"+CMTI: \"SM\""))) { //SMS: $$+CMTI: "SM",24$$
        char message[128];
        int messageIndex = atoi(s+12);
        gpsTracker.readSMS(messageIndex, message,128);
        SerialUSB.print("Recv SMS: ");
        SerialUSB.println(message);
     }
     MC20_clean_buffer(buffer,64);  
     inComing = 0;
  }

}

Bluetooth Connection​

It is also very easy to connect to your Bluetooth device on Wio Tracker. Open your Arduino IDE and click on File > Examples > MC20_GPS_Traker > MC20_BlueTooth > BT_FastConnect to open the sketch or copy the blow code.

Then change the deviceName of your Bluetooth device, Wio Tracker will connect it automatically.

#include "MC20_Common.h"
#include "MC20_BT.h"

// GPSTracker gpsTracker = GPSTracker();
BlueTooth bt = BlueTooth();
int bt_state = -1;
char *deviceName = "N-612";


void setup() {
  SerialUSB.begin(115200);
  while(!SerialUSB);

  bt.Power_On();
  SerialUSB.println("\n\rMC20 power On!");
  bt.BTPowerOn();
  SerialUSB.println("\n\rBT power On!");

  while(IDLE != (bt_state = bt.getBTState())){
    SerialUSB.print("State: ");
    SerialUSB.println(bt_state);
    delay(1000);
  }

  bt.BTFastConnect(deviceName, HFG_PROFILE);
}

void loop() {
  /* Debug */
  if(SerialUSB.available()){
    serialMC20.write(SerialUSB.read());
  }
  if(serialMC20.available()){     
    SerialUSB.write(serialMC20.read());
  }
}

SD Card​

  • Step 1. Plug SD card to Wio GPS board.
  • Step 2. Use the usb cable to connect Wio GPS board to PC.
  • Step 3. Open your Arduino IDE, Select Tools -> Board -> Wio GPS board.
  • Step 4. Click on File > Examples > Seeed_Wio_GPS_Board\SD_Card_Test_DumpFile to open the sketch or copy the blow code.
  • Step 5. Upload code to Wio GPS board, it shows how to read a file from the SD card using the SD library and send it over the serial port.
/*
  SD card file dump

 This example shows how to read a file from the SD card using the
 SD library and send it over the serial port.

 The circuit:
 * SD card attached to SPI bus as follows:
 ** MOSI - pin 11
 ** MISO - pin 12
 ** CLK - pin 13
 ** CS - pin 4 (for MKRZero SD: SDCARD_SS_PIN)

 created  22 December 2010
 by Limor Fried
 modified 9 Apr 2012
 by Tom Igoe

 This example code is in the public domain.

 */

#include <SPI.h>
#include <SD.h>

const int chipSelect = 4;
char* fileName = "gps.txt";

void setup() {
  // Open serial communications and wait for port to open:
  SerialUSB.begin(115200);
  while (!SerialUSB) {
    ; // wait for serialUSB port to connect. Needed for native USB port only
  }


  SerialUSB.print("Initializing SD card...");

  // see if the card is present and can be initialized:
  if (!SD.begin(chipSelect)) {
    SerialUSB.println("Card failed, or not present");
    // don't do anything more:
    return;
  }
  SerialUSB.println("card initialized.");

  // open the file. note that only one file can be open at a time,
  // so you have to close this one before opening another.
  File dataFile = SD.open(fileName);

  // if the file is available, write to it:
  if (dataFile) {
    while (dataFile.available()) {
      SerialUSB.write(dataFile.read());
    }
    dataFile.close();
  }
  // if the file isn't open, pop up an error:
  else {
    SerialUSB.println("error opening datalog.txt");
  }
}

void loop() {
}

Schematic Online Viewer​

Resources​

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