Taoglas helps SODAQ TRACK with high-quality GNSS performance
As published by Taoglas on September 3, 2021
About
SODAQ is a Netherlands-based company that was founded in 2013 while creating solar-powered weather stations for rural Africa. The company specializes in designing and deploying low-power tracking and sensing solutions making them a world leader in sustainable IoT.
The Challenge
It is estimated that 8% of global CO2 emissions come from logistics operations, as a result of this and to minimize the ecological impact we’re witnessing a shift in supply chain strategies, with green logistics beginning to gain real momentum. In addition to the sustainable impact of logistics, industrial maintenance expenses erode a company’s bottom line, with unplanned downtime costing industrial manufacturers an estimated $50 billion annually. In view of this, the need for reliable monitoring and asset tracking is paramount.
However, to accurately track assets you need on-demand insights and fail-safe connectivity. When engineering the TRACK device, SODAQ faced this ambitious challenge head-on and set to work designing an industrial, low-cost tracker that could monitor anything, from anywhere. Due to Taoglas’ reputation for creating high-quality hardware, SODAQ contacted Taoglas about an antenna that needed to be of “high quality and capable of reliable GNSS performance”, explains Itay Dagan CTO at SODAQ.
"Working with the Taoglas team was an incredibly positive experience. In fact, we are choosing to use Taoglas antennas for a new device and will continue to partner with them for future GNSS applications, as we know their antennas can be relied on.”
The Solution
While researching antenna solutions for their TRACK device, SODAQ settled on Taoglas as their RF and antenna partner because “Taoglas antennas are of very high quality and are competitively priced” says Itay. “Additionally, we wanted to optimize the design of our TRACK device in every way so that we could extend the battery life by several years, however, this can be complex with power consumption that is needed for GNSS receivers. Calculating a location with GNSS uses a lot of energy, but by using a high gain Taoglas antenna it improved performance and reduced power consumption.”
Working with Taoglas, the SODAQ team identified the SGGP.12.4.A.02 – a low-profile, passive SMD GNSS patch antenna, which is expertly designed to be used in navigation devices, tracking, fleet management systems, and telematics devices due to its high-precision tracking capabilities.
The Outcome
The TRACK product is precisely what the SODAQ team envisaged and its revolutionary tracking abilities were made possible by the SGGP.12.4.A.02 antenna. “The Taoglas team was incredibly responsive to our queries and available to provide engineering support within our timezone,” Itay said. SODAQ is one of the many companies that has been able to benefit from Taoglas’ regional support. With 11 facilities worldwide, a Taoglas facility is never too far away to allow for local support.
