News 

GSatSolar Series Firmware 2.14.2

Release date: 20 October, 2023

Availability: General

GSE is excited to announce the new firmware package for the GSatSolar Series (including GSatRancher). This new firmware represents a technological leap forward for the terminal, and increases its positional value in the remote IoT market with enhanced reporting capabilities.

New Feature

Implemented additional selectable payload configurations for track events. Users can select between “Firmware 2.14+”, “Standard Altitude” and “Animal Tracking” payload settings

Next release of Android and iOS app will allow users to toggle between these options.

Payloads

New Default Payload

Default payload now includes location, battery level, accelerometer motion, orientation, charge rate, and temperature. The configuration for the portal should be set to “Firmware 2.14+” to decode the new payload after updating.

Limitations: Temperature readings are accurate for temperature inside the unit, but can vary up to 6 degrees Fahrenheit. Actual external temperatures compared to internal temperature have been observed to have a variance of up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit when the unit is exposed to direct sunlight for prolonged periods of time. This is similar to the temperature sensors inside of hot cars, which regularly report values 10-20 degrees higher than the temperature outside. GSE engineers are working on software solutions to temperature variance, but expect to have limited ability to solve this issue.

Orientation is a critically important new piece of information, as it can be a key indicator that the unit or whatever it is mounted to is in an abnormal state, whether upside down, prone, or otherwise. It also opens the door to a number of new remote IoT tracking opportunities, such as auto-adjusting solar panels on solar farms.

VeDBA is a very exciting value, the applications of which we are just beginning to explore. For now, higher VeDBA = greater overall movement for a particular period of time. This can be extremely relevant when tracking activity cycles for animals with the GSatSolar and GSatRancher devices. GSE engineers are already working on machine learning applications to make smarter use of the VeDBA data, and to deliver better insights via GSatTrack.

Battery

Improved Battery Life

Faster GPS mean time to fix.

General power consumption/battery life improvements.

Improved Battery State Accuracy

Changed from using battery voltage to a battery charge/discharge model for reporting battery capacity.

Improved Low Battery Mode Flag

Improved device low battery indication over satellite such that the device reports a low battery on the last message at the standard tracking rate, before switching the low battery tracking rate.

Bug Fixes

Fixed bug causing erratic/inaccurate satellite transmit intervals when the unit toggles into and out of partial suspend mode with tracking interval set to >12 hours

Identified a bug that was causing devices to report 1-3 times per day (randomly selected) when in low power mode. Low power mode now works as designed, and any device entering low power mode will report once every 24 hours.