Planet Arduino

Satellite Lamps is a project investigating one of the most important contemporary infrastructures, the Global Positioning System or GPS. It’s a project curated by Einar Sneve Martinussen, Jørn Knutsen and Timo Arnall as part of the Yourban research project at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design and continues their previous work on revealing the materials of technologies that started in 2009 with RFID and Immaterials: Light Painting Wifi. The project uses Arduino extensively, and is also thoroughly documented:

GPS is widely used yet it’s invisible and few of us really have any idea of how it works or how it inhabits our everyday environments. We created a series of Lamps that change brightness according to the accuracy of received GPS signals, and when we photograph them as timelapse films, we start to get a picture of how these signals behave in actual urban spaces.

 

They published a film that you can watch above, and published an article that details very thoroughly how it was made and why. If you are interested in the project, you can read more on how they explored GPS , how the visualisations were made, and about the cultural history of GPS.

Homebrew tracking device was designed using an Arduino Uno and GPRS+GPS shield. Using it to track persons is highly illegal unless you belong to an alphabet agency.

Read more on MAKE

Javier from CookingHacks writes:

We made a step by step article about how to track vehicles using Arduino + GPRS / GPS. Then we integrated the information using the Google Maps API. All the code is available with open source license.

Realtime GPS+GPRS tracking of vehicles using Arduino - [Link]

Javier from CookingHacks writes:

We made a step by step article about how to track vehicles using Arduino + GPRS / GPS. Then we integrated the information using the Google Maps API. All the code is available with open source license.

Realtime GPS+GPRS tracking of vehicles using Arduino - [Link]

raj @ embedded-lab.com writes:

Check out Cooking Hacks Arduino-based GPS tracker project for vehicles that could be extremely helpful to pinpoint the exact location of the vehicle in case it is stolen. The project uses a GPS+GPRS shield with an antenna to locate the coordinates of the vehicle. You need to call the device from your preset phone number, which will be verified by the SIM908 module on the tracker, and it will then send you an SMS with the GPS coordinates of its location.

Real-time GPS tracking device for vehicles - [Link]

We are excited to announce that OpenTracker v2 by Tigal is our new partner in the Arduino At Heart Program and ready to be backed in an Indiegogo campaign.

OpenTracker is a  fully open source commercial grade GPS/GLONASS vehicle tracker that comes with a free web interface for tracking it on Googlemaps or OpenStreetMaps.

The interface allows the tracking of a single vehicle or larger fleets simultaneously: currently it is possible to track the location, speed, altitude, heading, and address of the vehicle as well as save logs of location data for later use. With additional sensors it is also possible to track humidity, temperature and other parameters when desired.

The OpenTracker v2 is the second version of the original OpenTracker with many improved features, and a significant reduction in price.

 

 

Let’s have a look at some tech specs. The OpenTracker v2 is ready to run out-of-the-box and includes the same powerful 32-bit ATMEL SAM3A8C ARM controller as the Arduino Due, a Quectel M95 GSM/GPRS modem for wireless connectivity, a Quectel L76 GPS/GLONASS module with Assisted GPS, CAN-BUS, plenty of I/O options and a wide operating temperature range of -35°C to +80°C. The included CAN-BUS, plentiful I/O and on-board GSM/GPRS modem can be used to create many interesting applications such as CAN-BUS logger, SMS Gateway, SMS Remote Controller, and Weather Station with SMS notifications to name a few.

The OpenTracker v2 is available as a complete bundle including the Board, High-Quality Aluminum Enclosure, Power and Programming Cable as well as a GSM/GPS Antenna, or as a stand-alone board for those interested in using the board as an enhanced Arduino Due. The free online tracking interface is available at opentracker.tigal.com.

Support them on Indiegogo! (only a couple of days left but it’s flexible funding and going ahead with the manufacturing in any case!)

Built on the basis of Arduino UNO, GPS, SD card, TFT, GPS map navigation system is to obtain the real-time position information via GPS, to send it to UNO for calculation, according to the calculating results, and teamed up with the

map file stored in SD card, thus presenting the position on TFT. The GPS system, owing the function to store the current position information, can be applied to running positioning and to record the running tracing.

Arduino GPS Map Navigation System - [Link]

GPS

Track and Trace anything with the Arduino AnyTracer of only 25 x 25 mm! It is the smallest, complete GPS GSM tracker in the entire world.

A movie is not necessary here! The photos speak for itself. Together with the best Italian and Russian GPS specialists we managed to make the smallest complete GPS GSM tracker in the world. This tracker is only 25 x 25 mm! With the onboard STM32 microcontroller you can program it yourself with Arduino or online (!) with Mbed.org or in C using Keil or the opensource CooCox IDE. Almost anybody can do the programming with their own beloved platform.

Arduino GPS GSM AnyTracer - [Link]

Raj @ embedded-lab.com writes:

A group of students at Indiana university has built an Arduino-based distance measuring tool as their class project. It is a handheld device that measures the distance between any two points using the latitude and longitude coordinates (received from GPS satellite) of the points. It provides distance output in Yards and is useful for sports applications, such as in golfing to compute the distance between where a ball is hit and where it ends up.

[via]

Distance meter using GPS and Arduino - [Link]

 

Here’s Oscar Liang another Arduino GPS project, he writes:

Garlow stands for GPS Arduino Rechargeable Logger OLED Watch. The device gives GPS information which is logged on SD card and shown on a OLED display. It can be carried as a watch or simply used as a GPS data logger. The whole system is based on Arduino Nano, with a Lipo power management module which enables USB battery recharge.

A small GPS Arduino watch/clock - [Link]