How to debug a device with a GSM module?

Question

Microcontrollers

I am developing a device that has a GSM module for sending data via GPRS to a TCP daemon.
I spend a lot of Internet traffic / SMS during debugging. How to save?
Also, during development, you have to use a production server for debugging, but I would like a local one (but it is not accessible to the Internet).

Answer 1

1. What prevents you from being near the device during debugging?
Install the device, make debug output to UART and debug. If sitting is constantly difficult, take the logger www.pololu.com/product/1623 and put it together with the device, and then study the logs for problems.
2. Encode data.
If it's too expensive to send raw data all the time - encode, send only important information, device status, parameters, don't send strings, only data bytes.
From the number "25.455654" which will take 9 bytes as a string, you can make 0x32a65512 (machine representation of a floating point number) which will already take 4 bytes. I compressed a 100 bytes message from a GSM device to 20 bytes of useful information.
3. Why is it impossible to make the Internet on a test server?
This is an absurd situation. You are developing a device that will communicate via the Internet with the server, but you cannot organize the Internet to the server itself. If you don’t make a separate Internet, there is such a thing as port forwarding, organize port forwarding to your test server on the production (only some other, not the main port, so as not to break the production).

Answer 2

Is it possible to take an unlimited tariff, SMS packages, etc. Rostelecom, for example, long ago had tariffs with unlimited (almost) SMS within the region.