- #1
mike548141
- 3
- 0
Hi,
I've been mulling over an idea (you know how it is, just to keep the grey matter ticking) on how to build a device for tracking...well anything... from hunting dogs to humans.
The device would include a GPS (lat, long, altitude, vert & horz accuracy, UTC time) to give bearing over time and location.
Potentially also a digital compass (bearing), barometer (altitude and pressure change), hardware encryption to protect the info transmitted and a accelerometer (orientation and sudden acceleration/deceleration). I've also been considering a GSM chipset to assist with location but it would only be passively listening (due to power concerns).
These would all need to be dynamically powered i.e. shut down the chip unless its required.
I'm imaging the worst of conditions i.e.
- it must be small and light thus little space for a aerial or heavy batteries
- a very low position for a aerial say 1-2 feet above ground
- The transmitter may be on top of a small mountain or in a valley
- regular short bursts of data required (say every 2-10 seconds) signaling things like GPS reference etc... Say 100-200 bytes of info
- similarly the receiver is likely to be handheld... Say a iPad size device (approx 10"). However potentially that could be a controller/renderer and the receiver could have a larger aerial and battery say on a quad bike/car/truck/mountain bike etc...
My question is how to efficiently transmit that data?
I was thinking something in the HF range to give it the "legs" and to attempt to break through bush/hills etc that may interfere. I'm looking more at beating mother nature here than urban jungles.
My goal is to achieve 10-20 KM coverage with line of sight, 5-10 KM non-line of sight. I'm also aiming for 12-72 hrs of battery life to transmit which is obviously a mix of battery/power regeneration and efficient radio transmission engineering but the idea is to max out both.
This is all theoretical so we can ignore the need to license frequencies for now.
Many thanks for any ideas/thoughts.
MC
I've been mulling over an idea (you know how it is, just to keep the grey matter ticking) on how to build a device for tracking...well anything... from hunting dogs to humans.
The device would include a GPS (lat, long, altitude, vert & horz accuracy, UTC time) to give bearing over time and location.
Potentially also a digital compass (bearing), barometer (altitude and pressure change), hardware encryption to protect the info transmitted and a accelerometer (orientation and sudden acceleration/deceleration). I've also been considering a GSM chipset to assist with location but it would only be passively listening (due to power concerns).
These would all need to be dynamically powered i.e. shut down the chip unless its required.
I'm imaging the worst of conditions i.e.
- it must be small and light thus little space for a aerial or heavy batteries
- a very low position for a aerial say 1-2 feet above ground
- The transmitter may be on top of a small mountain or in a valley
- regular short bursts of data required (say every 2-10 seconds) signaling things like GPS reference etc... Say 100-200 bytes of info
- similarly the receiver is likely to be handheld... Say a iPad size device (approx 10"). However potentially that could be a controller/renderer and the receiver could have a larger aerial and battery say on a quad bike/car/truck/mountain bike etc...
My question is how to efficiently transmit that data?
I was thinking something in the HF range to give it the "legs" and to attempt to break through bush/hills etc that may interfere. I'm looking more at beating mother nature here than urban jungles.
My goal is to achieve 10-20 KM coverage with line of sight, 5-10 KM non-line of sight. I'm also aiming for 12-72 hrs of battery life to transmit which is obviously a mix of battery/power regeneration and efficient radio transmission engineering but the idea is to max out both.
This is all theoretical so we can ignore the need to license frequencies for now.
Many thanks for any ideas/thoughts.
MC