Device having knowledge of its own type

Before uploading firmware to a device, I would like to know what type of device I am connected to. The response should be in a machine readable format i.e. a short code. And SiWi to provide a table of the possible codes. I know the same module is inside most of the Fastrack/FXT etc units, but they should be able to interogate some external registers/pins to determine what the overall unit is.
A defined format of response for the firmware would be good too, but this does seem to have settled down since R7.43
See
https://forum.sierrawireless.com/t/platform-info-before-upgrading/4898/1

Seconded!

One would have thought that this would be necessary for IDS…?