LoRa Dog Tracker Part 4

[@HMPirates]

Software walkthrough please!!

[@hanshuisken]

Great project. Just ran into Lora and Meshtastic the other day, looking for a LoRa dog tracker. ... Obvious the goal is to create a little neat device to mount on the collar of your dog. And yes, you can pack it into a single box. But what about rearranging the parts like (slightly bigger) battery, the module, and antenna(s) in a waterproof, flexible sleeve. The sleeve would be 10cm long mainly for battery and board(s), depending on the antenna(s) a bit longer. Then attach the sleeve to the collar. It would be easier to wear for (smaller) dogs. Just use the room on a long collar ... Software wise: I like the idea of switching on and off the GPS remotely of the dog-device. That could save a lot of battery live, when you only need regular locations (1-per-minute?) when your dog is out-of-sight (ran away into the wild).

[@naproctor]

Thank you for your efforts here. i have been wanting to do this with almost the same ideas, only i don't yet have the experience to tackle it. Great project, and well presented.

[@reedreamer9518]

A fantastic series - do more!

[@ChrisZBr0wn]

9:00. Me checking my own engineering drawings *facepalm* OH FFS!! Love your channel. This project is awesome!

[@clixium]

I'm somewhat like you, started a project almost 2yr ago, monitoring solar on remote location plus added burglar alarm and what not, it worked good but was never it. Now I'm reworking the whole thing with Lora (before was GSM) and constantly adding new shit so I can understand how it can be fun and frustrating at the same time. About 90% finished, it seems everything works, Lora range is unbelievable with these things. My goal was 3km which I reached almost 1st day with stock antennas

[@dork3nergy]

Nice job! Keep on hacking.

[@denisw398]

Fantastic to come on your channel. I'm looking at a cat tracker! So miniaturisation is it! I'm using the BZ121 FPV GPS and ESP32-c3 module with micropython control, just amazing how small even before making a dedicated PCB but it looks like I'm 4 years behind you experience wise, so I'll be watching future progress.

[@ExpertEdgeNOW]

Any progress made on this project further miniaturizing this gps tracker? Also, is there a GitHub on this project with code?

[@dominykas5195]

Hey, could you share the gerber files for the pcb? Thank you.

[@vindictii]

Are you still working on this project?? Curious if you were able to get that smalled GPS module working or not

[@billanderson8191]

Getting nice and small now

[@kinahmuzvidzwa2218]

Hi please are you able to share the updated schematic of that you used for the project

[@richiejohn5760]

In every phone is GPS modul. Isn't it possible to buy some GPS modus made for phone ? They are made in huge series so they should be reliable and cheap?

[@ilycode]

hey Im small sheep farmer in south of france, I use chinese gps colar for cattle , but they are expensive and need to be recharged every few days though I only might need to check gps coordinates a couple times a day. do you thinbk lora would be a good technology for that ? what do you thing would be the longest battery life possible on a reasonable sized case ? and how much cost the parts approximatly ? well if your willing to share thoses information, anyway thx in advance and great work

[@DeuceBigs1983]

We really need the most compressed lorawan trackers so we can put on our pets. Having such a hard time to find them. I really want to help my community with the ability to track their pets, if they run out of their yards.

[@RK-kn1ud]

I was thinking about building something similar and came across your project. Not sure if you mention it, but what are your battery specs and runtime? Any steps taken to reduce power consumption? I have a slightly different use case...a dog that doesn't run off USUALLY. However, I'd like to build something that basically transmits only. Probably something that intermittently powers on and checks a preprogrammed geofence, and maybe checks in to report a last known location, battery status, and signals a geofence breach at a predetermined interval. I'd like to only charge it after a few weeks (or months).

[@arp_catchall]

Just wondering... whats your expense thus far on the dog tracker project? Ballpark?🤔

[@dork3nergy]

Around $30 I guess. GPS and RFM95 are the major costs.

[@MamieMcCall]

Amazing video! Did your new board work? Can you show us the end result of software’s tracking Gui with your collar in action?

[@dork3nergy]

I know I said something about a software tour. Could have been drunk when I said that but I'm going to make good on it. Promise.

[@iantcroft]

Walk through the code please! Did you get the gps working? Another small(ish!) gps that I use is the Quectel L80, larger than your little gps though but not sure what passives that requires.

[@dork3nergy]

Sorry, been really busy. I'll try and get something out soon.

[@ashwin372]

what's the range?

[@raymondmichael4987]

Very interesting, software walk through, And a github link for the codes

[@naproctor]

Can you do a video on the software, or even just publish the code. i do love you humor and presentation style.

[@greendragonmakerspace]

I make my drill holes .5mm and jam the pins in while they program. If yr into little microcontrollers and cheapness check out the WCH ch32 ones.

[@CraigMarauder]

+1 on the software walk through

[@doctor567]

Excellent project, been following! What program did you use to draw out your schematic?

[@dork3nergy]

I did that on EasyEDA online. It's quite a nice set of tools.

[@edsmith2366]

Cool project! I am interested in seeing a video about your code.

[@dork3nergy]

Coming soon! Sorry for the wait.

[@TheBlackMini-io4tq]

Nice work on making it smaller, have you seen this yet? Wio-WM1110 Wireless Module, it's got GNSS, LoRa, Wi-Fi & BT. Wio-E5 is just MCU & LoRa Might take the fun out of it though?!

[@dork3nergy]

Hadn't seen that. I think you are right though, no fun ;)

[@AU518987077]

what difficulties would there be for the 'completed' module as is in this video, to make it work with meshtastic? this would be perfect for my backpack, my electric unicycle and my ebike. have you concidered a kenetic generator to prolong the longevity of the onboard battery? how large of a solar cell would you need to overcome the average miliamp usage this tracker uses? or what is the average miniamp hour rate currently? can you add an accelerometer and perhaps have it sleep for longer durations when not in motion? can i buy these from you preprogrammed in bulk if they can be made to work with meshtastic?

[@dork3nergy]

I don't know anything about meshtastics but looking at their website, it seems you might need to write your own firmware to get this to work with it. Kinetic generation or vibration harvesting would be good but I think those devices need to be reasonably large to generate anything useful. If you know of something, let me know. Solar is a definite possibility to slightly improve longevity. The device consumes around 15mA when 'listening' and 23uA when asleep. This is without the GPS active. Transmitting gets you to around 120mA and with the GPS probably 150mA so a small solar panel will help but not a whole lot.

[@richiejohn5760]

So you think that its not possible to charge this device with small solar panel like 10X10 ? If you want to send location of your bike every one hour for example ?

[@dork3nergy]

@@richiejohn5760 A 10x10cm panel should be plenty. I thought we were talking about the real small panels.

[@richiejohn5760]

@@dork3nergy oh, soo what do you think is smallest panel which is able to keep this device alive to send location every hour ? Thank you for answer 😊

[@dork3nergy]

@@richiejohn5760 I just ran a test using a 300mAh battery. It reported it's location every hour. The battery lasted for 3 days. If I were you, I would just hook it up to an 18650 and should should only have to recharge the battery every 3 weeks or so.

[@RoSi4You]

Interesting. Software walk-through please.

[@ninarise7841]

RYS8830 would be 11*11*2.2mm 4.5 by 4.5-millimeter MIA-M10’s miniature form factor Using a smaller but longer Batterie then could also help Ingo the size

[@ninarise7841]

MIA-M10Q runns with 3.3v

[@vincentjean6756]

Good job! Do you need line of sight to get it working? Thanks!

[@dork3nergy]

It is line of sight so in a suburban area human debris like homes and such can decrease your range. With a good, high antenna, and some favorable elevation, I can get around 4km between the tracker and the gateway.

[@vincentjean6756]

@@dork3nergy cool thanks!

[@hendmei7066]

Здравствуйте а где файлы печатной платы?

[@rustyhaddock7954]

@DorkEnergy Just where in the Hail is the (any) strip club in R'town that yer dog's going to??? 😄 Inquiring minds want to know.

[@squartochi]

Please Make a video reviewing the code :) Love watching your videos!

[@dork3nergy]

Already on my todo list ^_^

[@jamesainslie8646]

Yeah please walkthrough your software 😢

[@nuradeenbesher3735]

It's a really interesting project, if you want to sell it I'd be happy to buy it

[@dork3nergy]

Not quite at that stage yet but, if it happens, I'm sure I'll announce it here.

[@nuradeenbesher3735]

@@dork3nergy I need something like that for my project and it would be nice of you if you bought it for me or created one for me and I would pay for it

[@poison_lembas]

@@nuradeenbesher3735 Not really at that stage yet mate. What's your project?

[@nuradeenbesher3735]

@@poison_lembas mini LoRa GPS Tracker

[@firdoshdiakus4841]

Useless project without sharing the code.....

[@dork3nergy]

I have shared previous iterations of the code. I haven't got around to upping this yet. Still tinkering. github.com/dork3nergy/dogtracker