GPS for assets

We have the best solution for you, no matter what asset you own.

Keeping an eye on your assets

With GPS devices, you always have your assets in view. In the software, you can see the current location in a list and on the electronic map. On this you can view the last 5 or 20 locations or the route of up to 2 months.

The alarm dispatch module actively informs you when an asset has moved out of a certain area. With our maintenance tool you can monitor machine hours and have alarms sent to you when a service interval has been reached.

Without power supply for up to 10 years

At Infostars you will find a wide range of GPS devices for asset tracking. The GPS devices can be used for fixed installation or only for plugging in, as well as mobile and independent with their own internal battery.

Mobile GPS devices are always used when the asset does not have its own battery. These mobile GPS trackers all have an internal battery or accumulator (recharchable battery). These power the unit for up to 10 years, depending on the setting and application.

Fixed installation vs. mobile use

If a GPS unit is used for fixed installation, this has the advantage that the unit will send data for years without requiring maintenance. It draws its power from the battery of the asset (machine, vehicle, etc.). These devices usually send very frequently, several times per minute, when the asset is moving or in operation.

When using a mobile GPS device, i.e. if no battery is available at the asset or it should not be used, then this device must have enough power with it to be able to send the location data for the desired period of time. Generally, the larger the GPS unit, the larger the battery and the longer it will last.

BLE Beacon or GPS device

BLE beacons are devices that broadcast via Bluetooth. This technology makes it possible to locate these beacons at close range and to be guided to the beacon via an app.

The great advantage of the BLE beacon is that it does not require a SIM card and is also very inexpensive to purchase. The disadvantage arises from the advantage. The Beacon can only communicate with devices in the nearby area. If there is none nearby, you don’t know where it is.

The advantage with the GPS device is that they can send their positions independently almost worldwide as soon as a GSM network is available. You can see exactly where the device is within metres. However, GPS technology does not work indoors. In this case, our GPS devices always send a GSM cell position, which means that they can be located even without a GPS position. If you now use a beacon in addition, you can find the asset in the close-up area via the beacon..

Size vs. frequency of sending

There are several factors that influence the power consumption of a GPS device. Like how efficiently it works or how high the power consumption is in a deep sleep mode or the ambient temperature.

If the unit is very efficient, then it depends mainly on the frequency of transmission. If a device is transmitting once a day and another one transmitts every hour, then the second one has a 24 times higher power consumption. If the unit would last about 5 years when transmitting once a day, it would only last about 2.5 months when transmitting every hour.

This example shows very clearly that the question of “how often or when should the device transmit” is very important for mobile devices.

Active vs. passive

There are devices that are passive and others that are active. A passive GPS device remains registered in the network and can be reached at any time to send a position request.

With passive devices there are 2 issues that need to be considered:

1. If the unit is actively not sending tracking data, a position request would have to be made from time to time manually. Because if the unit does not respond, you have no information about where it was last.
2. The second issue is a particularly sensitive one. In order to be able to reach a passive device at any time, it must be dialled into the network. This has the effect that the worse the network, the greater the power consumption. This is because the device has to turn up its transmitting power extremely strongly when the network is bad, and this costs a lot of electricity.

In comparison, an active device has the advantage that it actively sends location data at regular intervals. The software always automatically displays the last position. A poor network has a much smaller impact on power consumption.

So which is better?

The answer always depends on the application. Our team will be happy to advise you on this.

Depending on the value of the asset and the target, we sometimes recommend a combination. You can supplement a fixed GPS device with a mobile GPS device and also use a BLE Beacon.

If your construction machine has a value of 500,000€, then you can use the fixed device for normal monitoring of machine hours and areas of operation. If, in the event of theft, the fixed GPS device is detected by a thief and removed from the vehicle, then you still have the mobile device. And if the construction machine is hidden in an area without GPS reception, you can locate the BLE Beacon and find it again.

Ask us which solution we recommend.

Use cases

You can use the GPS devices for a wide variety of asset tracking use cases. These include, for example, the following

→ Dispatching

→ Warehouse management

→ Theft protection

→ Temperature & humidity monitoring

→ Machine hour monitoring with alarms