smartphone gps tracking

[gwolski]

Exactly how mine works -- http://www.rocketryplanet.com/forums...ead.php?t=9205 -- except I didn't put a GPS in the ground station, but simply record the first coordinates I get from the tracker as the initial position. I can post the code if anyone's interested.

Thanks for the link - don't think I saw that thread. Mine started off the same - displaying the coordinates that I could punch into my Garmin. When I looked at interfacing directly to the Garmin, I chickened out and decided to add a GPS module to the ground station instead. No map, but direction and distance should suffice nicely.

I also added a digital compass module (HMC6352 iirc) for the local heading. After calibration, the digital compass heading lines up nicely with my handheld compass.

[mikec]

direction and distance should suffice nicely.

I also added elevation when the rocket is in flight; sometimes that helps to visually acquire it.

[gwolski]

I also added elevation when the rocket is in flight; sometimes that helps to visually acquire it.

Good idea - I dropped altitude from the coordinates display. I may add it back to the range/bearing display. I have a push button on the ground station that can be used to toggle between display modes (locator view, remote GPS coords, local GPS coords, and status/debug).

I also have included connections and a buzzer for event notification (I think I borrowed that idea from Paul). This setup uses breakwires and Xbee digital line passing to notify the ground station that a deployment event (apogee, main) has taken place. The buzzer is a nice audio indicator - helps if you're visually tracking the rocket.

I'm also considering adding a signal strength indicator using the Xbee RSSI pin output. Has anyone tried that?