For GPS tracker brands, IoT solution providers, and industrial equipment manufacturers, standard GPS tracking devices do not always meet project requirements. Different applications require different PCB sizes, battery life, communication technologies, interfaces, waterproof levels, positioning accuracy, and cost structures.

This is why more companies are looking for Custom GPS PCB solutions.

A real custom GPS PCB project is not simply about placing a GNSS module, a 4G module, and a battery circuit on one board. A reliable GPS tracking device must solve positioning, wireless communication, power management, RF design, antenna performance, firmware, server protocol, testing, certification, and mass-production challenges.

What Is a Custom GPS PCB?

A Custom GPS PCB is a GPS tracking device circuit board designed according to specific customer requirements.

Typical customization includes:

• 
  PCB size and shape
  
• 
  GPS/GNSS positioning module
  
• 
  4G LTE / Cat.1 / LTE-M / NB-IoT
  
• 
  LoRa / LoRaWAN
  
• 
  Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
  
• 
  SIM card or eSIM
  
• 
  Battery and charging management
  
• 
  SOS button
  
• 
  ACC detection
  
• 
  RS232 / RS485 / UART
  
• 
  GPIO
  
• 
  Relay control
  
• 
  Temperature, light, and motion sensors
  
• 
  Internal or external GNSS antenna
  
• 
  OTA firmware upgrade
  
• 
  Custom communication protocol
  
• 
  Custom firmware
  

The core architecture can be summarized as:

GNSS + Wireless Communication + Power Management + RF + MCU/Firmware + Interfaces + Mechanical Integration

Why Develop a Custom GPS PCB?

1. Standard PCB Size Does Not Fit

A GPS employee badge and a vehicle GPS tracker have completely different mechanical requirements.

Customers may require a board such as:

45 × 35 mm

or a long and narrow PCB for a livestock collar, personnel badge, pet tracker, or asset tracking device.

In these cases, a custom PCB design is necessary.

2. Battery Life Is Not Enough

Battery life is one of the biggest challenges in GPS product development.

For example, a customer may require:

• 
  Position upload every 10 seconds
  
• 
  Upload every 5 minutes
  
• 
  Sleep mode when stationary
  
• 
  Automatic wake-up when movement is detected
  
• 
  Only several reports per day
  
• 
  Six months or even one year of operation
  

Each application requires a different power strategy.

A custom GPS PCB can optimize:

• 
  MCU sleep mode
  
• 
  GNSS working time
  
• 
  4G wake-up duration
  
• 
  LoRa transmission interval
  
• 
  Sensor consumption
  
• 
  PMIC standby current
  
• 
  Battery capacity
  

Key Technical Challenges in Custom GPS PCB Development

1. GNSS Positioning Design

Common satellite systems include:

• 
  GPS
  
• 
  BDS / BeiDou
  
• 
  GLONASS
  
• 
  Galileo
  
• 
  QZSS
  

For global products, multi-constellation GNSS is usually recommended.

For example:

GPS + BDS + GLONASS + Galileo

This can increase the number of visible satellites and improve positioning performance in difficult environments.

GNSS Antenna Design Is Critical

Many GPS projects fail not because of the GNSS chipset, but because of poor antenna design.

Common problems include:

• 
  GNSS antenna too close to the LTE antenna
  
• 
  Battery placed directly under the GNSS antenna
  
• 
  Poor PCB ground-plane design
  
• 
  Enclosure material affecting RF performance
  
• 
  Excessively long RF traces
  
• 
  Incorrect installation orientation
  

These problems may cause:

• 
  Slow first fix
  
• 
  GPS drift
  
• 
  Low satellite count
  
• 
  Poor positioning accuracy
  
• 
  Failure to obtain a fix even outdoors
  

Therefore, the PCB, antenna, battery, and enclosure should be designed together.

2. 4G Communication Design

Modern GPS trackers increasingly use:

• 
  4G Cat.1
  
• 
  LTE Cat.1 bis
  
• 
  LTE-M
  
• 
  NB-IoT
  

Different countries use different LTE bands.

A global device may need support for bands such as:

B1 / B2 / B3 / B4 / B5 / B7 / B8 / B20 / B28 / B66

The actual band configuration should be selected according to the target country and local mobile operators.

Typical target markets include:

• 
  United States
  
• 
  Europe
  
• 
  Australia
  
• 
  South America
  
• 
  Middle East
  
• 
  Southeast Asia
  

Different markets may require different cellular modules.

3. LoRa GPS PCB Design

For farms, factories, mines, industrial parks, and private networks, LoRa can be integrated into the GPS PCB.

A typical system architecture is:

GPS Device → LoRa / LoRaWAN → LoRa Gateway → Server

Suitable applications include:

• 
  Cattle GPS collars
  
• 
  Sheep GPS collars
  
• 
  Personnel tracking badges
  
• 
  Industrial worker tracking
  
• 
  Asset trackers
  
• 
  Farm equipment tracking
  

Frequency options can include:

• 
  EU868
  
• 
  US915
  
• 
  AU915
  
• 
  AS923
  
• 
  IN865
  
• 
  RU864
  
• 
  CN470
  

One major advantage of LoRa is reduced cellular communication cost when deploying large numbers of devices.

4. Power Management

The power system often determines whether a GPS product succeeds.

A typical architecture is:

Input Power → Charging Management → Battery → DC/DC or LDO → MCU → GNSS → Communication Module

4G modules can generate significant peak current during transmission.

Poor power design can cause:

• 
  Random LTE module restart
  
• 
  SIM disconnection
  
• 
  GNSS malfunction
  
• 
  MCU reset
  
• 
  Device shutdown even when battery capacity remains
  

Peak current must therefore be evaluated, not only average current.

5. Low-Power GPS Design

Low-power design is especially important for battery-operated trackers.

For example:

GPS personnel badge: may operate 8–12 hours per day.

Livestock GPS collar: may need several months or years of battery life.

Asset GPS tracker: may only send 1–4 positions per day.

Firmware can switch between:

Active → Idle → Sleep → Deep Sleep

and dynamically manage:

• 
  Accelerometer
  
• 
  Timer
  
• 
  GNSS
  
• 
  LTE
  
• 
  LoRa
  

6. Sensor Integration

A custom GPS PCB can integrate multiple sensors.

3-axis or 6-axis motion sensor

Functions can include:

• 
  Movement detection
  
• 
  Stationary detection
  
• 
  Fall detection
  
• 
  Vibration alarm
  
• 
  Tamper alarm
  

Temperature sensor

Suitable for:

• 
  Cold-chain logistics
  
• 
  Pharmaceutical transport
  
• 
  Food transportation
  

Light sensor

Can be used for cover-opening or tamper detection.

7. Custom Interfaces

Industrial GPS tracking devices may require:

• 
  UART
  
• 
  RS232
  
• 
  RS485
  
• 
  CAN
  
• 
  GPIO
  
• 
  ADC
  
• 
  I2C
  
• 
  SPI
  

Vehicle GPS trackers may additionally require:

• 
  ACC detection
  
• 
  Relay control
  
• 
  Fuel monitoring
  
• 
  Ignition detection
  
• 
  External SOS
  
• 
  Remote fuel or power cut-off
  

A custom PCB allows the hardware to fit the customer's application instead of forcing the customer to adapt to a standard device.

Custom GPS PCB Development Process

Step 1: Requirement Analysis

First determine:

• 
  What is the application?
  
• 
  Which market will the product be sold in?
  
• 
  Required battery life?
  
• 
  Position reporting interval?
  
• 
  GPS only or GPS + BeiDou?
  
• 
  4G or LoRa?
  
• 
  Is Bluetooth required?
  
• 
  Which sensors are required?
  
• 
  Maximum PCB dimensions?
  
• 
  Battery capacity?
  

Step 2: Solution Design

Select the appropriate:

• 
  MCU
  
• 
  GNSS chipset/module
  
• 
  LTE module
  
• 
  LoRa chipset
  
• 
  Sensors
  
• 
  PMIC
  
• 
  Flash memory
  
• 
  SIM/eSIM
  

Then define the system architecture.

Step 3: Schematic Design

Design circuits for:

• 
  Power
  
• 
  MCU
  
• 
  GNSS
  
• 
  LTE
  
• 
  LoRa
  
• 
  Sensors
  
• 
  Interfaces
  
• 
  ESD
  
• 
  Charging
  
• 
  USB
  
• 
  SIM
  

Step 4: PCB Layout

RF sections require special attention.

Important points include:

• 
  50Ω impedance control
  
• 
  GNSS RF routing
  
• 
  LTE RF routing
  
• 
  LoRa RF routing
  
• 
  Power integrity
  
• 
  Ground plane
  
• 
  EMC
  
• 
  Antenna keep-out area
  

For compact tracking devices, PCB layout is often one of the most critical engineering stages.

Step 5: Prototype Production

Usually, an initial batch of around 5–20 PCBA prototypes is produced.

Testing may include:

• 
  Power on/off
  
• 
  GNSS positioning
  
• 
  LTE connection
  
• 
  LoRa communication
  
• 
  SIM card
  
• 
  Charging
  
• 
  Battery
  
• 
  SOS
  
• 
  Sensors
  
• 
  USB
  
• 
  Data upload
  

Step 6: RF and Power Testing

Typical problems found at this stage include:

• 
  Weak GNSS signal
  
• 
  LTE interfering with GNSS
  
• 
  Short LoRa communication distance
  
• 
  Excessive sleep current
  
• 
  LTE peak current causing restart
  

The PCB may then require a second revision.

Step 7: Firmware Development

Typical firmware functions include:

• 
  GNSS data processing
  
• 
  GPS trajectory upload
  
• 
  MQTT / TCP / UDP
  
• 
  LoRaWAN
  
• 
  SOS alarm
  
• 
  Geofence
  
• 
  Low-battery alarm
  
• 
  Overspeed alarm
  
• 
  Movement alarm
  
• 
  OTA update
  
• 
  Sleep management
  

Custom server protocols can also be supported.

Step 8: Server and APP Integration

The complete data path usually looks like:

Device → Network → Server → Database → API → Web / APP

The device can connect to:

• 
  Customer's own GPS platform
  
• 
  Existing IoT platform
  
• 
  Custom APP
  
• 
  Custom backend
  
• 
  Third-party API
  

Step 9: Reliability Testing

Before mass production, testing should include:

• 
  High-temperature test
  
• 
  Low-temperature test
  
• 
  Charge/discharge test
  
• 
  Long-term operation test
  
• 
  GPS positioning test
  
• 
  Network stability test
  
• 
  Drop test
  
• 
  ESD test
  
• 
  Waterproof test
  
• 
  Antenna performance test
  

Step 10: Mass Production

Once the hardware and firmware are stable, the project can move into mass production.

Professional production normally requires a PCBA test fixture to automatically test:

• 
  GNSS
  
• 
  LTE
  
• 
  LoRa
  
• 
  Sensors
  
• 
  USB
  
• 
  Charging
  
• 
  Voltage
  
• 
  GPIO
  

Without a proper production test system, a design that works well as a prototype may still suffer from quality problems in mass production.

Common Custom GPS PCB Development Mistakes

Designing Only According to Chip Specifications

Good chipset sensitivity does not guarantee good final product performance.

Antenna and enclosure design can be equally important.

Designing the Enclosure After the PCB

PCB, antenna, battery, and enclosure should be designed together.

Making the PCB Too Small Too Early

The smaller the PCB, the more difficult RF design becomes, especially when integrating:

GPS + LTE + LoRa + Bluetooth

Ignoring Deep-Sleep Current

Even if active current is low, several milliamps of deep-sleep current can significantly reduce battery life.

Going Directly from First Prototype to Mass Production

A safer development flow is:

EVT → DVT → PVT → Mass Production

Applications of Custom GPS PCB

Custom GPS PCBs can be developed for:

• 
  Vehicle GPS Tracker
  
• 
  GPS Badge Tracker
  
• 
  Livestock GPS Collar
  
• 
  Pet GPS Tracker
  
• 
  Asset GPS Tracker
  
• 
  Solar GPS Tracker
  
• 
  LoRa GPS Tracker
  
• 
  Personnel Safety Tracker
  
• 
  Container Tracker
  
• 
  Industrial IoT Tracking Device
  

Custom GPS PCB Manufacturer in China

Shenzhen Jinshengchang Technology can provide customized GPS and IoT development services from initial product definition to mass production.

Capabilities can include:

• 
  Custom GPS PCB design
  
• 
  GNSS solution design
  
• 
  4G GPS development
  
• 
  LoRa GPS development
  
• 
  LoRaWAN terminal development
  
• 
  Low-power design
  
• 
  RF and antenna optimization
  
• 
  Firmware customization
  
• 
  Communication protocol customization
  
• 
  GPS platform integration
  
• 
  APP/API integration
  
• 
  PCBA manufacturing
  
• 
  OEM/ODM
  
• 
  Enclosure development
  
• 
  Prototype production
  
• 
  Mass production
  

The solutions can be applied to GPS trackers, personnel badges, livestock GPS collars, pet GPS trackers, asset trackers, vehicle trackers, LoRa GPS trackers, and other IoT tracking devices.

Conclusion

Developing a stable Custom GPS PCB is much more than PCB layout.

A successful project requires coordinated development of:

GNSS + LTE/LoRa + RF + Antenna + Power Management + Firmware + Server + Mechanical Design + Manufacturing Testing

If one of these areas is ignored, the final product may experience slow GPS positioning, network disconnection, poor battery life, unexpected restart, or unstable mass production.

For this reason, hardware, RF, firmware, mechanical, and platform teams should ideally work together from the product-definition stage.