GPRS? What is it?

[Bossrox]

I got 3 new Growatt chargers & to access the chargers data you need either a wifi dongle or gprs. I couldn't find anything on gprs that made any sense to me so does anyone know about this & how it works? Signature Solar where I got them from doesn't know enough about them to tell me anything.

They have a usb port where you use the wifi dongle or this gprs & they came with a usb by vga cable that I haven't a clue what it's for. Would that cable have anything to do with gprs?

 

[stok]

General packet radio service, old cell phones used this technology to receive and transmit data over a GSM network, that is how I remember it

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

General packet radio service, old cell phones used this technology to receive and transmit data over a GSM network, that is how I remember it

It's also still used for indicating LTE - it's become more of a general term for indicating cellular data (in part because the AT commands are the same).

 

[DJSmiley]

GPRS is indeed an rather old standaard. It was basicly the first 'data' transport over 2G, where as 2G previously was only voice and text.

General Packet Radio Service - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

GPRS is sometimes called 2.5G, since it was a slightly upgraded 2G. Edge was the next evolving step ('2.75G')

UTMS (3G) is more commonly know, as are the newer standards like LTE


GPRS is bloody slow, it was like 100Kbit max or so. In those days, internet access required too much data, so there were some site available with GRPS by using WAP. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Application_Protocol )
I used that to 'surf' with my Nokia 6210 back in the days.

Since a lot of networks are moving towards LTE only (and switching off legacy 2G networks) I highly would opt for a wifi (or wired) ethernet. That's independend of the network carrier's planning on evolving their networks.


GPRS is, as said, more towards a legacy serial modem, thus easy to adapt using serial protocols and AT commands. But it's, in 2022, not really smart to use such legacy stuff.

They have a usb port where you use the wifi dongle or this gprs & they came with a usb by vga cable that I haven't a clue what it's for. Would that cable have anything to do with gprs?

USB by VGA? I think that's not VGA but serial. Check for the pins, serial is 9 pin (2-row) where as VGA is a 15pin connector (3 rows)

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

@DJSmiley They re-purpose a VGA type connector for parallel operation:

 

[12VoltInstalls]

old cell phones used this technology to receive and transmit data over a GSM network, that is how I remember it

That’s funny ? “old cellphones”
My cell service began with an analog Motorola bag phone. That’s old LOL but the giant vehicle-mount installations go back to ?1981, and there were radio phones in the 1970s. GSM was “new.” Its predecessor/alternate TDMA is still being used afaik