I have this project idea for a real-time phone network based GPS tracker. For more details about this project, see attached PDF.
Ideally, it should consist of a 3G transceiver module, a GPS module, and an on-board microcontroller.
It should be light weight, and use as little space as possible. For this reason, shields are out of the question, and to make matters worse they additionally have all these tall connectors on top of it, if it weren't already tall enough from being a stacked shield.
To my knowledge, there does not exist such a combination on a single board, commercially available.
Best I can find is
https://www.tindie.com/products/Fusion/tinytracker-gpsgsmcan-for-teensy-3132/ and
https://www.adafruit.com/products/3027However, it is unknown if they will work in Melbourne Australia, additionally, not being 3G, means i will be paying per minute for data, this is no good.
If i was to make my own, most of those 3G and on-board GPS modules are BGA, i do not have the tools to manage these (no i do not have a toaster or a skillet, no i don't want to use the oven, nor do i want to use them because i'd have no idea what i'm doing and these are expensive parts).
Additionally, I do not have a clue about RF design (connections to antennas using FR4), sure, there are calculators, but that assumes you know what you are doing. It is not just the single trace to worry about, apparently there is other issues, like grounding, vias, stitching, and stuff I have no idea about.
Also, Adafruit claim that their 3G modules currently do not have data support added to the code library due to complexity, so I imagine this is going to be similar with most other modules.
Any sort of help or advice getting this to a physical working project would be greatly appreciated!