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Swarm Tile Product Manual  

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Swarm Tile Product Manual 
Revision 1.00 
June 2020 
© 2020 Swarm Technologies, Inc. 
 

 

 

Summary of Contents for Tile

Page 1: ...Swarm Tile Product Manual Swarm Tile Product Manual Revision 1 00 June 2020 2020 Swarm Technologies Inc ...

Page 2: ... IN THE LEGAL INFORMATION BOOKLET FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE FURTHER THE LIMITED WARRANTY COVERS THE SWARM TILE INCLUDING HARDWARE SOFTWARE AND OR FIRMWARE AND ACCESSORIES ONLY AND NO WARRANTY IS MADE AS TO USER INFORMATION AND OR COVERAGE AVAILABILITY OR GRADE OF SERVICE PROVIDED BY SWARM SEPARATELY FOR SWARM SATELLITE SERVICES IN NO EVENT SHALL SWARM BE LIABLE WHETHER IN CONTRACT OR TORT OR ...

Page 3: ...products may include copyrighted Swarm and third party software Any such copyrighted software contained in Swarm products may not be modified reverse engineered distributed or reproduced in any manner to the extent provided by law The purchase of any Swarm products shall not be deemed to grant either directly or by implication or otherwise any license under copyrights patents or patent application...

Page 4: ...Comment 0 95 03 16 2020 Tile Product Manual Initial Release 1 00 6 3 2020 Updated Firmware Commands to reflect version 0 7 3 Improved specifications on Tile mechanical and electrical sections June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 4 63 ...

Page 5: ...mensions 11 3 2 Environmental 12 3 2 Mechanical Specification Placement 12 3 3 Reflow Soldering 13 3 4 Physical Interface Connectors 14 4 Electrical Interfaces 15 4 1 User Host Device 15 4 2 Tile Pin Allocation 15 4 3 DC Power Interface 18 4 4 Power On Off Control 22 4 5 Serial Data Interface 22 5 RF Interface 23 5 1 RF Connectors 23 5 2 RF Connectors 23 5 2 1 Antenna Characteristics 24 5 3 RF Tra...

Page 6: ...ceive Test 34 TILE Tile Status 35 6 2 Commands and Responses 36 CS Configuration Settings 36 DT Date Time 37 FV Firmware Version 39 GJ GPS Jamming Spoofing Indication 40 GN Geospatial information 42 GP GPIO1 Control 44 GS GPS Fix Quality 47 MM Manage received messages 49 PO Power Down 52 PW Power Status 53 RS Restart Tile 55 RT Receive Test 56 SL Sleep mode 58 TD Transmit data 60 June 2020 Swarm T...

Page 7: ... radio or television reception which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one of the following measures Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected Consult the...

Page 8: ...CNR d Industrie Canada applicables aux appareils radio exempts de licence L exploitation est autorisée aux deux conditions suivantes 1 l appareil ne doit pas produire de brouillage 2 l appareil doit accepter tout brouillage radioélectrique subi même si le brouillage est susceptible d en compromettre le fonctionnement 1 2 2 IC ID The IC ID for the Tile is 25817 TILE01 All manufacturers integrating ...

Page 9: ...Transceiver Regulatory Certification The Tile is a regulatory approved modular transmitter that is designed to be integrated into an enclosed host system With appropriate external connections the host can be designed to meet full regulatory tests and sold as a regulatory certified product that meets FCC IC and CE requirements Table 1 below is a partial list of regulatory approvals Regulatory Appro...

Page 10: ...gn The Tile communicates via a standard 3 3V CMOS serial UART interface or a PC interface with a USB to serial converter Category Description Satellite data Maximum latency will be 1 min 95 of the time Components GPS VHF radio with integrated T R switch U FL connector for GPS and VHF antenna SMD interface also available indicator LEDs 3 3V serial interface 3 3V GPIO Sensors Onboard GPS lat lon alt...

Page 11: ...e summarized in Table 3 Parameter Value Length 58 67 0 3 mm Width 27 43 0 3 mm Height 6 00 0 1 mm Weight 14 g Table 3 Tile Mechanical Dimensions and Weight A diagram of the Tile s mechanical dimensions is shown in Figure 1 Figure 1 Tile front and back views June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 11 63 ...

Page 12: ...Temperature Range 220 C 160 C Operating Humidity Range 0 to 95 non condensable Storage Humidity Range 0 to 95 non condensable Table 4 Environmental Specifications 3 2 Mechanical Specification Placement The Tile must be fitted within an enclosed host system The Tile is designed to be soldered directly to a PCB and is provided with solder pads on its underside Figure 2 Location of solder pads on the...

Page 13: ...dering paste is recommended An example No Clean paste can be found below Soldering Paste M8 SAC305 PN 89268 AIM Solder Alloy specification Sn 95 5 Ag 4 Cu 0 5 96 5 Tin 3 Silver 0 5 Copper Melting Temperature 217 C Stencil Thickness 100 to 150 µm for base boards Figure 3 Recommended reflow profile for lead free solder paste June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 13 63 ...

Page 14: ...ble 5 Data points for reflow soldering 3 4 Physical Interface Connectors The Tile incorporates two connectors A GPS Antenna U FL male connector TE Connectivity 1909763 1 An RF Antenna U FL male connector TE Connectivity 1909763 1 June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 14 63 ...

Page 15: ...GPS or Pin 8 GPIO_1 optional 4 2 Tile Pin Allocation The pin numbering scheme of the Tile is shown in Figure 4 The module pins allow soldering onto a printed circuit board PCB using standard reflow soldering techniques The pin function assignment is given in Tables 6 and 7 Multiple supply grounds are provided and all supply and supply grounds are required to be connected to the power supply in ord...

Page 16: ...ound 8 GPS_RF RF External GPS antenna connection 9 3V3 VCC 3 3V at up to 1000mA 10 3V3 VCC 3 3V at up to 1000mA 11 GND Ground Ground 12 GND Ground Ground 13 NC Not Connected RESERVED DO NOT CONNECT 14 NC Not Connected RESERVED DO NOT CONNECT 15 GND Ground Ground 16 GND Ground Ground 17 GND Ground Ground 18 SAT_OUT RF External satellite radio antenna connection 19 GND Ground Ground Table 6 Tile pin...

Page 17: ... Pin 8 the resistor R5 adjacent to GPS U FL connector must have a 0 ohm resistor 0402 placed and a 50 ohm strip line to the RF connector 9 10 The 3 3V connection points are in parallel with one another and power the Tile If the designer wants to enable a complete power off mode a load switch can be provided here 18 SAT_RF uses 50 Ohm input impedance Use of SAT_RF instead of the SAT U FL connector ...

Page 18: ...e 18 5 18 6 19 6 μA Current consumption Receiver Active 27 2 27 9 30 5 mA Current consumption GPS Acquisition Mode 46 0 49 3 54 8 mA Current consumption Transmitter on 880 888 939 mA ICC 3 60V Current consumption Sleep Mode 18 7 18 7 19 8 μA Current consumption Receiver Active 27 9 29 1 32 6 mA Current consumption GPS Acquisition Mode 47 6 49 6 55 2 mA Current consumption Transmitter on 845 853 90...

Page 19: ... 3 s Length of transmission for sending a 200 byte packet to space Actual length may be shorter with a smaller packet size Transmission Energy 1 8 mW hrs 6 6 J Total amount of energy required for 1 transmission to space Recovery Time 0 4s When sending multiple messages this is the minimum amount of time that will pass before the Tile will attempt another transmission Table 9 Sample Tile transmissi...

Page 20: ...gure 8 A separate programming header TILE PROG HEADER is included in the sample hardware design to upgrade the Tile firmware It is highly recommended that users include the programming header in their design to easily upgrade the Tile s firmware in the future Figure 6 High level diagram of a Swarm Tile reference design integration June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 20 63 ...

Page 21: ...t voltage regulator I2C interface and programming header for flashing future firmware releases Figure 8 Sample hardware reference design integration for Tile The three programming headers are highly encouraged so that the Tile firmware can be easily updated in the future June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 21 63 ...

Page 22: ...he serial data interface is a CMOS serial UART 3 wire Serial Rx Serial Tx and Ground interface at 3 3V digital signal levels over which the Tile transfers commands responses and message data The serial communication parameters can be found in Table 10 Parameter Value Baud Rate 115200 Data Bits 8 Bits Parity None Stop bits 1 Bit Flow Control None Table 10 Serial communication parameters In addition...

Page 23: ...is is a surface mount connector that is directly attached to the Tile A Swarm VHF antenna must be used to ensure that the RF output is within certification limits Swarm antennas are tuned for a VSWR of 1 8 or better at both 137 MHz and 150 MHz 5 2 RF Connectors For illustrative purposes a picture of two example Swarm antennas is shown in Figure 9 Figure 9 Swarm Coiled Wave Antenna and Swarm Wave A...

Page 24: ... along major length 7 6 mm Weight 31 5 g Operating Temperature 55 C to 130 C Operating Humidity 0 100 humidity condensable Impedance 50 Ohms nominal Polarization Linearly Polarized VSWR in Swarm Bands 1 8 Gain 2 0 dBi Frequency 137 000 138 000 MHz Rx 148 000 150 000 MHz Tx Connector SMA male Antenna Classification Mobile Fixed Minimum separation distance from body 29cm Table 12 Antenna characteris...

Page 25: ...a Classification Mobile Fixed Minimum separation distance from body 29cm Table 13 Antenna characteristics for Swarm wave Antenna A GPS antenna is required for operation Any passive GPS antenna with an appropriate connection to the Tile s U FL male connector or via the GPS_OUT pin is acceptable for use One such example of a passive antenna is Molex Part Number 1461860300 Active GPS antennas are sup...

Page 26: ...location for the module input and bypass capacitance Note 2 SAT_RF track has a width of 0 343mm and is designed to support a 50 Ohm microstrip with a ground plane on layer 2 Ensure 0 635mm of clearance between the top copper pour and the RF SMD pad Ensure 0 381mm of clearance between the top copper pour and the RF tack Note 3 GPS_RF track has a width of 0 343mm and is designed to support a 50 Ohm ...

Page 27: ...ds as possible An example layout can be found in Figure 10 Route traces to avoid noise being picked up on VCC supply RF Trace keep out areas Ensure there is no copper in the keep out areas on any layer of the host PCB as can be seen in Figure 10 Locate all mounting hardware and metal as far as possible from the Tile to not impede antenna performance Different host PCB thicknesses or dielectric val...

Page 28: ...ith a bad checksum are silently ignored and are not retained A will never occur within a command and may be used to reset the receiving state machine An may occur within a command The receiving state machine will verify the last three characters in the command are xx after the n is received and before the checksum is calculated Each x may be any legal ASCII character in the range 0 9 A F or a f An...

Page 29: ...esignator and the of the command Additional notes The user application should ignore any characters received during startup until the following NMEA sentence has been received TILE BOOT RUNNING 49 The bootloader may output non NMEA formatted messages during this time These messages include but are not limited to status messages firmware update progress messages and error messages June 2020 Swarm T...

Page 30: ...as obtained a valid time reference to set its internal date and time as indicated by the TILE DATETIME 35 message If the GPS loses its time reference the message is sent with a flag indicating an invalid state Date time unsolicited messages can be enabled or disabled using the DT command DT YYYY MM DD hh mm ss flag xx Parameter Description YYYY Year 1970 2038 MM Month 01 12 DD Day 01 31 hh Hour 00...

Page 31: ...ted positional information including latitude longitude altitude course and speed This message is not sent until the GPS has obtained a valid position fix as indicated by the TILE POSITION 2d message Geospatial information unsolicited messages can be enabled disabled using the GN command GN latitude longitude altitude course speed xx Parameter Description latitude Latitude in d dddd format float T...

Page 32: ...type xx Parameter Description hdop Horizontal dilution of precision 0 9999 integer actual hdop 100 vdop Vertical dilution of precision 0 9999 integer actual vdop 100 gnss_sats Number of GNSS satellites used in solution integer unused Always reads as 0 unused fix_type NF No fix DR Dead reckoning only solution G2 Standalone 2D solution G3 Standalone 3D solution D2 Differential 2D solution D3 Differe...

Page 33: ...dd format float NOT USED ON TILE solar_volts Solar voltage measured in V in d ddddd format float NOT USED ON TILE temp CPU Temperature in degrees C to one decimal point float RD Receive Data This unsolicited message provides an ASCII encoded hexadecimal string with the user data received from the Swarm network Some fields also include signal quality information for the received message Received da...

Page 34: ...nsolicited messages can be enabled disabled using the RT command with the message notification option RT RSSI rssi xx RT RSSI rssi_sat SNR snr FDEV fdev TS time DI sat_id xx Parameter Description rssi Received signal strength in dBm for open channel integer rssi_sat Received signal strength in dBm for packet integer snr Signal to noise ratio in dB for packet integer fdev Frequency deviation in Hz ...

Page 35: ... completed and ready to accept commands UPDATED A firmware update was performed VERSION Current firmware version information DATETIME The first time GPS has acquired a valid date time reference POSITION The first time GPS has acquired a valid position 3D fix DEBUG Debug message data debug text ERROR Error message data error text Notes A data message follows the BOOT message to indicate the reason ...

Page 36: ...s CS AI app_ID DI dev_ID DN dev_name EM emu_mode UU uuid xx Value Description app_ID Application ID assigned and programmed by Swarm dev_ID Device ID that identifies this device on the Swarm network dev_name Device type name emu_mode Internal operating mode for Swarm use only uuid Unique ID for Swarm use only Notes An ERR response will be generated if the command is not entered exactly as shown wi...

Page 37: ... as V valid or I invalid DT rate xx The current DT rate DT OK xx rate updated successfully DT ERR xx Command input error Notes For the query option the return value of DT rate xx requires different parsing than the normal DT message format The application should check if a comma is present in the DT string and if so assume it is the standard date time format If no comma is present and the value is...

Page 38: ...Example Calling the most recent date time message DT 70 DT 20190408195123 V 6d Returns a date time of April 8th 2019 7 51 23 PM GMT The date time is valid June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 38 63 ...

Page 39: ...V 10 Returns one of Value Description FV version_string xx The current firmware version FV ERR xx Command input error Notes An ERR response will be generated if the command is not entered exactly as shown with no additional spaces or characters Example FV 10 FV 2020 05 19 19 07 33 v0 7 2 7d June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 39 63 ...

Page 40: ...e most recent GS message See GPS Jamming Spoofing Unsolicited Messages for more detail on the outputs of this message GJ rate xx The current GJ rate GJ OK xx Parameters updated successfully GJ ERR xx Command input error Notes For the query option the return value of GJ rate xx requires different parsing than the normal GJ message format The application should check if a comma is present in the GJ ...

Page 41: ...ween 1 and 2147483647 2 31 1 It will be the number of seconds in between each message Example Setting the rate for geospatial information messages to 1 per second GJ 1 1C GJ OK 29 June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 41 63 ...

Page 42: ... Messages for more detail on the outputs of this message GN rate xx The current GN rate GN OK xx Parameters updated successfully GN ERR xx Command input error Notes For the query option the return value of GN rate xx requires different parsing than the normal GN message format The application should check if a comma is present in the GN string and if so assume it is the standard geospatial informa...

Page 43: ...ent GPS message GN 69 GN 37 8921 122 0155 77 89 2 0c Returns a location of 37 8921N 122 0155W The Tile s altitude is 77m its course is 89 degrees and it is moving at 2 kilometers per hour June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 43 63 ...

Page 44: ...trol the operation of the Tile GP mode xx Parameter Description Display current GPIO1 mode mode Set GPIO1 pin mode Returns one of Value Description GP mode xx The current GP mode GP OK xx Parameters updated successfully GP ERR xx Command input error June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 44 63 ...

Page 45: ... high indicates in sleep mode 3 Otherwise output is low It is the responsibility of the client to provide pull up resistors to the 3 3V supply rail See the reference design for resistor sizing All output modes are open drain 1 These two variations allow the user application to use GPIO1 as a general purpose output 2 If either of these modes are selected the pin will indicate if the Tile has receiv...

Page 46: ...Example Setting the GPIO1 pin to input and wake on a high to low transition GP 2 05 GP OK 33 June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 46 63 ...

Page 47: ...for more detail on the outputs of this message GS rate xx The current GS rate GS OK xx Parameters updated successfully GS ERR xx Command input error Notes For the query option the return value of GS rate xx requires different parsing than the normal GS message format The application should check if a comma is present in the GS string and if so assume it is the standard geospatial information forma...

Page 48: ...Example Setting the rate for geospatial information messages to 1 per second GS 1 05 GS OK 30 June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 48 63 ...

Page 49: ...tions will not be generated In either state messages are always retained in the database until deleted by the user MM C U D msg_id M msg_id N D E R msg_id O N xx Parameter Description C U Return count of unread U or all messages D msg_id R Delete message ID msg_id all read R or all messages M msg_id Mark message ID msg_id or all as read N D E Disable D enable E or query the notification state R ms...

Page 50: ...no longer be read All in the above context means both read and unread messages but does not include messages that have been deleted If a message is marked read using the M msg_id or M command marking it as read again is not an error The GPIO1 pin can be configured to indicate whether or not unread messages are pending see the GP GP mode command 1 msg_count is a number indicating the number of mess...

Page 51: ...321 21990237405212 1590620322 2f Returns a hexadecimal message of 537761726d2052756c657321 translated to ascii Swarm Rules a message ID of 21990237405212 and the message was received at 1590620322 epoch seconds May 27 2020 10 58 42 PM GMT June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 51 63 ...

Page 52: ... OK xx Command has been accepted and the Tile will immediately attempt to power off PO ERR xx Command input error Notes An OK response confirms that the Tile will shut down The user should disconnect power from the Tile at this point If left connected the Tile will draw approximately 6mA on its 3 3V input Example PO 1F PO OK 3b TILE BOOT SHUTDOWN 06 June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 52 63 ...

Page 53: ...cent PW message See Power Status Unsolicited Messages for more detail on the outputs of this message PW rate xx The current PW rate PW OK xx Parameters updated successfully PW ERR xx Command input error Notes For the query option the return value of PW rate xx requires different parsing than the normal PW message format The application should check if a comma is present in the PW string and if so ...

Page 54: ... 1 and 2147483647 2 31 1 It will be the number of seconds in between each message Example Setting the rate for geospatial information messages to one every 5 seconds PW 5 12 PW OK 23 June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 54 63 ...

Page 55: ...Description RS OK xx Command has been accepted and the Tile will immediately perform a hardware restart RS ERR xx Command input error Notes An OK response confirms that the Tile will successfully restart Example RS 01 RS OK 25 TILE BOOT RESTART 59 June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 55 63 ...

Page 56: ... Unsolicited Messages for more detail on the outputs of this message RT rate xx The current RT rate RT OK xx Parameters updated successfully RT ERR xx Command input error Notes For the query option the return value of RT rate xx requires different parsing than the normal RT message format The application should check if a comma is present in the RT string and if so assume it is the standard receiv...

Page 57: ...Example Setting the rate for geospatial information messages to 1 per second RT 1 05 RT OK 30 June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 57 63 ...

Page 58: ... time is set The S parameter is the number of seconds to sleep This value may range from 5 to 31536000 approximately 1 year seconds A value not within this range will return SL ERR BADPARAM If the command is accepted the Tile will emit SL OK and enter sleep mode for the requested duration The U parameter is a time and optional date the Tile should sleep until and then wake If the date is not speci...

Page 59: ...late The user should be aware of this when selecting a sleep with a long duration If the GPIO1 pin is configured as an input to wake the Tile the sleep mode will be terminated if activity occurs on GPIO1 If the GPIO1 pin is configured as an output that indicates the Tile s sleep mode GPIO1 will transition to the appropriate state if the SL OK message is emitted Example Commanding the Tile to sleep...

Page 60: ...ng data xx Parameter Description HD hold_dur Hold duration of message in seconds optional default 172800 seconds ET expire_time Time to expire message in epoch seconds string data 1 to 200 bytes of data ASCII string 2 to 400 bytes hexadecimal written as ascii June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 60 63 ...

Page 61: ...plication ID has not yet been set TD ERR NOTIME 0 xx Attempt to send message before time set TD ERR QUEUEFULL 0 xx Queue for queued messages is full TD ERR TOOLONG msg_id xx Message is too large to send Notes The HD and ET parameters are optional but must occur before the data portion of the command Both affect the time when a message is expired no longer considered available to transmit Expired m...

Page 62: ...be expressed one of two different ways If all the data to be sent is in the ASCII character range from 0x20 space to 0x7e tilde then the data may be sent as a string A string is specified by enclosing the data in double quotes e g Hello world It is permissible for the string to contain double quotes within the string e g Today is a new day If the data to be sent includes one or more character outs...

Page 63: ...575917 2d TD SENT 5354468575917 25 Sending a message from the Tile in ASCII that will expire on 2021 01 01 12 34 56 TD ET 1609504496 Hello World 1F TD OK 5354468575919 2f TD SENT 5354468575919 27 Sending a message from the Tile in HEXASCII TD 5468697320697320696E206865786173636969 65 TD OK 5354468575916 2c TD SENT 5354468575916 24 June 2020 Swarm Tile Manual Rev 1 00 63 63 ...

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