Cavli Wireless C16QS is a Made in India LTE IoT Modem. It is built on a Dual-Core Cortex M3 GSM processor that works at 204 MHz. I have been considering evaluating this module for a long time, but only now have I gotten a chance.
I am building an asset-tracking solution for one of my customers and recently purchased an evaluation kit, so I thought of doing this teardown to learn about the module in depth. I am not very happy with the evaluation kit quality, but it serves the purpose of evaluation.
Let me show you the internals.
I will share all the details about different chipset used and their part number and brief about the functionally.
If you want to discuss further you can join me on the DevHeads Discord Server (Teardown Section), we can chat in detail.
Unlike many other modules where I had to remove the RF shield via a hot air gun, I could easily open it for this one.
The Main GSM processor is Qualcomm QCX216. It has built-in RAM, Flash, and PMIC; only passives are required on the PCB.
Another Qualcomm chipset is Qualcomm QPA8675, an LTE Power Amplifier. An RF Switch IC is also used on the module.
Cali Wireless C16QS Modem proves inbuilt GPS which supports: GPS/GLONASS/BeiDou/Galileo
The image of the chipset is not very clear. The GPS chipset used is UC6228CI. The UC6228CI is a low-power, high-performance GNSS SoC from UNICORE.
That’s all in this teardown. I hope you found this teardown interesting and learned something new.
I am always interested in knowing which other teardown you would like. Please share in the comments below.
I work as an embedded systems design consultant, helping companies build custom embedded products and develop test automation solutions for their PCBs.
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