A growing number of asset trackers are adopting Nordic Semiconductor's power-efficient, rugged wireless solutions for harsh environments.

Nordic announced today that Chennai, India-based Tavago Tech has launched a new asset tracker, the Tuff, featuring Nordic's cellular IoT, GNSS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth® LE wireless technologies.

This device is based on a compact design and detects movement, motion and tampering of assets, while supporting extended battery life and extended operating range.

The battery-powered positioning device, Tough, is housed in a rugged ABS plastic enclosure with an IP68 waterproof rating to withstand harsh environments and is designed for indoor and outdoor tracking of people, cargo and assets anywhere in the world.

The Tough is currently available in two sizes, 85x58x9mm and 120x50x25mm (including mounting flange).

These products detect the operating parameters of assets.It is equipped with a vibration sensor and a high-precision 3-axis accelerometer to detect movement, a device tamper sensor to detect when the device is opened or manipulated, and a sensor to detect when the device is removed from the asset.

Tough utilizes Nordic's low-power nRF9160 System-in-Package (SiP) with LTE-M/NB-IoT modem and GNSS support, leveraging high-precision, low-power GNSS and NB-IoT connectivity for indoor and outdoor tracking.

These cellular connections can also transmit location data to the cloud. Additionally, the nRF9160 SiP's 64MHz Arm® Cortex®-M33 application processor provides the computational power to supervise all sensors and peripherals and analyze related data.

Additionally, the device includes Nordic's Wi-Fi 6 companion IC, the nRF7000, which supports indoor positioning in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands based on the SSID of the Wi-Fi access point (AP).

The nRF7000, which integrates seamlessly with Nordic's nRF91 Series cellular SiP, is designed specifically for SSID-based Wi-Fi positioning.

Additionally, the Tough solution leverages Nordic’s advanced multi-protocol SoC, the nRF52833, to support additional use cases based on pairing with Bluetooth LE beacons or to provide standalone Bluetooth LE connectivity.

This configuration provides accurate and stable indoor and outdoor positioning results, while allowing users to adjust positioning accuracy based on battery life.

Tabago Tech supports GPS, cellular, and Wi-Fi-based location gathering on the nRF7000 and nRF9160, and also leverages Nordic's nRF Cloud for eDRX and Firmware Over-The-Air (FOTA) development.

“Turf is very easy to use with a minimal learning curve,” said Sriram Narayanaswamy, CEO of Tabago Tech. “The device has no power switches, no unnecessary buttons or hardware, and no time-consuming setup,” he said.

TURF can be used to track the location of pets or family members, as well as personal valuables, mobile items, vehicles, or expensive cargo, as well as to manage employee productivity and visitor safety.

Tough can sound an alarm when the SOS button is pressed, and can send an emergency alert for medical assistance if it detects a sudden fall or immobility. A web-based platform is available for businesses to track their personnel and assets, and iOS and Android apps are also available for tracking users via smartphones.

The Tough uses a 3.7V/1100mAH rechargeable lithium-ion battery and integrates Nordic's nPM1100 PMIC (Power Management IC).

Tabago Tech was able to replace an earlier two-chip solution with the nPM1100, which features a highly efficient buck regulator configurable in dual mode and an integrated battery charger.

In some applications that require rapid polling, the Tough can provide two weeks of battery life, while in other applications that poll every 12 to 24 hours, it can provide up to five years of battery life. This long lifespan is largely due to the ultra-low power characteristics of Nordic solutions.

“We considered several competing technologies, but ultimately chose the Nordic solution because of its ease of power management, best-in-class low power consumption, especially in sleep and eDRX modes, and its ability to integrate GNSS, NB-IoT, and Arm processors into a single SiP, enabling compact designs,” said Narayanaswamy.

He added, "Nordic's support was exceptional compared to other companies we've worked with in the past. All technical data sheets, reference designs, and recommendations were immediately available. We are deeply grateful to Nordic's sales and application engineers for their unwavering support from the very beginning of development."