A GSM/GPRS Module like SIM300 can be used for any embedded application that requires a long range communication, like a robot in Chennai controlled by a person sitting in New Delhi! Or simply a water pump in a rice field turned on in the morning by a farmer sitting in his house few kilometers away! You have few communication options depending on the application, they may be as follows.
- Simple SMS based communication
- Turn on/off loads using simple SMS commands, so the controlling device is a standard handset. You can use any mobile phone to control the device.
- A intruder alarm/fire alarm that informs about the panic situation to the house owner on his/her mobile via SMS.
- Call based communication
- A smart intruder alarm/fire alarm that calls the police or fire station and plays a pre recorded audio message to inform about the emergency.
- Internet Based Communication (GPRS)
- User can control the end application using any PC/Tablet/Mobile with internet connection. Example: LED Message Displays installed on highways/expressways controlled from a central control room to inform users or traffic conditions ahead.
- A robot controlled over internet. That means the robot can be accessed from any device having internet any where in the world.
- A portable device installed on vehicles that connects to internet using the GPRS Module SIM300 and uploads current position(using Global Position System) to a server. The server stores those location in a database with the ID of vehicle. Then a client(using a PC) can connect with the server using World Wide Web to see the route of the vehicle.
Advantage of using SIM300 Module.
The SIM300 KIT is a fully integrated module with SIM card holder, power supply etc. This module can be easily connected with low cost MCUs like AVR/PIC/8051. The basic communication is over asynchronous serial line. This is the most basic type of serial communication that’s why it is very popular and hardware support is available in most MCUs. The data is transmitted bit by bit in a frame consisting a complete byte. Thus at high level it is viewed as a simple text stream. Their are only two streams one is from MCU to SIM300 and other is from SIM300 to MCU. Commands are sent as simple text. Their are several tutorials that describes how to send and receive strings over the serial line
If you have never heard of serial communication and never did it in practice then it is highly recommend to go and understand clearly
For more detail: GSM Module SIM300 Interface with AVR Amega32
