GPS tracking project

 

hello guyz,

 

its been quite some time till i checked out LMR (due to major exams :P) and its got better then the past .

 

I ran into some confusion about my new project (and thought its best to ask here) since its first time i am using GPS , i checked

 

out several posts on LMR which helped me a  lot especially Gareth's post which was very informative for any gps starter guide.

 

basically i need to make a real time tracking spy GPS device i have got quite a bit of knowledge from the internet resources .

 

so here are the steps i have decided to take in order to build it :-

 

1. I need to use a GPS reciver module with sheild to fix a micro sd card to log data    #in this case my problem is to buy which         module as i checked out they vary from 25$ to 99$ depending on number of channels , clock rate etc . but i dont know which specs to look out for i want value for money so any experienced users can give an insight#.

 

2. I decided to send the values collected in the card after every 2 minutes via GSM module but it makes it bulky i want to make it      small , i also tried using cell phone as sending medium through gprs or sms but still looking for any smaller alternative.

3. Any other possible method of real time tracking is also welcomed .. i tried looking at beagle boards but they make it arbitrarily complex and bulky.

any help will be appreciated 

 

regards

tony 

 

I think you should include

I think you should include the words “GPS” and “GSM” in the subject field, to attract help from people who knows about these things (Topic is named “Real time tracker project” as I write this - which is not very specific)

thanks mate

thanks for the suggestion … btw if you have any idea about gps modules then please suggest some good ones 

I believe sparkfun added a

I believe sparkfun added a new GPS module to their product line whort while ago.
that might be worth checking out.

also here is an arduino tutorial on GPS that might yield some insights:

http://tronixstuff.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/moving-forward-with-arduino-chapter-17-gps/

I suggest an EM-406A from

I suggest an EM-406A from globalspec or sparkfun, or get a cheap one

The sparkfun tutorial that was mentioned

is here. If you want to see other tutorials related to gps they offer, check here.

If you’re more comfortable

If you’re more comfortable using an arduino, and want something really compact, why not use one of the openlog devices from either sparkfun or seeed. You can use them as a straight serial logger where everything received on the serial port (from the gps) is written to the sd card. Or you can use the on board atmega as a normal arduino and replace the openlog firmware with your own.

Even though both of these boards use openlog firmware, they are different. The sparkfun version uses the atmega328p, supports micro sd cards, and is much smaller. The seeed version uses an atmega644p, supports normal sd cards, and has many more of the i/o pins accessable.

Simon

Thanks guyz for your suggestions

well guyz thank you all very much for your suggestions … 

actually i bought this module http://www.alphamicro.net/us/franchises/globaltop-technology/gmm-u1.aspx

for the purpose now i have the module only that come with the shipment  i want it to use in my project i.e. attatch it to my pcb but it

didnt came with any adapter or holder so my question is how do i connect it to my pcb … ?? do i dorectly solder it ?(but the chip is

too small and i dont wanna damage it ) , are there any adapters avalable for this ??

please suggest

 

regards

tony

I’ve built this one…

From Adafruit: http://www.adafruit.com/products/98 with this gps module: http://www.adafruit.com/products/99. It works really well but it will require some basic soldering on your part. It will log the gps data to an SD flash memory card. There is an Arduino sketch written for this purpose so it doesn’t require any programming on your part other than uploading the code to the Arduino. Good luck!

i also have the sparkfun fv-m8

i also have the sparkfun fv-m8 but didnt know how to communicate it to my first robo crawler as the tracker. can anybody guids me… :wink: thankz for your cooperation guys…