geocaching

im thinking of building a gps device for geocaching. my plan is to use a 3310 lcd with a gps receiver.
what arduino will i need?
ill also need 5 or 6 switches and an sd card reader is this possible.

ill be loading the coordinates on to the sd card and select them with the buttons. then i want to be able to log a find/didnt find to the card along side each entry.
this is going to be my first project using arduino but have used PICs
for simple projects before
is there any flowchart programming software availalbe for arduino or even its clones?

It would be interesting to know, what benefit you expect to get compared to the commercial small GPS-receiver. Often in such projects, it's better, easier and cheaper to rely on commercial products than build a weak but rather expensive copy. The best home-brew projects are those, that offer new features and applications.

Korman

is there any flowchart programming software availalbe for arduino or even its clones?

Umm, kinda but for a project such as that you would need to code it 'properly' as any program like that would not have all the libraries etc which you will need.

Sounds like an interesting project. I did consider something similar when I did a bit of geocaching but never got too far as I kinda broke my GPS module...

what arduino will i need?

I would recommend something in small form factor such as the pro-mini or similar.

I would say everything you want to do is acheivable and not too tricky but probably not something to undertake as a first project if you have not really used C code variants before.

Are you wanting an arrow with a distance to the coordinate?

Mowcius

http://www.seancarney.ca/projects/arduino-gps-receiver/arduino-gps-system

check out close to the bottom under "more info: ceocaching with the system".

Eventually with the direction arrow at first I want just sort of north south east west directions

yeah well as with that on the link, showing a heading shouldn't be too tricky, an arrow shouldn't be too hard either.

Mowcius

Size isn't an issue as mainly it will be located in my pack with a cable running to the screen/keypad assy. At the moment it will be powered by a 6v4ah sla battery

I've thought about this myself, but it seems an expensive way of doing it.

You might want to think about adding a compass to the circuit. It'll be easier than trying to track changes in GPS position to ascertain what direction you're travelling in.

You might want to think about adding a compass to the circuit. It'll be easier than trying to track changes in GPS position to ascertain what direction you're travelling in.

Yeah I considered this. It is also helpful for when you've stopped so you can still see which direction to travel in without having to move.

Mowcius