For a little more information on the build process for this tracker, see its post on 4hv.org.
After the miserable failure of the GPS tracker rev 1, I needed a new plan of attack for tracking my rockets. The main problems with the rev1 was that the board was very delicate and 'flaky' due to being built out of perfboard, and that the wireless modules didn't work for more than 100ft. To solve these problems I decided to try my hand and PCB fabrication, and some new RF modems that had recently been released, specifically the XT09-SI 900MHz transceiver.
After that decision I made a prototype and drew up a schematic: (note, there are some errors in these, for reference only)
Which I then made into a board layout, and eventually a (very poor quality) PCB:
and populated the board:
Results:
This tracker actually worked! I flew it in Krazed II on 6/18/06, with a hypertek J317 twice, and once on 11/24/06 with another Hypertek J317,and I got some very nice looking data for Crazed II; see its page for the full details. Unfortunately, Crazed II had a horrible accident on the 11/24/06 flight, and the tracker was destroyed. Thus was born GPS Tracker Rev 3
Licensing:
Everything on this site (pictures, schematics, code, etc) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License, which essentially states that you can do whatever you want with it, so long as you
If you need a different license, contact me.
questions? comments? Want to help? email me contact@krazerlasers.com