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Free Devboard From a Used-up Temperature Logger

Turning a piece of electronic waste into a free development board.

arduinocelentanoarduinocelentano
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These small devices are used to track the temperature of sensitive materials (like medicine, food etc.) during a transportation. They are usually single-use devices and considered to be e-waste as soon as a cargo container is delivered. Yes, imagine thousands of trucks and vessels all around the world delivering thousands of boxes with implanted little pieces of hardware destined to become a heap of e-waste just after few days of operating. I disassembled several samples and found out that some of them might be reprogrammed and repurposed with a little bit of reverse engineering.

In average, what you get is a well-assembled power-optimized board with a genuine 32-bit Cortex M3 or M4 microcontroller, RTC, temperature sensor, a couple of buttons and LEDs, LCD screen and USB support. On some boards GPIO pins are accessible, so it might be possible to extend their capabilities.

This entry is submitted to 2023 Hackaday Prize (Challenge 3: Green Hacks).


Many thanks to project contributors:

[muttonchopsjoe] - sharing the pinout of TempTale Ultra LCD.

Note. This project is about electronic waste repurposing. I am not interested in hacking firmware, extracting data from flash of EEPROM chips or meddling with intellectual property of manufacturers, so don't ask me. No one wants to buy medicine or food knowing that some smart cookie modified transportation conditions history. However it does not forgive the fact that manufacturers of these single-use gadgets are careless, unethical and irresponsible. I wish electronic devices were Eco-friendly, free (as in Freedom), open source or at least reusable. If not, well... we could try to make them usable for some purposes. I blurred QR codes and barcodes with ID numbers since I didn’t know whether this information is sensitive.

Model Performance Peripherals Hackability (reuse as a devboard)
TSS TempTracer Cradle 2 ★★★
ATSAM4S16		 ★☆☆
None		 ★☆☆
Maybe*
Q-tag CLm doc ★☆☆
STM32L152RCT6A		 ★★☆
LCD		 ★★★
Yes
Q-tag CLm doc L ★☆☆
STM32L152VCT6A		 ★★☆
LCD, Winbond 25Q16CLNIG		 ★★★
Yes
TempTale 4 USB ★★☆
ATSAM4S4B		 ★★★
LCD, ATMLH414, Winbond25x40		 ★☆☆
Maybe*
TempTale Ultra ★☆☆
STM32L152RCT6A		 ★★☆
LCD, Winbond25x40		 ★★☆
Yes
Testo 184 T3 ★★★
MK40DN512VLK10		 ★★☆
LCD, adesto2106 25df321A		 ★☆☆
Maybe*
(but no point)
Apresys Temp Trak ☆☆☆
MSP430G2452		 ★★☆
FM24C128A, CH340T		 ★★★
Yes
Apresys PDF/A Standard ☆☆☆
HT66FB582		 ★☆☆
FM25Q16A		 ★☆☆
Maybe*

Check out this project on GitHub.

*Usually it means that I need some specific hardware for further investigation. Like programmers, debuggers etc. Consider supporting this project to let me provide more details about specific boards. You could also donate a used logger to be added to the database or share your findings about the boards you tested.

TSS TempTracer Cradle 2

Official Specifications

First I addressed it as GSK, which is a British pharmaceutical company. But after some research I found out that it was manufactured by TSS, a Swedish company that delivers temperature logger solutions. I also found some evidence that other companies use TSS loggers for their clinical shipments. The exact model of this one is TSS TempTracer Cradle 2. It is currently not available at their website, but I found some specs. My PCB has two button pads, but the buttons are not soldered. They are apparently used in other version of this logger.

Is it officially re-usable? Well, it contains a note on the sticker that tells “Re-usable, do not dispose.” But I have not figured out how to reset it (does ERA pad mean erase?). I found a leaflet by AstraZeneca regarding their reuse policy. So I assume this is a sort of marketing trick. What you get is a single use device that you may send to the manufacturer. They apparently reprogram it and resell the very same device again. It is also possible that this procedure is crucial to ensure proper calibration. Anyway, since there is no point for a courier company to bother about reuse, these completely operational boards often turn into e-waste. 

Is it possible to use it as a devboard? Probably yes. Because the manufacturer supposedly reprograms them somehow. There are pads on the PCB for serial interface that probably might be used for this purpose. Apart from it and USB interface, most GPIO pins are not available. But what really restricts its usage in your hobby project is ATSAM4S16B microcontroller unless you already have an expensive programmer to deal with it. If you know a cheap way to program them, please share your ideas. It is also possible that there is some sort of USB bootloader, but I found no signs of it.

MCU ATSAM 4S16 Cortex®-M4 120MHz/1MB flash/128KB SRAM

LCD None

External flash/EEPROM None

Plastic Case is secured with one screw beneath the sticker and could be easily opened and closed without breaking.

Q-tag CLm doc

Official Specifications

These loggers are produced...

Read more »

View all details

temptale-ultra_LCD.pdf

Contributed by muttonchopsjoe https://hackaday.io/muttonChopsJoe

Adobe Portable Document Format - 120.86 kB - 07/01/2023 at 20:38

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temptale-ultra_LCD.xlsx

Contributed by muttonchopsjoe https://hackaday.io/muttonChopsJoe

sheet - 6.34 kB - 07/01/2023 at 20:01

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temptale-ultra_LCD-segments.pdf

Contributed by muttonchopsjoe https://hackaday.io/muttonChopsJoe

Adobe Portable Document Format - 378.59 kB - 07/01/2023 at 19:59

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animation-small.gif

Graphics Interchange Format - 6.83 MB - 06/19/2023 at 16:02

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  • 1 × Temperature logger See the project description to learn which models are preferred
  • 1 × Multimeter
  • 1 × Programmer If your board has STM32 MCU, you may use a cheap ST-Link USB dongle
  • 1 × Soldering iron, solder, wires, pin headers

View all 12 project logs

  • 1
    Discovering Your Board

    First you should disassemble your logger and check out the model of MCU. Two out of four boards I examined had STM32L152 low-power MCU, one had Atsam4S16b MCU and one had Atsam4S4b MCU. Atsams are more powerful, but official debuggers are expensive, so I shelved those boards for further experiments.

    If you know about some affordable way of programming Atsam MCUs, please share your ideas in the comments.

    If you are lucky enough and have a board with STM32 MCU, it might be possible to use a cheap ST-Link dongle to program it. It’s what I’m going to do.

    On some boards you might find other usable items, like flash and EEPROM memory chips. Please check out the attached pictures.

  • 2
    Detecting the Board’s Layout

    Do it only when the board is powered off! Remove the battery even if you think it is worn-out.

    I decided to start with Q-tag logger because it had thru-hole pads for standard pin headers, and I assumed they must had been designed for debugging purpose. To detect which is which, you’ll need a multimeter set to continuity mode and a datasheet for your MCU. This one is for STM32L152. Touch gently MCU's pin and a pad on the PCB with your probes to detect whether they are connected. At least you’ll need to detect VCC3.3V, GND, SWDIO and SWDCLK pads to be able to program the microcontroller.

    I have attached the pictures with my layouts, but I don’t guarantee that your board would have the same design. So I encourage you to test it yourself.
  • 3
    Soldering

    If you have a Q-tag board with thru-hole pads, you could just use standard headers. If you have surface-mount pads, like on Temptale boards, use thin wires.

View all 5 instructions

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Discussions

arslanofficail911 wrote 09/07/2023 at 08:51 • point

Amazing devices and their usage. Can I use these devices in my roll-up truck bed. You can here https://www.autoempirex.com/best-roll-up-truck-bed-tonneau-covers/

  Are you sure? yes | no

Curt wrote 06/23/2023 at 12:36 • point

any suggestions on where I can get my hands on these?

  Are you sure? yes | no

arduinocelentano wrote 06/29/2023 at 15:06 • point

Hello. Thank you for your interest. I suggest that you consider companies that deal with temperature sensitive cargo. Like food, drugs, chemical supplies etc. Usually they just throw them away. Alternatively, sometimes you could buy some at eBay and other platforms.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Ken Yap wrote 06/23/2023 at 03:55 • point

Such a waste. And the company whose URL is in the photo advertises them as reusable. Guess I'll have to make friends with someone in the cold chain transport industry. 😉

  Are you sure? yes | no

muttonchopsjoe wrote 06/24/2023 at 02:23 • point

They are only reusable if you mail them back to the manufacturer.  I haven't found a way to re-activate them.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Steeb wrote 06/23/2023 at 02:32 • point

This is awesome. The shipping guy at work said I could have as many of these as I wanted. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

  Are you sure? yes | no

rbtamd wrote 06/22/2023 at 13:19 • point

Heeeey, I'm working on it too. I've got some of TempTale Ultrafit Temp Loggers. Thanks for sharing. I'm trying to make a schematic to make some LCD display tests. Definetely It's a nice oportunity play with this boards.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Calvin wrote 06/21/2023 at 16:18 • point

Damn, I just pitched at least 300 of those...

  Are you sure? yes | no

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