GPS receiver project

Have a look at the work these guys did with GPS.

They built a seperate board that acted as a RTC, SD card and host for the GPS functions.

http://wyolum.com/shop/20-i2gps.html

Audio is available in multiple different ways from simple tones, to tunes played from ram. Do a Google search.

Cheers

Mark

Thanks Mark, I'll look into it more.

I reserved my parts today from MicroCenter. The parts I reserved was a, gps module, micro sd shield, and a arduino mega. All of the parts are Sparkfun. The only part that the store didn't have was a gps shield. I have to order it on another website. How important is the gps shield? Can I work around it to get the receiver to work while I wait for the shield to arrive?

The links to the parts are below.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/389895/66_Channel_LS20031_GPS_10Hz_Receiver

http://www.microcenter.com/product/392636/Arduino_Mega2560_Rev_3

http://www.microcenter.com/product/389841/microSD_Shield

http://www.microcenter.com/product/389881/GPS_Shield

They have a GPS shield that is separate as well.

I would think you should be able to get it to work using the MicroSD shield.

I'm not sure how an Arduino shield translates to the Mega, so you might need to look at cables.

That GPS is expensive. The UP501 that the Wyolum boys use was only NZ$50, and the GPS shield includes the 401 which is why it was expensive.

The i2GPS board is looking better all the time. (FYI I wired the A0-A4 pins out to the normal place with some jumpers to give extra I/O.)

Mark

The module is pretty expensive. I am thinking of it getting due to time and I need to get it working by the end of next week. I plan on following some tutorials from the element 14 arduino forum to get the gps to work.

Nothing like the added pressure of a deadline.

Its a fairly serious project that deserves a reasonable amount of solution options to decide on the best method.

If I was undertaking this I think I would be looking at a small SBC (single board computer) or tablet.

The reason is you still have to map the locations of these buildings and store that somewhere.

Knowing where you are is only part of the solution.

There is a fair amount of this work already done with the ArduRover guys (http://code.google.com/p/ardurover/ )

This might be of some help.

Cheers

Mark

Is there anyway I can translate the code from the ArduRover to an Arduino? I was going to go over the tutorial from Jeremy Blum, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtZEZYQG0xk&list=ECA567CE235D39FA84&index=15. Im following from the parts that he had.

How about this? http://www.adafruit.com/products/1272

Its a spin off of of ArduPilot and I thought ArduRover is based on Arduino.

Sure they added some extra bits on the boards to have a single board.

That would certainly be a better shield.

It also gives you storage capability, where for the campus, you could store the buildings.

Like i said earlier does the normal arduino shields fit the Mega.?

Otherwise you'll need to cable, which can work.

BTW price is very good for all that capability.

I'll have to remember for an upcoming GPS project.

Mark

too pricey. you'll do better at mouser. the one I use is Fastrax PN: UP501. this is an awesome module about 0.75" square including the ceramic antenna which also sports a super simple interface. about 30 bucks. just mount it on your PCB and connect the thing up following the datasheet. btw I use the big boy for embedded work (micrcochip). they got an MCU for everything but I program in native thus flash size is rarely an issue. note that this module will find satellites from just about anywhere except under water!

you'd wanna power your MCU with 3.3VDC as this is a relatively new module suitable for new designs. no level shifting required between the module and the MCU... at least not with micrcochip. anyhow have a look at the datasheet. http://www.anglia.com/fastrax/datasheets/UP501.pdf

Thanks everyone for the advice. I decided to go with the Sparkfun module and the Mega.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/389895/66_Channel_LS20031_GPS_10Hz_Receiver

I am at another crossroads now. I am following the procedure from Sparkfun to quick test the gps module. The test code that was given is below.

void setup() {

  Serial.begin(57600);

}

void loop() {

  if (Serial.available()) {

    #if ARDUINO >= 100 //For Arduino v1.0+

    Serial.write(Serial.read());

    #else //For Arduino v0023 or earlier

    Serial.print(Serial.read(), BYTE);

    #endif

   }

}

I verified the sketch and there were no errors; but there were errors when I uploaded it. The errors are below.

Binary sketch size: 3,284 bytes (of a 258,048 byte maximum)

avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout

avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout

avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout

avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout

avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout

avrdude: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout

avrdude: stk500v2_getsync(): timeout communicating with programmer

Any advice of what I am possibly doing wrong?