Never Lose Your Luggage Again with a Smart Tracker Design

Uwe Fuhrmann

Many of you may have experienced lost luggage when traveling by plane. Statistics say that more than six pieces of luggage out of every 1,000 shipped do not reach their correct destination airport. That’s 60,000 pieces of lost luggage a day, or 23 million pieces a year.

Container logistics have a similar record with an even greater financial impact. There are around 17 million transport containers in use, shipping everything from consumer goods to high-tech equipment; about 1,000 are lost every year. Keep in mind that such containers can transport goods worth several million dollars.

The transportation industry spends more than $2 billion each year searching for lost luggage, redirecting items when located and reimbursing owners for lost goods.

A GPS-based sensor and tracking system with a long battery life can eliminate lost items by tracking locations in real time, optimizing supply-chain management and reducing cost and environmental pollution as well. Figure 1 shows a typical ecosystem.

Figure 1 Typical Ecosystem for a GPS-based Sensor and Tracking System (Source: CargoMon Systems GmbH)

The tricky thing is designing the sensor in such a tracking system to find the right power source (battery) and power conversion (DC/DC) and thus enable a couple of years of reliable operation. Since these systems target five years or more of maintenance-free usage, both the tracking system and sensor need to work at a very high efficiency with very low quiescent current.

Like many other systems in today’s Internet of Things (IoT), these systems are typically always on, but sleeping most of the time. You can program periodic wake-up intervals for sensing, localization and wireless data transmission according to your customers’ requirements. There are various low-power microcontrollers (MCUs) available on the market to help you achieve the required flexibility (one example is the MSP430™ MCU).

The DC/DC power conversion needs to support a variety of battery types and must have very low quiescent current, since the system is in sleep mode most of the time. But the DC/DC power conversion also needs to work at very high efficiency when the load is just a few microamps to support the MCU’s typical standby modes. To support a fast MCU wake-up time with minimal wireless connectivity interference, the DC/DC must have fast transient response and low noise.

The Smart Lock Reference Design Enabling 5+ Years Battery Life on 4x AA Batteries can also support shipping containers. This reference design uses the SimpleLink™ Bluetooth® low energy CC2640 wireless MCU and the TPS62745 ultra-low-power DC/DC converter.

For longer battery run times, the TPS62840 with just 60-nA quiescence current can be used. This converter can operate from a variety of battery types and topologies (1.8 V to 6.5 V), and offers 80% efficiency at 1µA load. Additional features make this solution even more attractive for tracking applications, such as an integrated STOP function to cease all switching for a moment when transmitting wireless data or taking a precision measurement without any distortion. The output voltage of this device is selectable in 50 mV or 100 mV steps to easily power different MCUs, radios or sensors.

Your next airplane flight can become worry-free (at least with regards to your luggage) when using such a tracking system.

Figure 2 Luggage Tracker Diagram

Additional Resources

Watch the building automation webinar series and learn about trends for your building automation system
Learn how extending battery life in smart locks can help you reduce the likelihood of system malfunction

IMPORTANT NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER

TI PROVIDES TECHNICAL AND RELIABILITY DATA (INCLUDING DATASHEETS), DESIGN RESOURCES (INCLUDING REFERENCE DESIGNS), APPLICATION OR OTHER DESIGN ADVICE, WEB TOOLS, SAFETY INFORMATION, AND OTHER RESOURCES “AS IS” AND WITH ALL FAULTS, AND DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS AND IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS.

These resources are intended for skilled developers designing with TI products. You are solely responsible for (1) selecting the appropriate TI products for your application, (2) designing, validating and testing your application, and (3) ensuring your application meets applicable standards, and any other safety, security, or other requirements. These resources are subject to change without notice. TI grants you permission to use these resources only for development of an application that uses the TI products described in the resource. Other reproduction and display of these resources is prohibited. No license is granted to any other TI intellectual property right or to any third party intellectual property right. TI disclaims responsibility for, and you will fully indemnify TI and its representatives against, any claims, damages, costs, losses, and liabilities arising out of your use of these resources.

TI’s products are provided subject to TI’s Terms of Sale (www.ti.com/legal/termsofsale.html) or other applicable terms available either on ti.com or provided in conjunction with such TI products. TI’s provision of these resources does not expand or otherwise alter TI’s applicable warranties or warranty disclaimers for TI products.

Mailing Address: Texas Instruments, Post Office Box 655303, Dallas, Texas 75265