Cellular IoT asset tracker features claimed battery life of over 10 years

A recently launched cellular IoT asset tracker developed by Digital Matter supports magnetic tamper detection and enables market-leading battery life, according to the company. Featuring an IP68- and IK07-rated waterproof, ultra rugged housing to survive in tough work environments, the 430 g, 222 by 91 by 41 mm ‘Remora3’ is a battery-powered geolocation device. It is designed to track assets when they’re on the move and enter sleep mode when stationary to conserve power. The Remora3 features a highly accurate 3-axis accelerometer for movement detection, high-G events, tip detection, and rotation counting, as well as a recovery mode for real-time tracking of stolen or missing assets.

Equipped with the Nordic Semiconductor nRF9160 low power System-in-Package (SiP) with integrated LTE-M/NB-IoT modem and GNSS, the Remora3 employs high precision, low power GNSS including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, and QZSS to work out its position with enhanced accuracy and faster location fixes, says the company. The Remora3 intelligently transmits the whereabouts of the tracked item via an LTE-M or NB-IoT network. When equipped with a roaming SIM, it also supports automatic roaming between LTE-M and NB-IoT networks with minimal delay and marginal impact on battery life or performance.

Near real-time tracking

“The Remora3 is capable of ‘second-by-second’ (near real-time) tracking—which is unique on a battery-powered device—to support extended aggressive reporting requirements including highly accurate speed reporting, as well as run hour and odometer monitoring on mobile assets,” explains Ken Everett, CEO of Digital Matter.

“The solution is perfect for any asset which requires aggressive long-term tracking with ‘low touch’ requirements – for example, tracking heavy machinery that doesn’t have an easily accessible power source. Specifically, there has been a large demand for Remora3 in the trailer tracking space.”

The device employs the computational power of the Nordic nRF9160 SiP’s 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 application processor to oversee the sensors and collate the relevant data. The dedicated application processor runs the Digital Matter firmware that manages and performs the GNSS location lookups, and interfaces to the accelerometer for movement and high-G events.