ECALL not activated on HL6528RD

Hi, I just got my HL6528RD is reporting that ECALL is de-activated - see response to the capability bitmap below. Unsurprisingly all of the ECALL specific AT commands return ERROR

at+kbcap
+KBCAP: 0x0025
AVMS: 1
ECALL: 0
GNSS: 1
TLS: 0
TTS: 0
DSSS: 1
DBV: 0
PARAM:
UBOOT: 01.00.20151030
OK

Ho do I activate this capability. FYI the revision is
at+cgmr
RHL6528RD.1.11.0.11CV10F30.201601081919.m6261a_1

Also I bought this SDK directly from the SierraWirless e-store so there is no distributor/re-seller to contact.

Thanks

Gerry,

There are a couple of points here.

  • Officially the HL6528 does not support ecall, this is for several reasons. Firstly the ecall functionality is only able to be used royalty free purely in ecall applications, anything outside this customers must pay IPR to QC as they own the technology. Since we have no way of knowing if a customer is going to adhere to this we have it turned off.
  • 2G in car applications is effectively now not being deployed, it maybe in some after market applications but certainly not ecall ones. As a result of this we took a decision early on to not develop or offer this functionality beyond the initial releases of firmware of the HL6528, this does need to be communicated more clearly in the manual and I will try to get this done (maybe even have the command section removed altogether).
  • You will note in the firmware version you have stated, the hardware you have is the HL6528RD, not the original HL6528 (the two are separate devices on the source). The original HL6528 is going out of manufacture in the near future with its successor being the HL6528RD, the AT command manual for this device is given at the link below. In it there are no ecall commands because this device is not going to support it, ever, for the above reasons.

http://source.sierrawireless.com/~/media/support_downloads/airprime/software/airprime_hl6528rdx_at_commands_interface_guide_rev4_3.ashx

Regards

Matt

Hello Matt,

We purchased this kit to test our eCall solution. How can we downgrade the firmware to test eCall? Also we dont have access permission for:

source.sierrawireless.com/~/medi … ev4_3.ashx

As you mentioned HL6528 is going out of manufacture, Can you replace our kit HL6526RD with HL6528 as we need it for eCall testing only?

Best Regards,
Deepak

Deepak,

You need to register for the source (this is an automated process at http://source.sierrawireless.com/, not too sure if your forum login details also give you access to this, they may well do.

The HL6528RD will work in the dev kit you have without issue, however, as I have stated HL6528RD does not support Ecall where you specifically want to test this so not sure how you want to proceed.

Regards

Matt