{"id":201,"date":"2010-03-04T15:02:38","date_gmt":"2010-03-04T19:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.braindeadprojects.com\/blog\/?p=201"},"modified":"2010-03-05T01:04:46","modified_gmt":"2010-03-05T05:04:46","slug":"the-tiny-tracker-3-aprs-encoder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.braindeadprojects.com\/blog\/what\/the-tiny-tracker-3-aprs-encoder\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tiny Tracker 3+ APRS encoder"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been planning on building an APRS<\/a> beacon into my car for some time, initially contemplating using a WebPadDT<\/a> + XASTIR<\/a> to do the work, but that idea quickly posed an issue – the WebPad was too big to reasonably it in the car<\/a> with another passenger (at least in my car).<\/p>\n

Yes, I’m well aware that APRS is not<\/strong> really meant as a vehicle tracking device, and in many circles it’s frowned upon.<\/p>\n

I’ve enjoyed working with PIC microcontrollers since I was first introduced to the 16f84A years ago. But in all honestly, I’ve not done more than “blinky lights” and very basic modifications to an RC car with them. (Take a look at a great article<\/a> to get started working with PICs)<\/p>\n

Byonics<\/a> has a cool kit – the Tiny Track3+. Figuring I’d use it as a chance to exercise my soldering skills (which need a bit of work), and liking the fact that I wouldn’t have to hunt for each individual component on my own, I picked one up (with GPS unit).<\/p>\n

The project build steps are extremely<\/em> well documented. Literally, every step along the way is fully explained along with color images in the downloadable PDF<\/a>. Build time takes under 1 hour (actually closer to 30 minutes, although I incorrectly soldered the female DB9 connector to J2 and had to waste time de-soldering it).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Prior to installing the accompanying PIC16f628A chip, I made sure to back up the currently running software (these chips are dirt cheap, and I’m not entirely sure Byonics will just give me the software if I ever have to replace the chip) Looks like my old serial programmer still works (remember – the USB to serial adapters generally don’t put out enough voltage to program a chip, so make sure you have on-board serial):<\/p>\n

\"Old
Old serial PIC programmer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After backing up the code, I pop the chip into place on the TinyTracker, and voila -the finished product looks like this:<\/p>\n

\"TinyTracker3+
TinyTracker3+ Fully Assembled (I'm using Lysol in my coffee since I'm out of Half and Half)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Byonics crew have also written software to configure the TinyTracker. Luckily it runs under WINE so I didn’t have to reboot. To configure, power the J1 DB9 connector with a 9volt battery.<\/p>\n

\"TinyTracker3+
TinyTracker3+ in it's case, being configured serially<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And run the configuration program (again, it’s fairly well documented in the manual):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After being hung-up in customs (and a brutal snowstorm), I finally got the radio component of my APRS system – the FD-150A<\/a> (It took almost a month to get here from Hong Kong)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The output voltage\u00a0 on the FD-150 battery is ~6.25V, too low to power the TinyTracker3 (which requires 7+V). A voltage multiplier would probably fix that, but my overall goal is to encase all components in a NEMA style box, powering it off the car.\u00a0 So for the rest of the testing period, I’m using an external power-supply.<\/p>\n

Hopefully in the next few weeks, I’ll have time to finish the entire setup. Keep checking back, I’ll post updates when I can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been planning on building an APRS beacon into my car for some time, initially contemplating using a WebPadDT + XASTIR to do the work, but that idea quickly posed an issue – the WebPad was too big to reasonably it in the car with another passenger (at least in my car). Yes, I’m well … Continue reading The Tiny Tracker 3+ APRS encoder<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rf","category-what"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.braindeadprojects.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.braindeadprojects.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.braindeadprojects.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.braindeadprojects.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.braindeadprojects.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"http:\/\/www.braindeadprojects.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2146,"href":"http:\/\/www.braindeadprojects.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions\/2146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.braindeadprojects.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.braindeadprojects.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.braindeadprojects.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}