Hi all,
Following on from the GPS tracking thread, there is a good open source tracking project that will do essentially what we're after and more.
It can install on any smartphone and can be used to tell the objects location, but can also share footage of its surrounds too [and more]. It does mean that you need to attach a smart phone to the drone, but considering you can pick up a second hand phone cheaply and the weight would be minimal it's not a bad way to do it.
I have started a project to upload/configure the app (source code available here [https://github.com/prey] if anyone is interested) and reassemble the phone/camera into something suitable for our quad frames etc.
I know you can pick up GPS trackers from the local electronics store for ~$150, but I think I can do it cheaper and with more capability. Hence I just thought I would share the project that i'm working on and certainly open to ideas if anyone has any suggestions.
Cheers,
David.
Replies
Interesting, unfortunately someone broke his quad think its due radio frequency interference caused by his cell phone, installed on the drone during that flight.
We think the crash may be linked to this problem, the phone during flight coes to continuous polling with the cells and the emission of radio frequency in case of phone call can exceed 1 W.
Davis, sure making GPS tracking hardware is less than 150 you mentioned but you forget one big thing. Without software it's just dear hardware. One my friend is making those GPS trackers and you cannot even imagine how much they spend on software work as there are million places around the world and also million teleoperators, every single operator have their own little funny things that you need to solve in software.
Their original hardware took about 500 working hours to make but software has now taken over 10.000 man hours and still takes more.
A bit same thing like in Ardupilot hardware, it has not changed much in past 1-1.5 years but software updates are coming every single day. Most days have 3-10 updates to it.
Another thing, be careful if you use iPhone and GPS as there are some limitations how much you can collect data due Apple rules. Not sure if Android have similar rules.. i doubt
Beyond that, your project looks really interesting.
Jani / jDrones
Cool! - to what extent does mobile phone / GPS signal transmit through water ??? could put phone in a clear waterproof housing (such as pelican case) and watch the fish swim by each time the quad goes for a swim.
Not likely, but I'll keep watching this thread.
MJ