Rocket Track - Open Source GPS Tracker for Smartphones

[Derek]

UK has no GPS stock. Can you hep me out? TX board and GPS? Are the smaller ones all sorted now it still the original? Not bothered ether way

The only place to get the up501 gps now is through ebay. There is a link on the first page.

 

[Pyropetepete]

The only place to get the up501 gps now is through ebay. There is a link on the first page.

2 ordered and paid for. £2 shipping to the uk! So how do I get 2 of your boards?

I've just checked your link for the xbee. They don't have any shipping to the uk. They have them states side. Could I pay you for pcb, xbees
and you send it all onto me?

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[conman13]

Send Derek a pm. I don't know if he ships internationally but he does have the board layouts that you could send to a pcb company and they will make them for you.


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[Derek]

2 ordered and paid for. £2 shipping to the uk! So how do I get 2 of your boards?

I've just checked your link for the xbee. They don't have any shipping to the uk. They have them states side.

the xbees I use (the ones in the bom files) are only for use in north america. the 868 mhz ones I posted above are available from farnell in the uk. they may be available from other distributors. google is your friend.

https://uk.farnell.com/digi-interna.../zigbee-module-xbee-pro-rpsma-conn/dp/1706338

as for the pcbs, I don't ship outside the us, but https://www.oshpark.com will (they make the boards for me). download the tx version 1.1 zip file. In it you will find a file with the extension .brd. Upload this file to oshpark, pay them via paypal and you should see your boards in 2 - 3 weeks.

 

[Pyropetepete]

the xbees I use (the ones in the bom files) are only for use in north america. the 868 mhz ones I posted above are available from farnell in the uk. they may be available from other distributors. google is your friend.

https://uk.farnell.com/digi-interna.../zigbee-module-xbee-pro-rpsma-conn/dp/1706338

as for the pcbs, I don't ship outside the us, but https://www.oshpark.com will (they make the boards for me). download the tx version 1.1 zip file. In it you will find a file with the extension .brd. Upload this file to oshpark, pay them via paypal and you should see your boards in 2 - 3 weeks.

£65 per board is not cheap, plus aerial, usb needed as well.

What page number is it on, no search option

 

[Derek]

£65 per board is not cheap, plus aerial, usb needed as well.

What page number is it on, no search option

Page 1. Read the entire first page. It won't take long.

 

[Pyropetepete]

Page 1. Read the entire first page. It won't take long.

https://www.oshpark.com/shared_projects

It's not there

Ah you mean here on the forum in the 1st page of this topic, post 5

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...S-Tracker-for-Smartphones&p=522569#post522569

 

[Derek]

https://www.oshpark.com/shared_projects

It's not there

Ah you mean here on the forum in the 1st page of this topic, post 5

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...S-Tracker-for-Smartphones&p=522569#post522569

Bingo!

 

[Pyropetepete]

Bingo!

Result. My boss is a micro electronic guy. Have a feeling they even came make pcb at his gaff. I know they can do an oven re-flow, smd placement.


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[Derek]

I was able to do two flight tests on the mini tx today. The first was a pretty easy test in a Quest Courier which went fine. There was almost no wind and of course it went pretty much straight up and straight down. The gps had lock during the whole flight.

The next test didn't go as well. I had the pleasure of flying with a fellow trf member and he offered up his Badd Azz Thresher for a real test. If you have never seen a Badd Azz rocket, then you are really missing something. They are beautifully engineered and this one sported a gorgeous dark red metallic flake paint job. It was very pretty. Unfortunately the key word here is was...

Threshers are rear eject rockets and somehow the chute got tangled up on deployment which didn't help much with slowing the descent. I didn't actually see it, but I definitely heard the thud.

Anyway, the tx rebooted and continued to transmit data for a bit, but it never regained gps lock. We eventually found the rocket and it was a pretty sad sight. The Thresher was about 2" shorter with a new, perfectly symmetric bulge in the nose cone. The fins were ripped off (we only found two of the three) and the beautifully machined tail cone/motor retainer looked like it had been run over by a truck. The motor casing was also crushed at the ejection end. The only salvageable parts were a couple of screws and a rail button.

When we pulled the tracker out of the nose cone the cause of the lose of data from the tx became apparent. This it what the battery looked like:



Note the giant dent in the corner. Not good. I was worried the battery would ignite on the way home so I stuck it in an ammo box I use to store motors. Luckily it didn't explode (yet).

And here is the reason the gps never regained lock after the power cycle:



Note the funny angle of the gps antenna in relation to the pcb. That isn't normal. I believe the antenna wire has been sheared off, but I won't know for sure until I pull it apart. The xbee looks fine as corners of the pcb absorbed all of the impact energy. Plus it was still transmitting data up to the point where the battery died.

So I'm still pretty happy with the tests. I need to study the data but it looked like it had lock right up to the point where it impacted. We didn't really mount the tracker and battery in the nosecone very well. We just stuffed it in there with some foam to wedge it in place. A proper sled or wrapping it in foam like I do with my wild child could very well had saved the tx. Live and learn...

 

[Eyeguy41]

Thanks for the fun day today flying!

Just in case anyone was interested.
Here is the Thresher in before and after.




Anthony

 

[accpool]

Bummer, sorry for your loss.

 

[Pyropetepete]

Ouch. RIP

 

[Pyropetepete]

Some of the prices I been quoted are mental!! My boss can't do it due to there work load

So I ordered from https://oshpark.com/ and it's £8 for 3 of them to the UK, not a bad result

GPS has been posted. Will order the Xbee's shortly I think

 

[Pyropetepete]

GPS still on there way.....

Plus note me Zigbee modules have arrived for the GPS tracker https://uk.farnell.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=1706338 https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...Track-Open-Source-GPS-Tracker-for-Smartphones

 

[Pyropetepete]

Trackers battery ordered

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Overland...sGames_RadioControlled_JN&hash=item3f221ed20b

Went for this as I want it to last in case it goes with the wind. Plus someone has offered to test it who is a pilot!

 

[Derek]

Trackers battery ordered

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Overland...sGames_RadioControlled_JN&hash=item3f221ed20b

Went for this as I want it to last in case it goes with the wind. Plus someone has offered to test it who is a pilot!

That battery should run the tx for well over two hours if it is configured properly.

 

[Pyropetepete]

That battery should run the tx for well over two hours if it is configured properly.

Which bit being configured properly?

 

[Derek]

Which bit being configured properly?

the gps. you can conserve power by turning off unnecessary nmea strings. your really only need $gpgga.

send this command to the gps to disable all but the gpgga string:

$PMTK314,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0*29

 

[Pyropetepete]

the gps. you can conserve power by turning off unnecessary nmea strings. your really only need $gpgga.

send this command to the gps to disable all but the gpgga string:

$PMTK314,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0*29

How do I do that?

 

[Derek]

How do I do that?

a terminal program like hyperterm should do it. You can also download the windows gps utility which can do it. it is called fastrax workbench, or something like that.

 

[gwolski]

Does PMTK314 set the changes permanently - in other words, will the GPS revert to default on reboot?

In another project, I used PMTK390 (PMTK_API_SET_USER_OPTION) on my GPS to save custom baud rate, update rate, sentences, and DGPS mode to flash all in one go.

 

[Derek]

Does PMTK314 set the changes permanently - in other words, will the GPS revert to default on reboot?

In another project, I used PMTK390 (PMTK_API_SET_USER_OPTION) on my GPS to save custom baud rate, update rate, sentences, and DGPS mode to flash all in one go.

I haven't tried that, but everything I've read says it won't work. If I get a chance I'll try it this weekend.

The rocket track app sends the config strings every time it connects, so I hadn't really cared to try it.

 

[Joerg]

Hello,

I’m Joerg from Germany. I would like to say many thanks to Derek for this great job.
Also for me, as a non computer-freak, it wasn’t impossible to fix this tracker .
I learned to solder this tiny bastards (with hot air) and used a program like PUTTY for the first time.
My tip to other maiden-programmers; watch this YT-Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2pSQ0Ml1Qo and read the user-manual of the bluetooth-module. https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/bluetooth_cr_UG-v1.0r.pdf
Everything seems to be allright now and next time I’ll going to buy the first handy or tablet of my (45years old) live and try to connect it with the Tracker.
Perhaps, is there anybody here, who used the tracker-app with a samsung galaxy ?

I’m also really looking forward to the new minimized tx.

Greetings , Joerg

For the rx I used 2 pc of US14500 li-ion with 680mAh each in parallel configuration.

 

[Derek]

Hi Joerg,

That looks great! I like the yellow case.

You rx battery is interesting. I wouldn't have thought to try those type of cells. It looks like they fit pretty well in the battery compartment. Nice find!

Derek

 

[Joerg]

Yes, they do- as you can see at the pic- if you take a little bit care about small wires, thin solder straps (?) and shrink-tube. The nominal voltage of li-ion (LiMn) is 0,1V less than lipos (LiCo) but the are very resistantly against small overcharging.

 

[Derek]

Very cool!

I see you also cut out the front panel to fit over the switch, sma, etc. Great work! I don't have the skills to attempt that so I just leave it off.

 

[Pyropetepete]

Looking very smart!

My 3 TX board just shipped
2 GPS units have arrived
Xbee to USB adapter also arrived

 

[Joerg]

Hi!
I decided for a Nexus 7 as my first media-toy and had to fight some little battles with this fish ,first.
But now it seems to be working.
Here's the short form how I solved it:
First I downloaded the "rocket locator" app. After I paired the rx with the Nexus ( was a bit confused by the generated passkey but you can ignore that) I disabled the internal gps (compass-icon) in the energy-management-widget of the tablet. After that I downloaded a second app called "Bluetooth GPS Provider" to get a connection between the rx and the "rocket locator". Without this app I wasn’t able to bind them together, until yet.
Greetings, Joerg

 

[Derek]

Hi!
I decided for a Nexus 7 as my first media-toy and had to fight some little battles with this fish ,first.
But now it seems to be working.
Here's the short form how I solved it:
First I downloaded the "rocket locator" app. After I paired the rx with the Nexus ( was a bit confused by the generated passkey but you can ignore that) I disabled the internal gps (compass-icon) in the energy-management-widget of the tablet. After that I downloaded a second app called "Bluetooth GPS Provider" to get a connection between the rx and the "rocket locator". Without this app I wasn’t able to bind them together, until yet.
Greetings, Joerg

You shouldn't need the bt gps provider app and you don't want to disable the tablet's gps. If you do, the apps won't know where the rocket is in relation to you.