Sms module 3G network problem

[Sams reef]

Hello
I have corals farm an i have 4 GHL sms modules in my farm and before 2 days my cellular company aborted the 3G and 2G network and because of that my modules stopped working always searching for network “flashing red quickly”. I contacted my cellular company the sayed no more 3G and 2G support just 4G and 5G.
What can i do to fix that?
Maybe we can upgrade the modules to 4G connection?

It is very important to me to have the sms modules working.

Thanks
Hossam

 

[Dave-T]

How about getting a 4G or 5G WiFi router and using regular WiFi with your GHL equipment?

 

[Sams reef]

I want to work with GSM to get sms to the mobile not by app via wifi connect. That why I bought 4 ghl sms modules i am working like that for almost 10 years.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I think your only recourse is going to be Wifi and other public internet or as stated above a 4g or 5g hotspot to your cell cell provider. If you must have SMS then using an email to SMS gateway.

 

[Sams reef]

I think your only recourse is going to be Wifi and other public internet or as stated above a 4g or 5g hotspot to your cell cell provider. If you must have SMS then using an email to SMS

What is the problem to replace the 3G chip to 4G chip in the sms module? It is useful and helpful to me as i have many tasks and it always sends to me parameters and alerts.
I’ve sent to ghl support forum but no answer there.

 

[Sams reef]

Email to sms gateway can have a lag time of anywhere from a minute to sometimes an hour and sometimes the messages go into a black hole. With the sms modules I always get alert messages within seconds it makes my life easier and it keeps sender alert every 15 minutes till i solve the problem. As a farm for me it must be system.

 

[BeanAnimal]

it is more than just a “chip”.

“4G” is LTE and a different radio technology than GSM (“2G” and “3G”). The software would have to be re-coded to talk to the new card at the very least even if the carrier board supported the radio card. Think “driver” for a computer card.

 

[Sams reef]

it is more than just a “chip”.

“4G” is LTE and a different radio technology than GSM (“2G” and “3G”). The software would have to be re-coded to talk to the new card at the very least even if the carrier board supported the radio card. Think “driver” for a computer card.

I think that there must be 4g sim boart that can fit the ghl sms module.
Like this but 4g. It just for communication no need to build new code or new device. It sends information not reading information or monitoring.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Hi - you are not understanding.

The radio modules are not just plug in parts. They are peripheral devices that need to be communicated with. That is a Telit GM-862-QUAD (clone) GSM radio card. The card is just the radio and cell protocol stack. The “instructions” that tell the card what to do are specific to to that card and contained in software that GHL wrote.

If the card is changed (assuming that the new card uses the same IO pins, voltages and footprint) then the software that talks to the card would also need to be re-written. This is basically redeveloping the device with new parts. It is an integrated system.

It is somewhat like asking “hi, can I upgrade my CD player to play Blu-Ray discs by switching out the laser”.

I am sorry that I don’t have a better answer.

 

[Matthias Gross Verified Sponsor]

Hello Hossam,

sorry I didn't see this thread earlier, Gael pointed me to this thread after you asked the same question in our forum and over the ticket system.
BeanAnimal is 100% correct. It is not just a drop-in replacement of the GSM module. All is different, footprint, pin assignments, socket, and of course the firmware in our host CPU.
I am very sorry, but an "upgrade" is just impossible.
Due to the very minimal demand it is not possible to develop a complete new device from ground up and then we sell maybe a dozen per year. These devices would have to cost thousands of $$$ to make the investment worth it, but who would buy it then?

I also can only really recommend to use a standard gateway.

 

[Sams reef]

Hi - you are not understanding.

The radio modules are not just plug in parts. They are peripheral devices that need to be communicated with. That is a Telit GM-862-QUAD (clone) GSM radio card. The card is just the radio and cell protocol stack. The “instructions” that tell the card what to do are specific to to that card and contained in software that GHL wrote.

If the card is changed (assuming that the new card uses the same IO pins, voltages and footprint) then the software that talks to the card would also need to be re-written. This is basically redeveloping the device with new parts. It is an integrated system.

It is somewhat like asking “hi, can I upgrade my CD player to play Blu-Ray discs by switching out the laser”.

I am sorry that I don’t have a better answer.

So you are saying its impossible and to throw the sms modules that i have?

 

[Sams reef]

Hello Hossam,

sorry I didn't see this thread earlier, Gael pointed me to this thread after you asked the same question in our forum and over the ticket system.
BeanAnimal is 100% correct. It is not just a drop-in replacement of the GSM module. All is different, footprint, pin assignments, socket, and of course the firmware in our host CPU.
I am very sorry, but an "upgrade" is just impossible.
Due to the very minimal demand it is not possible to develop a complete new device from ground up and then we sell maybe a dozen per year. These devices would have to cost thousands of $$$ to make the investment worth it, but who would buy it then?

I also can only really recommend to use a standard gateway.

But you must understand me also. I have 4 systems and with all the respect that it will cost you thousands of dollars the cost of the damage for me will be h

 

[BeanAnimal]

But you must understand me also. I have 4 systems and with all the respect that it will cost you thousands of dollars the cost of the damage for me will be h

It will cost more than "thousands" of dollars to develop a new product. He is saying the cost to the customer would have to be "thousands of dollars" to recover the development cost.

If this is that important to you, then I would investigate using an email to SMS gateway provider if you don't feel that your carriers SMS gateway is reliable. This is a fairly common setup with many modern monitoring devices and sidesteps IoT developers needs to build dedicated SMS interfaces for their products.

 

[Sams reef]

It will cost more than "thousands" of dollars to develop a new product. He is saying the cost to the customer would have to be "thousands of dollars" to recover the development cost.

If this is that important to you, then I would investigate using an email to SMS gateway provider if you don't feel that your carriers SMS gateway is reliable. This is a fairly common setup with many modern monitoring devices and sidesteps IoT developers needs to build dedicated SMS interfaces for their products.

It will cost more than "thousands" of dollars to develop a new product. He is saying the cost to the customer would have to be "thousands of dollars" to recover the development cost.

If this is that important to you, then I would investigate using an email to SMS gateway provider if you don't feel that your carriers SMS gateway is reliable. This is a fairly common setup with many modern monitoring devices and sidesteps IoT developers needs to build dedicated SMS interfaces for their products.

What i am saying that if it costs thousands of dollars to make the upgrade it will cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars if i have power failure or temperature failure and don’t know till i go to the farm. Its 10000 litres of corals and fishes and I am not there 24 hours and there is alot of problems that comes from everywhere. And with all of the respect and i am sorry to mention that but its the company problem not mine. I bought 4 sms modules with lot of money to stay calm. And to throw 4 systems to the garbage is not good solution.
I want solution to my problems.
I want to get every day at 20:00 sms from each tank that everything is okay with parameters and get alarms for each leak like temperature level ph…. And to annoy me every 10 minutes till i fix that
If there is another solution i don’t mind.
Before 12 years-+ before I started using ghl sms module i made alarm system from the gates alarm system from ebay with temperature and level and ph sensors that cost me around 120 dollars.
But i want professional and easy solutions because i don’t have time for DIY.
In my opinion GHL sms module is the best product of the company and it saved my tanks hundreds of times and it’s the only reason i prefer profilux from the other aquarium computer companies

 

[Gaël]

Would you be willing to buy several new SMS modules at several thousand dollars each?

 

[BeanAnimal]

What i am saying that if it costs thousands of dollars to make the upgrade it will cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars if i have power failure or temperature failure and don’t know till i go to the farm. Its 10000 litres of corals and fishes and I am not there 24 hours and there is alot of problems that comes from everywhere. And with all of the respect and i am sorry to mention that but its the company problem not mine. I bought 4 sms modules with lot of money to stay calm. And to throw 4 systems to the garbage is not good solution.
I want solution to my problems.
I want to get every day at 20:00 sms from each tank that everything is okay with parameters and get alarms for each leak like temperature level ph…. And to annoy me every 10 minutes till i fix that
If there is another solution i don’t mind.
Before 12 years-+ before I started using ghl sms module i made alarm system from the gates alarm system from ebay with temperature and level and ph sensors that cost me around 120 dollars.
But i want professional and easy solutions because i don’t have time for DIY.
In my opinion GHL sms module is the best product of the company and it saved my tanks hundreds of times and it’s the only reason i prefer profilux from the other aquarium computer companies

Hi Sam - You are demanding an update to a product that was designed over 15 years ago. Technology has moved on. I am not sure how one can point fingers at a vendor if they choose not to move forward with developing a new product that has little or no demand.

To that end, GSM was introduced in 1991 and is 35 years old. It is being phased out word-wide by all carriers. You are lucky for it to have lasted this long, as most carriers have already shut it down, just like they did analog cell services 16 years ago.

You have some problem solving to do, but I can't see you can blame the vendor or demand that they cater to your needs. I am sure they are sympathetic, but who is to bear the cost for you to be happy? I assume for some less than attractive price you could consult with them for a custom engineered solution if 100,000s of thousands of dollars is truly at stake. Likewise if that is the risk, then I would suggest that you need more redundancy than a few Profilux controllers and SMS modules anyway.

In the short term an email to SMS gateway service will fill the need.

Best of luck. There is nothing more that I can add.

 

[Sams reef]

Hi Sam - You are demanding an update to a product that was designed over 15 years ago. Technology has moved on. I am not sure how one can point fingers at a vendor if they choose not to move forward with developing a new product that has little or no demand.

To that end, GSM was introduced in 1991 and is 35 years old. It is being phased out word-wide by all carriers. You are lucky for it to have lasted this long, as most carriers have already shut it down, just like they did analog cell services 16 years ago.

You have some problem solving to do, but I can't see you can blame the vendor or demand that they cater to your needs. I am sure they are sympathetic, but who is to bear the cost for you to be happy? I assume for some less than attractive price you could consult with them for a custom engineered solution if 100,000s of thousands of dollars is truly at stake. Likewise if that is the risk, then I would suggest that you need more redundancy than a few Profilux controllers and SMS modules anyway.

In the short term an email to SMS gateway service will fill the need.

Best of luck. There is nothing more that I can add.

Till now i have the newest iPhone and still have SIM card on it and working 99% of the time on gsm not wifi. So please don’t try to make me from the Stone Age. Update is just to move from 3g to 4g not another product. I have also profilux 3 and profilux 3 still working and not in the garbage.

 

[Sams reef]

Would you be willing to buy several new SMS modules at several thousand dollars each?

The sms module costs arround 500$ each
I will be more than happy to buy this product for 1000$ because it’s important for everyone in the hobby because all of us still receives sms messages.

 

[Dave-T]

Sam, you're going to have to accept the fact that GHL is not going to upgrade the SMS modules. Is there a problem using Wifi? Do you not have internet access at your coral farm? That would seem to be your best (and only) solution to continue to use the GHL ecosystem and receive alert notifications.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Till now i have the newest iPhone and still have SIM card on it and working 99% of the time on gsm not wifi. So please don’t try to make me from the Stone Age. Update is just to move from 3g to 4g not another product. I have also profilux 3 and profilux 3 still working and not in the garbage.

Hi Sam - Please look at the date on PCB board that you uploaded. It says "2010". That IS the stone age with regard technology. It is 15+ years old. It DOES NOT SUPPORT 4G or 5G communications. It is not an upgradable device. A brand new device would have to be designed and manufactured, built around an LTE radio.

Your NEW iPhone has radios for both GSM and LTE networks and is designed to work with both. You can't compare that to a device designed 15 years ago that was designed and built before 4G or 5G existed.

I am sorry that you don't understand the difference between "3G" and "4G" but there are very different technology. Different radios, different protocols, etc. They can't be interchanged. It has very little to do with the "cost" of the radio and everything to do with the time and cost of engineering a new solution.

You can't be mad at GHL, they have done nothing wrong.

You can't be mad at your carrier, the whole world is moving on. GSM is OLD technology. It costs them money to keep the infrastructure alive.

You can't be mad at me. I am just trying to help you understand.

Your options are limited, just as they would be if you still wanted to use a fax machine to send orders or a dialup modem to connect to the internet or a VHS player to watch movies. The world has moved on to new technology and it is often not backwards compatible and almost never forward compatible.

Best of luck.