Created March 5, 2019 © GPL3+

ATV GPS Tracker

This is a device that will record everywhere your ATV has been. Its activated when the bike is turned on.

IntermediateWork in progress3 hours62

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Sony Spresense boards (main & extension)

Story

I want to create a device that can be mounted on an ATV that will track where it has gone. Currently there are a couple of way to do something similar, like use a hand held GPS, the problem with this is you usually forget to bring it with you, also you can use a cell phone, but in a lot of cases you are in the back country with no cell signal so most phone wont be accurate. This would be ideal because if it mounted on the ATV, you wont forget it, it would be powered on when you turn on the bike. Then all you have to do is take the SD card out to import all your GPS points to your pc.

Build

The build for this device is pretty minimal. All that should be needed is the spresense device, USB charger that can plug into the 12v outlet on the bike and a waterproof case.

The code for the project is also pretty minimal, All I wanted for this project is to get the latitude and longitude coordinates and store each set on separate line in a file.

Something like this (these are fake coordinates, its just to show format):

-66.0778939,45.2607871
-66.0787093,45.2598205
-66.0793960,45.2591559
-66.0803616,45.2585064

My code is very small, but if you want a much better GPS tracker, When I was starting to have some issues, I found one in the examples projects. It does a lot more then I needed, but it is more complete.

Installation:

Upload the software to the board
Mount the device to the ATV
Insert the SD card to the board
Plug it into the 12v jack
Once the ATV starts up, it should start logging

Mapping

Once your done your ATV ride, you can take the SD card out of the device and put it in your pc. Then open a browser and goto GPS Visualizer.

Select the type of map you want to use, then click upload a file. Then click Draw the map. A window should popup with your tracks displayed. If you select Google Map or Google Earth, you will need to create a Google API key to create the map.

You can also use this site to create a KML file which can be imported into Google Earth.

Issues:

I was only able to get the device to log coordinates once. After that it would only log zeros for latitude and longitude. Not sure what cause the issue. I read on the Sony spresense site that the GPS sensor doesn't work well indoors, but that is where it was logging. I even brought it out side when it stopped working and it still didn't help. As a last resort, I happen to find an example gps tracking app for the spresense, I loaded it, and it wouldn't work either. Thats where Im at now. trying to figure out what went wrong.
Running the spresense on a battery pack doesn't work well either. The good part is the board doesn't use a lot of power, the bad part is it doesn't use enough power to keep the battery pack on by itself. I had to plug something else in just to draw enough current to keep the batter pack on.

Conclusion

I really like this board, it contains a lot of sensors I use quite often on various projects but with the added advantage of being on a single board that uses very little power.

If I can get the GPS working again, I plan on using it on another project very shortly. It has many features I would like to try out, like the audio in and out.

Thanks

Dana.

Spresense Code

#include <GNSS.h>
#include <SDHCI.h>

SDClass SD;
File myFile;
SpGnss gps;

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  sleep(5);

  if (gps.begin() != 0)  {
    Serial.println("GPS failed!");
  } else {
    gps.select(GPS);
    gps.select(SBAS);
    if (gps.start(COLD_START) != 0)    {
      Serial.println("GPS error!!");
    } else {
      Serial.println("GPS OK");
    }
  }
}

void loop() {
  if (gps.waitUpdate(-1)) {

    SpNavData NavData;
    gps.getNavData(&NavData);

    Serial.print(NavData.latitude);
    Serial.print(",");
    Serial.println(NavData.longitude);

    // Write the latitude and longitude to a file that can be imported to GPS Visulator
    myFile = SD.open("gps.txt", FILE_WRITE);
    if (myFile) {
      myFile.print(NavData.latitude);
      myFile.print(",");
      myFile.println(NavData.longitude);
      myFile.close();
    } else {
      Serial.println("error opening gps.txt");
    }
  } else {
    Serial.println("no new data");
  }
}

Credits

Dana Mah

12 projects • 27 followers

I'm a hobbyist interested in microcontroller solutions to simple problems.

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ATV GPS Tracker

ATV GPS Tracker

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Story

Build

Installation:

Mapping

Issues:

Conclusion

Code

Spresense Code

Credits

Dana Mah

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