I have done a bit of research now but have hit a bit of a roadblock and would love some advice.
I am trying to design a tracking device for a vehicle that updates the location of the vehicle to a webserver at some regular intervals. The production run will be around 100 once design is finished.
Firstly I was going to base it off the LPC2148 Uberboard Development board (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9735) but then I noticed that that the GM862 cellular module also has an integrated GPS cousin, the GM862 GPS (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/7917). This seemed to me obviously a cleaner and simpler solution.
Then I dug deeper and found this chip needs an active GPS antenna, and a GMS antenna.
My question(s) is:
Is the GM862 GPS inherently comprimised packing everthing into one module? Is this why there is no ceramic antenna let alone LNA? (The single module costs around the same as a GPS and a GSM module combined).
Does every cellular module need an antenna or are some antennas integrated into the module?
Is there any great advantage of a discrete antenna over ceramic?
Essentially I want to be convinced to either go the route of the single chip GM862 GPS or individual chips and a PIC
Thanks kindly