Reliable, real-time data communication with our 3G Modem Kit

Since the world has implemented more and more devices (beginning with the advent of mobile phones), the need for these machines to communicate in real-time data and be controlled has consequently grown.

Today, Machine to Machine communication has become compulsory for many electronic devices (Personal Digital Assistant, Tablets, PCs, e-readers…) and has impacted the industrial world just the same - especially when it comes to control and automation, kiosks information systems or infotainment.

The 3G Modem is ideal for customers with requirements on remote management, communication reliability and real-time performance. For example, you want to configure remotely all of your international airport’s information points, you want to keep tracking of vehicles (deliveries, ambulances), or you want to monitor in real-time the performance of your production line.

The 3G modem with our fanless PCs could help you setting up a machine to machine wireless network that collect and analyse the data of your production line in real-time, enhancing improvement points and optimising your costs and performance.

Armed with knowing the benefits of this technology for industrial applications, when a customer asked us about the reliability of the 3G data communication for his project, we decided to take a 3G Modem Kit to our lab for some in-depth testing.

Interview with the Lab:

“The 3G Modem kit enables 3G data communication over GSM networks (data rate of up to 21 Mbps-down and 5.7 Mbps-up) using the same technology as your cell phone” explained Max, our application engineer. “It’s based on Telit HE910-D mini PCIe cellular modem and a penta-band antenna connected with a fanless PC.

Fitted in IntensePC2: the Telit HE910-D mini PCIe cellular modem (1) and SIM card (2). The antenna is connected via antenna cable to the modem (3).

On this project, I worked with our partner, CompuLab, and Telit, the manufacturer of the modem. They both delivered fast support providing all the documentation and drivers I needed.

I wanted to be sure that the 3G Modem Kit was thoughtfully tested with all our models featuring an on board SIM Socket: Fitlet-T, Fitlet-H, Fitlet-I/IA10, Fit-PC4/3i and IntensePC2.

The tricky part was the hyper terminal commands of the modem: basically making sure the SIM card and the modem were communicating. Once I was sure it worked properly, I checked the kit on all our models equipped with an on-board SIM socket (Windows versions tested only).

Because our customers are not from UK only, I decided that we should test other SIM cards to be sure our European customers could use the kit too. I tested successfully SIM cards coming from French, Italian, German and Romanian network providers.

Today I know we can offer this technology to our customers. We know how it works and that we can support it. Our customers can also choose the model they want amongst our broad portfolio of fanless PCs according to their requirements as the 3G modem works with AMD and Intel PCs.”

Consult the 3G Modem datasheet here or contact us to discuss your project.