Hi. I have farming equipment left in remote locations that has been robbed before on me. I was thinking of using an Arduino with a gsm shield, accelerometer and GPS receiver to monitor for movement of the equipment than send GPS co-ordinates by sms to my phone. I'm thinking the power requirements and cost will be to high so I was trying to think of another way of doing it.
I have an old Nokia luma and was thinking of using that and attach it to an adruino, polling the usb port to turn on the phone when the accelerometer detects movement. I'm thinking it would be difficult to do and might just use some sort of mechanical lever to turn on the phone. Has anyone any ideas, come across anything like this before or send me in the right direction?
It might be fun to put something like that together, but making it reliable, and having the batteries last is not so easy.
Consider the SPOT Trace asset tracker. If you can catch the thieves, that should make the minor cash investment ($50 to buy plus $15/month service) worthwhile.
while i think its a unique idea to have something communicate with the cellphone, There are plenty of GPS trackers with monthly subscriptions, I suggest one that can be wired into whatever farming equipment you're using. When its turned on you will get a notification and you'll be able to track your equipment movement via google maps or whatever services they are using.
Then while you have some protection and a testing process, you can begin your project. I'd start with the arduino just sending out a message when its turned on. From there maybe you can get more signals to work. I';m guessing to star off the best communication method is serial. Wifi connection is probably too far away and/or you have too many obstacles. As you gather more information you can make your design more complex.... if it works out do a write-up!!