Hi guys, just a little guidance from your vast knowledge...
Basically I am looking at building a dog tracker, although there are a few points which need to be addressed
Needs to have a range of about 2 miles + from the handler, and not in line of site
Must not require data; it needs to be fail-safe, some regions where I live data is very patchy
Needs to be real-time, or at least 500-1000ms refresh rate
Now, my idea is to use a nano or similar with GPS that solely gets map coordinates and sends them via RF to the handler's phone (using another RF module converting the data to serial and sending locally to the phone via USB or maybe bluetooth?)
Garmin make trackers already but the price is very high plus I fancied my own project haha.
Let me know what you think guys, what sort of tech' would be suitable for the RF link, maybe go with Xbee?
For parsing the GPS information, try NeoGPS. It's smaller, faster, more accurate and more reliable than all other libraries. It can be configured to parse only the fields and sentences that you really use in your sketch (e.g., just location). Everything else is quickly skipped, saving even more. The example NMEAloc.ino is a good place to start. NeoGPS is also available from the Arduino IDE Library Manager, under the menu Sketch -> Include Library -> Manage Libraries.
When deciding how to connect the GPS device, be sure to read this. It could save you some headaches later.
srnet:
OK, so for some reason you appear to want the 'project' to stop working at 2 miles, odd.
What is the minimum 'not in line of sight' distance you want ?
And 'not in line of sight' is not really that descriptive, do you mean for instance in a typical fairly flat urban area, a forrest or what ?
Sorry srnet, was a typo from editing my post as writing, at least 2 miles out of line of sight, more the better. As for the terrain, it will be forest with hills etc.
-dev:
For parsing the GPS information, try NeoGPS. It's smaller, faster, more accurate and more reliable than all other libraries. It can be configured to parse only the fields and sentences that you really use in your sketch (e.g., just location). Everything else is quickly skipped, saving even more. The example NMEAloc.ino is a good place to start. NeoGPS is also available from the Arduino IDE Library Manager, under the menu Sketch -> Include Library -> Manage Libraries.
When deciding how to connect the GPS device, be sure to read this. It could save you some headaches later.
Cheers,
/dev
Brilliant, will have a look at that. Thanks for the quick reply.
The only current RF technology that will get close to giving you what you want is LoRa, it will go a lot further than the likes of RFM22B, HC12, Zigbee etc, between 10 and 30 times further on the same power.
Lots of background information on LoRa and GPS enabled Arduino trackers here;
srnet:
The only current RF technology that will get close to giving you what you want is LoRa, it will go a lot further than the likes of RFM22B, HC12, Zigbee etc, between 10 and 30 times further on the same power.
Lots of background information on LoRa and GPS enabled Arduino trackers here;
davavastone:
Sorry I thought most would have inferred that part; I should have been clearer - I require it to NOT use mobile phone data.
Thank you for the other information, it's greatly informative.
Well the clearer you make your requirement, the better the answers you will get.
One general comment is that the given range requirement, 2 miles, might be possible with LoRa in mixed countryside that is flat. Unfortuantley if the tracker is over a hill or in a valley, it might as well be on the moon as far as most types of this type of communications is concerned. The only way around the hilly countryside issue is large amounts of transmit power or direct satellite comms (both are expensive and bulky) or some form of airborne or high point LoRa relay.