Devise Electronics, the provider of engineering services to customers across the product lifecycle, recently selected Quectel’s EC20 LTE Category 4 and MC60 quad-band full-featured GSM/GPRS/GNSS smart IoT modules for integration into one of the company’s telematics units. With more than 40,000 hours of engineering experience, Devise has completed over 70 projects across industry verticals. The company has been at the forefront of projects to support customers engineering electric vehicles, working on autonomous vehicles and bringing innovation into traditional segments. In addition, Devise has been pioneering the implementation of Industry 4.0 and helping its customers to achieve Proof of Concept (PoC).

With global customer reach and offering a single point of customer contact in three continents, Devise is supporting multinational and global customers while seamlessly using cloud and secure databases for engineering data transfer.

“We are using the Quectel EC20 and MC60 modules in our telematics unit for two-wheeled electric vehicle applications,” explains Sujit Yardi, the Chief Engineer at Devise Electronics. “Both modules offer an integrated and combined option of GPRS and GPS, along with other features like power down modes and an easy to integrate assembly package, both of which are ideal for the needs of these vehicles. We were looking for a single module that could combine GSM and GPS to save space and cost while providing connectivity options.”

The Quectel EC20 is an LTE category 4 module optimized especially for M2M and IoT applications. Adopting the 3GPP Rel. 11 LTE technology, it delivers 150Mbit/s downlink and 50Mbit/s uplink data rates. Designed in the compact and unified form factor, the EC20 supports Qualcomm® IZat™ location technology Gen8C Lite (GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo and QZSS). The integrated GNSS greatly simplifies product design, and provides quicker, more accurate and more dependable positioning.

The Quectel MC60 is a quad-band full-featured GSM/GPRS/GNSS module that utilizes LCC castellation package. The module integrates both GPRS and GNSS engines in one compact and low profile SMT package. It supports EPO^TM technology which provides predicted Extended Prediction Orbit to speed up TTFF without the need of an extra server. The compact form factor, great positioning performance, low power consumption and dual (U)SIM card interfaces make the MC60 an ideal choice for a wide range of M2M applications, such as automotive, telematics, wearable devices and asset trackers.

“We chose Quectel because these modules provide us with an integrated solution for GSM and GPS, backed by local sales and technical support and featuring a standard mounting package,” adds Yardi. “We were attracted to Quectel because the company offers easy to use documentation and we have been impressed by the technical support we have received to resolve AT command sequencing issues during development. That 24/7 support capability really stands out.”

The company is also planning to deploy the Quectel EC25-E IoT module in the European market and is working with a customer based in Munich, Germany. Beginning with five units for a PoC, Devise plans to ramp up volumes following successful development activity in the coming months.

“We’re pleased that Devise Electronics has selected our EC20 and MC60 modules for its telematics unit for two-wheeled electric vehicles,” said Michael Wallon, VP Sales APAC and ANZ, Quectel Wireless Solutions. “This market demands both cellular and GPS connectivity in order to accurately locate and position vehicles on ride-sharing fleets, for example, so our modules, which combine both technologies in a single integrated module, are ideal to meet the space and power demands of these applications. It has been a pleasure to work with Devise Electronics’ engineers to enable their customers in this growing market.”