Goal of the project is to make a lightweight GPS logger that has a few different functionalities. I couldn’t find a GPS tracker that had the features I was looking for, had the battery life or was reasonably affordable.
I started this project a couple years back, but I have been constantly been changing the design, form factor and features. Currently the design uses a few breakout boards for convenience. The end goal is to remove those
and reduce the overall form factor. The next biggest upgrade will be switching to a Nordic based uC to further reduce the form factor and for built in Bluetooth.
- SD Card writing/reading
- BLE to transfer data to a smart phone
- Temperature, humidity, and pressure measurement
- 60+ hour battery life
- E-Ink display
One of my favorite additions to this project is the inclusion of pogo pins for the Li-ion battery. This allows for easy swapping of depleted batteries for the longer trips.
I also managed to mess around with the E-Ink display as well and created a fun little GUI for this device. Next challenge is to port over the code the nRF52. With each iteration of this design, I have been shrinking the design. The main limitation of my designs used to have been the size of the parts I have been using. But since I have been getting more familar with smaller components, I am able to hand assemble down to 0402 resisitors and with my new hot air rework station, I will do QFN type packages too. In addition to those and getting a microscope, my designs have been shrinking and becoming more of an embedded solution. I’m excited to see the next revision of this project and what it will soon look like. Now I just need a way to find more time to work on it….
