Tag: IoT
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Fourth round of the tracker project
In the fourth round it was decided to make another version of the VHF tracker, but without the PA module. A smaller (Hammond) enclosure with 3D printed top and bottom. The whole thing got simpler, but we also decided to design a 4-layer PCB and let the factory in China assemble most of it. Exceptions…
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Third round of tracker project
Five tracker prototypes have been made in this round. As described in the previous post, this third version is based on the ESP32-S3, it has a USB-C socket and a OLED display on the outside of the enclosure, with a 3D-printed cover. Display The first idea was to replace the Nokia LCD display with a…
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Second round of tracker project
The second iteration of the Arctic Tracker is based on an ESP-32 IoT module (a sucessor of the ESP8266). It is quite capable and still rather cheap. It has Wifi, Bluetooth, a dual core CPU operating at up to 240 MHz, 520 KiB RAM, and several other interesting features. We use a ESP-Wroom-32 module with…
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First round of tracker project
The Arctic Tracker project isnt dead. It has just been “resting” for a while (sorry, we have been busy with many things). However, a second version is underway, based on the ESP-32 module and experiences from the first round. I will describe this in the next post. It is some time ago now, but here…
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Designing a prototype tracker
We have been working for some time, designing a more complete prototype Arctic Tracker. The plan is to produce up to 10 units, with financial support from the Norwegian Radio Relay League. We will use a Tekal 12.30 aluminum enclosure (like the Polaric Tracker), it will have a display, and a PA module that can…
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Tracking, internet and igate
I have been busy hacking the tracker. Now it can connect to a server on the internet, it can function as an igate or digipeater and it tracks positions nicely. Tracking is quite like the Polaric Tracker. Every 10 second it checks the position (from the GPS module) and depending on the speed, distance between…
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Working with the WIFI module
The Arctic Tracker lab model has a main microcontroller unit (Teensy 3) and a ESP-12 WIFI module. Now, can we connect the tracker to a PC or to the internet (using WIFI) and can we make a web interface to configure the tracker? Yes, it seems like we can. It can connect to the internet,…
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Assembling and testing the tracker lab model
The picture above shows the PCB for the Arctic Tracker with most parts mounted. It was straightforward to solder the parts on the board, except the Teensy. It can be tricky since it need to have 37 pins soldered on it first, and these should either be soldered onto the PCB either directly or a…
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Designing a lab model
The Arctic Tracker project is not dead (yet). The idea is to develop a tracker device with traits like these: It is modular, it can be assembled mainly from existing modules. Should be fairly easy to assemble. It has plenty of computing room and is open source. It can be a platform for hacking and…