As I searched in forums I learned that for tacking gps I must send coordinates ovew internet connection or SMS .But as I know we can cominicate via radio waves sending voice ,pics,data .And can I use this for getting data from gps device?Because Ham radio is free.
There are radio bands considered "unlicensed" that are free to use if your transmitter falls within regulated limits. These are mainly "line-of-sight" bands. Common WiFi and bluetooth radios are examples of standardized packet radios that work in the 2.4GHz unlicensed band.
It is not difficult to find similar devices in the 902MHz band, including standardized ZigBee mesh radio equipment.
Licensed amateur radio operators enjoy some advantages the unlicensed devices cannot provide, such as higher power limits and more diverse frequency choices. But these privileges come with restrictions - for example autonomous operation is not permitted in the "shortwave" bands, and operation for any commercial purpose is prohibited.
As Adam mentioned, The APRS standard is a de-facto standard for the format of informational beacons and the method for repeating them across the amateur packet radio network.
From your post I feel that you want "wide-area" service that you can track a roaming device with. Although many areas have existing APRS "digipeaters" setup by local hams, they are all voluntary as the bands can't be used for commercial purposes. As a licensed operator, you could of course setup your own repeaters.
Many types of communications are prohibited on the Amateur Radio bands, but this leaves plenty of room for hobbyist and personal research efforts, and as an Extra class ham I would welcome your project!
The search term you want to use is "APRS" - Automatic packet reporting system. Many people and companies already have GPS to radio interfaces that work with the HAM APRS system so you can track vehicles and other objects (such as balloons) through this HAM radio network.
The gps will probably have a serial connection prinitng out the position as a standard NMEA string.
There are a few protocols for sending RS-232 Ascii over ham radio - start here
Amateur radio is not really free - there are obviously no carrier fees, but you need a license to transmit and approved equipment. It's not a free-for-all.
Related
I need to cover a district with a LoRaWAN network for air quality sensors. I know that the LoRa/LoRaWAN technology is the perfect solution when Line of Sight is maintained, but is there any easy way to determine how many gateways are needed in rural areas? I amning plan to use Kerlink Wirnet iStation V1.5 as gateway and ESP32-based CO2 sensors. Many thanks in advance.
You definitely don't need line of site for LoRa communication.
The easiest, and most accurate way to estimate the number of required gateways is to do a field test with one single gateway and a test device (e.g.: an Adeunis Field Tester). This way you can check what the longest distance between an end device and the gateway can be. Using that information you can calculate the required density of base stations.
If you register for a free account on Actility's ThingPark Community Portal and you connect your Kerlink gateway to the ThingPark Network Server, you will be able to use Actility's Network Survey Tool that can visualize the coverage of your gateway an a map.
If you want to make a rough estimation I would say that in a rural environment, where devices are outdoor and the gateway antenna is on a 20m height pole or on top of a 20 height building the range of a gateway is around 1-3 km. If the end devices are indoors (in rooms having windows) this range is 0.5-1.5 km.
You could also use The Things Stack community edition (formerly known as TTN, The Things Network) in conjunction with ttnmapper.org. Note that there is currently a transition going on from TTN (V2) to The Things Stack V3, see the notice on the webpage. This method uses field tests similar to the system proposed in Norbert Herbert's answer; any simple node is sufficient because the GW's metadata are evaluated. You can track you field test live on a smartphone. As LoRaWAN coverage strongly depends on the gateway's placement, it should be at least similar to the intended position, better be the planned position proper.
For a dry run without any hardware, you may also have a look at the freeware program Radio Mobile by Roger Coudé VE2DBE, with more info by Remko Welling PE1MEW here. The program lets you simulate radio connections in a wide variety of settings, including a complete mapping of a region with multiple gateways.
Line of Sight is not always needed. There are many factors that will affect the reach of your modules, including the terrain (hills can get in the way, especially higher ranges), the settings you would use for your LoRa or LoRaWAN network, and where you position your gateway(s) – when using LoRaWAN – or transceivers, when using LoRa.
I live in a mixed environment, half hills and jungle and half dense, high rises, and I get about 10 km coverage, no LoS, and more if I get LoS from a height, both with LoRa and LoRaWAN, although reliability is not always guaranteed.
But first you have to decide whether you will go the LoRa or the LoRaWAN – this has implications on both the hardware and software budget: while LoRaWAN requires more equipment, and more onerous, it will simplify the setup cost, software-wise. I am very much a LoRa guy myself, but I do recognize the benefits of LoRaWAN for quick developments.
But it'd be cheap to do a first test with a couple of LoRa devices, to check how far you can reach in your region.
I need to read GPS coordinates using a VB.NET program directly from a GPS device connected to the computer via USB (bluetooth also OK but prefer USB). My constraints are:
The computer running the software is NOT connected to the internet. It is a stand-alone machine in a moving vehicle.
I need to be able to read GPS coordinates from the device while the vehicle moves and use the device to perform location-aware queries on a local database
The GPS device can be anything (e.g. Garmin GPS or GPS card without display), as long at it can be purchased off the shelf or over the internet.
The user group for this solution is quite small (about 40 users).
I have already checked out GPSGate (http://gpsgate.com/) and emailed my requirements to them. They replied, and I quote: "I am sorry but we have no product for you." (end of reply).
I also checked out Eye4Software) and tried using their demo product but it does not pick up my Garmin Nuvi via USB. They responded to my questions but unfortunately their OEM product is an ActiveX dll and I am looking for a .NET based solution.
So if anyone has a "home-grown" solution based on the .NET framework, that can be easily duplicated, I would really appreciate it. Many thanks!
Most of the USB GPS pucks will speak a standardized protocol called NMEA 0183. There are several .net protocols out there that decode this protocol, see here for some pointers to get started.
So, if when shopping around you just check that the device is able to generate NMEA you should be up and running in a minimum of time, and at a reasonable cost.
EDIT: a "gps puck" is a GPS receiver shaped more or less like a hockey puck, like this one
For in-car use there are specific versions that can be fixed onto the vehicle's roof
They are pretty common (many online shops carry them) but select them based on the chip that's inside, the popular Sirf Star 3 is still a solid performer, stable and accurate. I haven't had the chance to play with its successor, the Sirf Star 4 yet, and I'm not implying these are the only good chips around, only that I got most experience with this chip.
I'm looking for a GPS for a small class project. We want the smallest GPS possible and all we really need it to do is to give us longitude and latitude values when we poll it.
I tried looking at sparkfun, but since we haven't really worked with this type of hardware before, it's hard to know which kind we really want/what parts we need.
What We Need:
smallest possible
longest battery life
only need long and lat
able to be polled from some other device such as a mobile app or website
Thanks!
there are two paths to this, one is just get a bluetooth receiver, you will be able to poll it from a mobile phone or whatever. going to likely be as big as the phone, have the battery inside, etc. not sure how long it will last on one charge.
There are other solutions designed for putting in packages being shipped, better battery life, but their goal is as data loggers and not necessarily something you can cable up and poll and likely not wireless if that is what you are after.
Now if you want to build your own, and you already went to sparkfun, here is another path.
I know that leaving links in an answer at SO is bad...This was longer than a comment and will add some more info...
You want small you can go with this
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11571
It is a GP-635T gps receiver, if you look at the picture it really is around the size of a quarter. 50 channel. Point it up the way they tell you, antenna is built in, just power it and it works.
You will need to hook up to it. It is the serial version not usb, in either case you need a cable like this.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10361
This link is to a cable with 6 or 8 inch pigtails, the gps receiver comes on a board with a not so uncommon connector on it, this cable allows you get at those connections, you only need three.
The datasheet on the sparkfun page or probably just search for the part number, you need to look at the UART TTL pinouts not the usb pinouts. Yo uneed 3.3 to 5.5volts to power it pin 2, pin 1 is ground. then pin 3 is txa serial out. This is where you get your data.
these are various solutions that will work
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9873
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/718
http://jim.sh/ftx/
some soldering may be required. The above links are various solutions between $10 and $15 for ftdi usb to serial/uart break out boards. These will include 3.3v and ground and the rx pin is the receiver for the ftdi uart, you tie that to txa on the gps unit.
What you may not know and may be interested in is that almost universally gps units do their math magic and come up with the various items time, position (2d or 3d), speed, etc. And they output this data in a serial manner. search for NMEA or NMEA-0183. The data sheet for this and any other should give an indication of the default data rate (4800, 9600, 19200, etc baud) and what messages are sent. sometimes you can change the baud rate, sometimes you cant. The ftdi chips/boards are very flexible use a usb cable to plug in the board to a computer, configure your software or a dumb terminal program like minicom or hyperterm or teraterm or whatever (no parity, no hardware flow control) and the messages will appear usually once a second. Whether it is your car navigation, handheld gps, whatever, buried inside is some flavor of gps reciever (sparkfun will give you an indication of just how many different flavors there are and their selection is just scratching the surface) that outputs serial and the software in that unit is receiving that serial data and then doing its thing (mapping, navigating, etc). As with modems back in the day the ones you find in your cell phone might have some of the software/math done by the main processor in the phone to save on money, these libraries are not generally available, when you make the deal to buy thousands or millions of units they allow you to pay for the software to go with it along with your signature on a bunch of legal documents. I assume this is the case, that is how the ones in phones are down to $10 or so where these fully contained solutions are usually $50 to $100 in single quantities and likely not a lot cheaper in quantity.
Once powered, even if it says X number of seconds hot or cold to lock it doesnt always take that, sometimes if it has to search it may still take a while, the less metal you have around (like being in a building or the center of a car) the worse it is to the point it may not lock.
if you have an older garmin street pilot (that is otherwise dead I would hate to kill one of those if it is working) you can rip it apart and likely find a sirf III or other module in there, likely a 5V not 3.3 (there are 5V ftdi based breakout usb to serial. the microftx is both 5v and 3.3, note the gps receiver linked above is also 5v or 3.3) googling will be required to figure out the pinout and such, and soldering might or might not be a challenge.
you can also find old etrex or other handhelds on ebay or wherever (that work!) and for $15 or so get a serial cable, well then you need a serial to usb likely which will also need a level shifter like a max232, you dont plug this right into a ftdi break out board, it will fry it. newer ones have usb and you can power the unit from the usb and likely see the nmea data over the usb as well.
Most of the stuff you see on sparkfun in the gps area is going to be related to these various brands and models of gps recivers that output nmea data over serial. some are 5V some are 3.3, many do not have antennas and you have to buy those separately (and get the right kind, one that plugs into the connector provided, etc). I have a number of these items and they all work just fine, some do better than others around buildings or in trees, etc. Around sparkfun you will also find lipo battery solutions and bluetooth or xbee or other wireless solutions, very quickly if you need wireless, I think you will find just buying an off the shelf solution is best. I have had my eye on the garmin bluetooth thing google
Garmin GLO Portable GPS and GLONASS Receiver
it is about $99. I have not pulled the trigger yet so I dont know how good or bad it is, the el cheapo brands just look cheap.
Of course, a smart phone has both wireless and a gps and you can get a lot of used phones for cheap on ebay. Ios and android. You could "just write an android app" and put it on the phone and use one of the wireless interfaces built into the phone. It will chew through the battery yes, how fast? who knows.
It seems that a lot of small business people have a need for some customized embedded systems, but don't really know too much about the possibilities and cannot quite envisage them.
I had the same problem when trying to explain what Android could do; I was generally met with glazed eyes - and then I made a few demos. Somehow, being able to see something - to be able to touch it and play around with it – people have that cartoon lightbulb moment.
Even if it is not directly applicable to them, a demo starts them thinking about what could be useful to them.
The sort of person I am talking about may or may not be technical, but is certainly intelligent, having built from scratch a business which turns over millions.
Their needs are varied, from RFID or GPS asset & people tracking, to simple stock control systems, displays, communications, sometime satellite, sometimes VPN or LAN (wifi or RJ45). A lot of it needs a good back-end database with a web-site to display, query, data-mine …
So, to get to the question, I am looking for a simple project, or projects, which will cause that cartoon lightbulb moment. It need not be too complicated as those who need complicated solutions are generally tech-savvy, just something straightforward & showing what could be done to streamline their business and make it more profitable.
It would be nice it if could include some wifi/RJ45 comms, communicate across the internet (e.g not just a micro-controller attached to a single PC – that should then communicate with a server/web-site), an RFID reader would be nice, something actually happening (LEDs, sounds, etc), plus some database, database analysis/data-ming – something end-to-end, preferably in both directions.
A friend was suggesting a Rube Goldberg like contraption with a Lego Mindstorms attached to a local PC, but also controllable from a remote PC (representing head office) or web site. That would show remote control of devices. Maybe it could pick up some RFID tags and move them around (at random, or on command), representing stock control (or maybe employee/asset movement within a factory or warehouse (Location Based Services/GIS)), which cold then be shown on the web site, with some nice charts & graphs etc.
Any other ideas?
How best to implement it? One of those micro-controller starter kites like http://www.nerdkits.com/ ? Maybe some Lego, or similar robot kit, a few cheap RFID readers … anything else?
And – the $409,600 question – what's a good, representative demo which demonstrate as many functionalities as possible, as impressively as possible, with the least effort? (keeping it modular and allowing for easy addition of features, since there is such a wide area to cover)
p.s a tie with an Adroid slate PC would be welcome too
Your customers might respond better to a solid looking R/C truck which seeks RFID tags than to a Lego robot. Lego is cool, but it has a bit of a slapped-together 'kiddie' feel.
What if you:
scatter some RFID tags across the conference room.
add a GPS & wifi transmitter to your truck.
drive the truck to the tag
(manually - unless you want to invest a lot of time in steering algorithms).
have a PC drawing a real-time track of the trucks path.
every the truck gets within range of the tag, add it to an inventory list on the screen, showing item id, location, time recorded, total units so far.
indicate the position of the item on the map.
I'd be impressed.
Is it 'least effort'? I don't know, but I'd hope that if this is the type of solution you are pitching, that you already have a good handle on how to read GPS and RFID devices, how to establish a TCP or UDP connection with wifi, how to send and decode packets. Add some simple graphics and database lookup, and you are set.
Regarding hardware, I don't have any first hand experience with any of these, but the GadgetPC Wi-Fi G Kit + a USB RFID reader + a USB GPS reciever looks like a nice platform for experimenting with this.
Many chip manufactures have off-the-shelf demo boards. Microchip has some great demo boards for TCP/IP communications on an embedded system. I haven't seen one yet for RFID. Showing potential customers some of these demos could get them thinking about what is possible.
USBCELL rechargeable batteries - charged using the USB port
These came out a while back and are worth the money, in my opinion.
I searched for software specifically made to monitor the battery level of USBCELL batteries and got nothing. There are some USB port monitor programs out there which might tie in somehow, but they could be unrelated also.
Anyway..
Is it possible to write a program that tells you the battery level of the USBCELL when its plugged in and is charging?
EDIT
If it makes any difference, the batteries have status lights that turn on when plugged in.
There is nothing to install (optional or required) to get these to work.
its USBCELL man here
Yes regular versions have embedded circuitry, though we do make a special USBCELL version (mainly currently for corporates), that is branded and has a downloadable USB charge monitor - that can carry cross promotions/discount codes. This is programmable, but not in the general retail version. Regular packs can also be branded for events, www.usbcell.com/customize.php
In the meantime, there is a special christmas USBCELL pack for gamers - http://www.usbcell.com/product/13 which is great for gifts
regards
USBCELL EcoMan
I don't have these batteries, nor have I used them, but the most likely situation is that there is internal circuitry inside the batteries that decides whether to pull power from the USB port.
A "normal" battery charger works the same way in that:
if there is power and the battery is not charged, draw power to charge the battery;
else do not draw power.
So, it is quite unlikely that you'll be able to monitor the battery's voltage, as there should be no reason for the battery to "communicate" upstream to the computer via USB.
Unless these batteries have a proprietary protocol to communicate their status, you are out of luck.
The standard specifications (E/O/UHCI) do not provide for any information beyond the "Port Power" bits to indicate that the hardware is supplying power to the port (not if its being drawn by the device).
Some embedded systems offer more extensive information, but it comes from custom on board logic. (Usually a power circuit connected to the USB port, and not part of the actual USB controller).
The USB Battery Charging 2.0 specification, should address these issues. But it will be quite a while before products supporting it hit the market.
If you do find a trick, keep us posted !