rf transmitter for gps

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi there,

I'm looking to start a basic project that will allow me to send GPS coordinates from one arduino to another (the second being hooked up to a computer, displaying the results). I'm looking to do this in a cost-effective manner, so I'm thinking it'll probably be best to use an rf transmitter-receiver combo.

I'm kinda learning the code as I go, so I am a little rocky at all of this. I have been using tinygps+ to obtain longitude/latitude, and this has been fine, but as stated before I'd love to make this wireless - but I'm not sure how to proceed.

Any tips for this?

thanks in advance!

2

Distance?

3

To start with I'm not looking at anything particularly fancy, like 200ft or so? The further the better though!

4

Obviously I'd love to grow this to cover much larger distances, but I am new to this field entirely!

5

nRF24L01 PA 2db antenna cheap and range up to 1km

D.60

6

I got my nRF24s working with this Tutorial

I suggest you use the TMRh20 version of the RF24 library - it solves some problems from the ManiacBug version

The pair of programs in this link may be sufficient for what you want.

Will your two Arduinos be in direct line of sight or will there be buildings or trees in the way?

...R

7

Thanks for the help!

I'd love for it to be able to work with buildings and such in the way, I'd assume that'd be slightly more work?

8

I'd love for it to be able to work with buildings and such in the way, I'd assume that'd be slightly more work?

For the nRF24L01 as I tested you can have it indoors at maximum 10meters and 4 rock walls,
if you need something indoors with digger distances and walls you need to find a lower frequency
transmitter and power amplified.

But you can try nRF24L01 PA as well, it depends on the structure of the house.

D.60

9

Would it be wrong to say that the rf transceivers are pretty much interchangeable though? I mean once you've got the code down could you not just switch out the rf stuff?

10

lloydturner:
Would it be wrong to say that the rf transceivers are pretty much interchangeable though? I mean once you've got the code down could you not just switch out the rf stuff?

I don't understand that question.

Do you mean would it be possible to use a different type of transceiver without re-writing the code?
No. The transceiver part of the code will be specific to the device used. The rest of the program should not be affected.

...R

11

There will be different libraries for different transceivers. Some of them offer higher levels of comm (like automatic retry, error correction, etc.) than others. If you're thinking of changing midstream, you'd best start with a very generic send/receive capability, so when you change out, you don't actually have to go backwards.

Also, when it comes to long range, don't forget that use of the scientific/instrument bands (which is where these transceiver live) is governed by power limits, and by a non-interference principle: that means that if your new use of the spectrum interferes with a previous users use, you have to back off. That pretty well makes any really long distance (like miles) application unlikely. If you get an amateur radio license, more bands and higher powers are available.