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Re: Tracker

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In message <mvg8f1$khs$1@dont-email.me>
          Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> wrote:

> On Mon, 12 Oct 2015 10:20:05 +0100, Alan Adams wrote:

>> Hi
>> 
>> I am wondering whether a pi would make a good basis for a tracker? What
>> I need is:
>> 
>> find its position by GPS send position by SMS message every 30 minutes 5
>> days battery life weight no more than 500 grams.
>>
<snip>

> Have you talked to any of the HAB (high altitude balloon) enthusiasts?
> They know a lot about lightweight tracking systems and regularly fly
> RaspberryPi model As.

I've seen some discussion here about that topic.

> When you sat 'tracker', is this just a recorder, or does it also include
> a transmitter?

It needs to transmit the position, as a mobile phone text message. It 
can be pure GPS coordinated, as there's an i-Phone app to convert 
those to UK Ordnance Survey grid refs.

> If it is just a recorder, I suggest you take a look at the position
> recorders used by glider pilots such as the EW Model D (these are now
> obsolete, so should be cheap on eBay), EW Microrecorder or LXnav's Nano.
> These weigh well under 100g and typically run for 12-24 hours on internal
> batteries. All (except the model D) accept external power for longer
> operating time and all have recording capacities of well over 5 days.

>> I suspect the battery life requirement makes this the wrong platform.
>> If so, are there any other alternatives?
>>
> What do you want to track? What are your weatherproofing and temperature
> insulation requirements?

> Would something built round a PICAXE chip do the job? That would
> certainly be a lot lighter and (probably) use quite a bit less power.

There are commercially available pet trackers which come close, but 
most seem to be US based and I'm not sure whether those would work 
with the UK phone network. The one UK model I've found has a lot too 
many features, two-way voice call for instance, and puts the cost over 
100 pounds just for the hardware.

I'm looking at this for locating Duke of Edinburgh's award expedition 
groups. They need to carry it, hence the weight limit, and the Gold 
expedition runs for 4 days, hence the battery life limit. (It would be 
possible to exchange batteries each night if that proves essential.) 
The rate of travel is around 3 to 4 km per hour, so a position every 
30 minutes is adequate. We would be in areas of very poor mobile phone 
signal, so a text message has a chance of getting through while a 
voice call fails. There isn't enough coverage for data, so anything 
requiring an Internet connection won't work.

The whole thing needs to be fairly rugged, and moderately waterproof. 
It can be in a sealed plastic bag, and doesn't need to be accessed 
during the expedition.

Extra features which shouldn't add much to the complexity or power use 
could be a panic button, which sends an immediate update together with 
the word "emergency" for instance, and the ability to send to a list 
of maybe 3 phones. That would both allow for increased chance of 
receiving the message if the phones were on different networks or in 
different locations, and allow multiple supervisors to track all the 
groups.

-- 
Alan Adams, from Northamptonshire
alan@adamshome.org.uk
http://www.nckc.org.uk/

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Tracker Alan Adams <alan@adamshome.org.uk> - 2015-10-12 10:20 +0100
  Re: Tracker Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-12 08:12 -0400
    Re: Tracker Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2015-10-12 16:38 +0000
  Re: Tracker Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2015-10-12 12:18 +0000
    Re: Tracker Alan Adams <alan@adamshome.org.uk> - 2015-10-12 13:50 +0100
      Re: Tracker ray carter <ray@zianet.com> - 2015-10-12 14:10 +0000
      Re: Tracker Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2015-10-12 17:23 +0000
        Re: Tracker Alan Adams <alan@adamshome.org.uk> - 2015-10-12 18:41 +0100
          Re: Tracker Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2015-10-12 19:15 +0000
            Re: Tracker Alan Adams <alan@adamshome.org.uk> - 2015-10-12 21:02 +0100
            Re: Tracker mm0fmf <none@mailinator.com> - 2015-10-12 21:46 +0100
      Re: Tracker Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2015-10-12 20:12 -0400
        Re: Tracker dave <dave@cyw.uklinux.net> - 2015-10-13 09:59 +0100
          Re: Tracker mm0fmf <none@mailinator.com> - 2015-10-13 19:26 +0100
  Re: Tracker The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-10-12 19:24 +0100
  Re: Tracker franssoa <franssoa@email.invalid> - 2015-10-13 14:55 +0200

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