This guide is useful for helping resellers and installers with wiring in, setting up and testing a Digital Matter Device. Includes information for G62, Dart2 and G120 models.

Wiring Harnesses

This table is a very condensed version of the wiring Harnesses, for more detail, see the Wiring Harness articles for Dart/Dart2, G62 and G120.

Generic Standard Installation Example

• The Standard Three Wire install consists of connecting the Red (Positive) Power wire to a constant power source on the vehicle, the White Ignition wire to a point on the vehicle that is energised when the vehicle is ON, and black wire to vehicle ground.

Getting Started

DM Devices may be damaged by electrostatic discharge if not handled correctly. Ensure adequate static precautions are taken. Consider wearing an anti-static wrist guard. Avoid touching the antennae and any of the electronic components on the PCB. Take special care not to touch the ceramic GPS antenna as static can damage the sensitive GPS circuitry.

Inserting the SIM

For example, The Dart2 uses a Micro SIM card–form factor 3FF. The SIM holder is on the top of the PCB. When handling the Dart2 be careful not to touch the GPS antenna, to minimise the risk of damaging the sensitive GPS amplifiers with static discharge.

• Unlock the SIM holder by sliding it towards the battery side of the device. Open the holder up on its hinge.
• Insert the SIM with the contacts down and the keyed corner pointing away from the battery side of the device
• Put the holder back down on the PCB and slide it towards the closest side of the device to lock it in place.

To easily get up and running:

• The SIM should not have a PIN on it, unless you use the device specific PIN.
• The SIM should have credit or airtime
• The SIM should use one of the APN's built into the firmware. It is possible to set APN's by SMS

Connect the Battery

The DM Powered Devices all come with various Li-PO battery packs.

• Leave the battery in the position it is stuck down, away from the antennas
• Plug the battery into the socket shown in the image, positive (red) wire closest to battery.
• The LED should start to flash.

Checking the Device is Connected

LED Behaviour

The battery should come pre-charged. Once you insert it, the internal LED will come on and flash.

• The LED will flash slowly at first. When it opens a connection to the server, it will flash fast. Once data is sent, it will go solid briefly, and revert to flashing fast. When the device goes to sleep, the LED will switch off.
• If the battery is too low, use the harness to provide external power.
• If the LED flashes but the Dart2 does not connect, check the SIM is in the holder correctly and check that the SIM is working. Further troubleshooting steps are discussed further on in this document.

OEM Installer Page

The OEM Installer page is designed to verify than an installation has been done correctly. We will be using it going forward in this document. The Function of this page is generic across all devices.

It is not password protected, and as such is designed to not give any sensitive information away.

To access the page, go to www.oemserver.com/installer

Work through these steps in order, to check the device is connecting in and getting a GPS fix. If an earlier step fails, the data in later steps may not be accurate. For example, if the device is not connecting, the Battery Voltage will be based on older data, and will not be current.

1. Check Last Connection (1) to check that the device connected recently. This means the device is connecting to OEM. The time shown should be around about the time you inserted the SIM and battery to power on the unit.
   
   
2. If device is connecting (1) check Last Commit (2) to see if it is sending data. If the connector is set, it must be setup on the software platform that is meant to receive the data. e.g. Telematics Guru.
   This should be arranged by the channel partner prior to installation
   
   
3. Check the time of the last GPS update (3). It should be recent.
   
   
4. Check the battery level (4) is acceptable for the device type. It should be between 3.5-4.2V (around 3.5V is flat)
   
   
5. The device is Enabled in OEM Server Device Operations > Set Enabled
   
   
6. Firmware is up to date
   
   
7. System parameters have been synced between OEM Server and Device
   
   
8. Connector has been set 

Troubleshooting

If the device does not connect (1) check the following:

• If the sim card has been inserted correctly.
• If the sim card has enough mobile data on it and is active (contact your reseller if required)
• If external voltage is connected properly.
• If the device is running, based on LED flashes (see above)
• The device is using the correct APN – contact your reseller if you are unsure

If the device does not commit (2) check the following:

• If the device is setup on the platform that the connector points to. e.g. Telematics Guru. Check that both the serial number and device type are correct on the platform. (Contact your reseller for assistance)

If the device does not update GPS (3) check the following:

• The device has a clear view of the sky
• If there are crosses showing for (5), (6), (7) or (8);
  • If a firmware or parameter update is pending, the update will be downloaded on the next connection. 
  • Updates will not be applied while the device is in trip.
  • To speed up applying updates, power cycle the external power on the device, this triggers an upload. 
  • Alternatively cycle the ignition, though remember leaving the ignition on means the device will stay connected to the server and not apply its updates.
    
    
    

You can now continue with the installation

Installation Location

The housing has mounting holes for screws, bolts or cable ties. There are a few considerations for the final mounting position of DM Devices. 

The devices have been engineered to have the best possible GPS reception. It will work from inside engine bays, body panels, under dashboards and other places where other GPS devices simply fail to operate reliably.

Although the untis will work in these locations it is always advisable to install them where it is best able to get signals from the GPS satellites, with the optimum position being a location with a clear 180-degree view of the sky

Installation Procedure

1) Connect Power & Ignition

Connect the following wires to the vehicle:

• Red(external power) to the vehicle positive - 8 to 36V (MAX). 
  • Verify this supply is constant, even when the vehicle is switched off. Sometimes other (non-constant) signal lines can appear to be a 12 or 24V constant supply.
• Black (Ground) to the chassis ground
• White  (Ignition) to an ignition source – something that will be on when the vehicle ignition is on, and off when the ignition is off.

2) Testing

Use the installer page to verify the External Power (1) and Ignition (2) is operating correctly. The Ignition input (2) should change from off to on when you toggle the vehicle’s ignition.

3) Driver ID 

Only available on Dart/Dart2, G62, G100/G120 Devices.

Click to see installation guide for Connecting an iButton Reader to the Dart2

Connecting Digital Inputs

When installing digital inputs, make note of how they are installed, and how the ‘switch’ operates. It is useful to know so that your reseller can apply the correct settings to the device.

Digital Matter Devices have two important settings for digital inputs. Bias Resistor and Active Level.

• Bias Resistor: The bias resistor essentially determines the state of the input when nothing is connected to the input. Options are pull-up (hold input high), pull-down (hold low), and disable. The default on the Dart2 (and most devices) is pull up
  • Active Level: Determines the physical line level which is logged as ‘on’ by the device.

Common examples of digital inputs are:

• Duress buttons –push button connected between a digital input wire and ground. Pushing the button closes the circuit to ground, which we want to register as ‘Active’
  • In this scenario we would set Bias Resistor = Pull up, and Active Level = Low
• PTOs – Input wire on device is connected to high side of PTO, so when the machine is on and there is a voltage on this line we want the input to be ‘ON’ and 0V as ‘OFF’.
  • In this scenario we would set Bias Resistor = Pull down, and Active Level = High

Testing

The installer page can again be used to verify that digital inputs are correctly wired. 

Note: By default, the device will not connect and report upon input changes – it simply logs them and uploads later (this can be changed) so you might not see them change quickly.

However, when the ignition is on, the device will connect and stay connected to the server – so input changes will show immediately. Hence it is worthwhile testing your inputs with the ignition on if possible and safe to do so.

Toggle the inputs with the ignition on, and confirm they are correctly setup via the installer page.

If the settings described above have not yet been applied or are incorrect the physical on/off state of the input might not match what is shown in the Installer Page.

Wiring for Immobilisation

The Dm Devices have a switched ground output (For colours see above). This type of output, when ‘ON’ provides a ground, and when ‘OFF’ is high impedance.

The switched ground output is used to control the negative side of a relay coil, which will open or close a circuit to provide a starter motor cut. The specific pins used vary dependent on use case, with the aim to ensure the relay is not energised when the vehicle is not running, causing a drain on the battery.

The DM Devices support 2 kinds of immobilisation:

1. Driver ID - Vehicle is immobilised until the correct driver ID is entered, then immobilisation is turned off
2. Remote Immobilisation - Immobilisation is off most of the time. Then the device can be sent a command to immobilise the vehicle

Wiring for Immobilisation with unless correct Driver ID scanned.

See our Knowledge Base links below for more discussions. The example below is the Dart2 wiring diagram, where the relay is concerned, normally Open/Closed and common pins are uniform across the devices with the different methods of immobilisation.

Dart2/G62/G100 Immobilisation Methods

1. Connect the relay coil positive (PIN 86), to the vehicle positive
2. Connect the relay coil negative (PIN 85), to the switched ground output (Yellow on Dart2)
3. Use the common (PIN 30) and Normally Open (PIN 87) contacts to control the starter motor.
4. In this configuration the relay is not energised until the driver ID is scanned, at which point it will be energised allowing the vehicle to be started

Wiring for Remote Immobilisation

1. Connect the relay coil positive (PIN 86), to the vehicle positive
2. Connect the relay coil negative (PIN 85), to the switched ground output (Yellow on Dart2)
3. Use the common (PIN 30) and Normally Closed (PIN 87a) contacts to control the starter motor.
4. In this configuration the relay is energised when the command is sent from the server to immobilise, and the starter motor is cut.