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GSM Web Server

Create a wireless web server through GPRS.

Last revision 01/16/2024

This sketch turns the Arduino board with the GSM shield and a data enabled SIM card into a web server. When the board receives a request from a connected client, it sends back the value of analog inputs 0-5.

Not all network operators allow incoming data requests from outside their network. This means you can create a web server with the GSM shield, but you may not be able to connect to it from the public internet; only from another data enabled device from the same provider on the same network. You should check with your provider to see what specific policies they have in place regarding incoming data connections.

Hardware Required

Circuit

image of the Arduino GSM Shield on top of an Arduino board
image of the Arduino GSM Shield on top of an Arduino board

Optional analog sensors like photoresistors, potentiometers and such may be connected, as explained elsewhere in our tutorials, to pins A0 - A5

Code

First, import the GSM library

#include <GSM.h>

SIM cards may have a PIN number that enables their functionality. Define the PIN for your SIM. If your SIM has no PIN, you can leave it blank :

#define PINNUMBER ""

Define a number of constants that contain information about the GPRS network you're going to connect to. You'll need the Access Point Name (APN), login, and password. To obtain this information, contact your network provider for the most up to date information. This page has some information about various carrier settings, but it may not be current.

1#define GPRS_APN       "GPRS_APN"
2#define GPRS_LOGIN     "login"
3#define GPRS_PASSWORD  "password"

Initialize instances of the classes you're going to use. You're going to need the GSM, GPRS, and GSMServer classes. When you instantiate the GSMServer class, you'll need to tell it which port to listen for incoming connections. Port 80 is the default port for HTTP requests.

1GPRS gprs;
2

3GSM gsmAccess;
4

5GSMServer server(80);

In 

setup
, open a serial connection to the computer. After opening the connection, send a message indicating the sketch has started.

1void setup(){
2

3  Serial.begin(9600);
4

5  Serial.println("Starting Arduino web client.");

Create a local variable to track the connection status. You'll use this to keep the sketch from starting until the SIM is connected to the network :

1boolean notConnected = true;

Connect to the network by calling 

gsmAccess.begin()
. It takes the SIM card's PIN as an argument. You'll also connect to the GPRS network using 
gprs.attachGPRS()
. This requires the APN, login, and password you declared earlier. By placing this inside a 
while()
loop, you can continually check the status of the connection and wait for them to both become 
true
before proceeding.

When the modem does connect and has attached itself to the GPRS network, 

gsmAccess()
will return 
GSM_READY
. Use this as a flag to set the 
notConnected
variable to 
true
or 
false
. Once connected, the remainder of 
setup
will run.

1while(notConnected)
2

3  {
4

5    if(gsmAccess.begin(PINNUMBER)==GSM_READY)
6

7        (gprs.attachGPRS(GPRS_APN, GPRS_LOGIN, GPRS_PASSWORD)==GPRS_READY))
8

9      notConnected = false;
10

11    else
12

13    {
14

15      Serial.println("Not connected");
16

17      delay(1000);
18

19    }
20

21  }

Start the server using 

server.begin()
. You can request the server's IP address with 
grps.getIPAddress()
and end the setup.

1server.begin();
2

3  IPAddress LocalIP = gprs.getIPAddress();
4

5  Serial.println("Server IP address=");
6

7  Serial.println(LocalIP);
8}

In 

loop
, create an instance of 
GSMClient
and check if there are any active connections

1void loop() {
2

3  GSMClient client = server.available();
4

5  if (client)
6

7  {

While the client is connected, and there is data waiting to be read, begin to read the request. Read through the available bytes until a newline character has been received.

In this instance, you won't actually do anything with the request, it's assumed that it is a HTTP request, and you'll serve up a web page.

1while (client.connected())
2

3    {
4

5      if (client.available())
6

7      {
8

9        Serial.println("Receiving request!");
10

11        bool sendResponse = false;
12

13        while(char c=client.read()) {
14

15          if (c == '\n') sendResponse = true;
16

17        }

Once the request has been read, start to send a standard HTTP response header with 

client.print()
and 
client.println()
.

1if (sendResponse)
2

3       {
4

5          client.println("HTTP/1.1 200 OK");
6

7          client.println("Content-Type: text/html");
8

9          client.println();
10

11          client.println("<html>");

Read through the analog inputs and send the values to the client.

1for (int analogChannel = 0; analogChannel < 6; analogChannel++) {
2

3            client.print("analog input ");
4

5            client.print(analogChannel);
6

7            client.print(" is ");
8

9            client.print(analogRead(analogChannel));
10

11            client.println("<br />");
12

13          }

Send a closing tag for the webpage, and stop the client connection before closing the 

loop
.

1client.println("</html>");
2

3          //necessary delay
4

5          delay(1000);
6

7          client.stop();
8

9        }
10

11      }
12

13    }
14

15  }
16}

Once your code is uploaded, open the serial monitor. Once the IP address is printed to the serial monitor, enter it into a web browser. You should see a webpage that reports the analog input values on each the Arduino's six inputs.

if you cannot connect to the IP address, make sure your network operator enables incoming traffic.

Complete Sketch

The complete sketch is below.

1/*
2

3 GSM Web Server
4

5 A simple web server that shows the value of the analog input pins.
6

7 using a GSM shield.
8

9 Circuit:
10

11 * GSM shield attached
12

13 * Analog inputs attached to pins A0 through A5 (optional)
14

15 created 8 Mar 2012
16

17 by Tom Igoe
18

19 */
20

21// libraries
22#include <GSM.h>
23

24// PIN Number
25#define PINNUMBER ""
26

27// APN data
28#define GPRS_APN       "GPRS_APN" // replace your GPRS APN
29#define GPRS_LOGIN     "login"    // replace with your GPRS login
30#define GPRS_PASSWORD  "password" // replace with your GPRS password
31

32// initialize the library instance
33

34GPRS gprs;
35

36GSM gsmAccess;     // include a 'true' parameter for debug enabled
37

38GSMServer server(80); // port 80 (http default)
39

40// timeout
41

42const unsigned long __TIMEOUT__ = 10 * 1000;
43

44void setup() {
45

46  // initialize serial communications and wait for port to open:
47

48  Serial.begin(9600);
49

50  while (!Serial) {
51

52    ; // wait for serial port to connect. Needed for native USB port only
53

54  }
55

56  // connection state
57

58  bool notConnected = true;
59

60  // Start GSM shield
61

62  // If your SIM has PIN, pass it as a parameter of begin() in quotes
63

64  while (notConnected) {
65

66    if ((gsmAccess.begin(PINNUMBER) == GSM_READY) &
67

68        (gprs.attachGPRS(GPRS_APN, GPRS_LOGIN, GPRS_PASSWORD) == GPRS_READY)) {
69

70      notConnected = false;
71

72    } else {
73

74      Serial.println("Not connected");
75

76      delay(1000);
77

78    }
79

80  }
81

82  Serial.println("Connected to GPRS network");
83

84  // start server
85

86  server.begin();
87

88  //Get IP.
89

90  IPAddress LocalIP = gprs.getIPAddress();
91

92  Serial.println("Server IP address=");
93

94  Serial.println(LocalIP);
95}
96

97void loop() {
98

99  // listen for incoming clients
100

101  GSMClient client = server.available();
102

103  if (client) {
104

105    while (client.connected()) {
106

107      if (client.available()) {
108

109        Serial.println("Receiving request!");
110

111        bool sendResponse = false;
112

113        while (char c = client.read()) {
114

115          if (c == '\n') {
116

117            sendResponse = true;
118

119          }
120

121        }
122

123        // if you've gotten to the end of the line (received a newline
124

125        // character)
126

127        if (sendResponse) {
128

129          // send a standard http response header
130

131          client.println("HTTP/1.1 200 OK");
132

133          client.println("Content-Type: text/html");
134

135          client.println();
136

137          client.println("<html>");
138

139          // output the value of each analog input pin
140

141          for (int analogChannel = 0; analogChannel < 6; analogChannel++) {
142

143            client.print("analog input ");
144

145            client.print(analogChannel);
146

147            client.print(" is ");
148

149            client.print(analogRead(analogChannel));
150

151            client.println("<br />");
152

153          }
154

155          client.println("</html>");
156

157          //necessary delay
158

159          delay(1000);
160

161          client.stop();
162

163        }
164

165      }
166

167    }
168

169  }
170}

Last revision 2018/08/23 by SM

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