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Micro hornet

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johanmichel

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Hey guys,

I hope I am posting this in the right forum. I would like to build a GPS tracker in the shoe of my (autistic) son. However, no current GPS trackers are really good enough for this. Either the tracker is too big or the battery is.

So, I want to use a small battery and a couple of piezoelectric transducers to charge it by vibration/shocks.

I was looking around for small GPS trackers and found the Micro Hornet.


Since I am not (yet) a tech expert I have some questions.

I hope there is someone here who has experience with the Micro Hornet and can answer the following question:

- The Micro Hornet doesn't have a sim module. So how can it transmit the GPS location?

- How would I be able to charge and use the battery at the same time?

- How to check the GPS location? It doesn't come with an app it seems.

Sorry for these simple, beginner questions. I am here to learn.

Thanks,

Johan
 
Hey guys,

I hope I am posting this in the right forum. I would like to build a GPS tracker in the shoe of my (autistic) son. However, no current GPS trackers are really good enough for this. Either the tracker is too big or the battery is.

So, I want to use a small battery and a couple of piezoelectric transducers to charge it by vibration/shocks.

I was looking around for small GPS trackers and found the Micro Hornet.


Since I am not (yet) a tech expert I have some questions.

I hope there is someone here who has experience with the Micro Hornet and can answer the following question:

- The Micro Hornet doesn't have a sim module. So how can it transmit the GPS location?

- How would I be able to charge and use the battery at the same time?

- How to check the GPS location? It doesn't come with an app it seems.

Sorry for these simple, beginner questions. I am here to learn.

Thanks,

Johan

It's not a GPS tracker - so doesn't have a SIMM card as it doesn't need one, as it doesn't transmit. It's just a GPS module which you connect to a micro-controller (which you ned to write the software for), and connect that to a GPRS modem (complete with SIMM card) to built a tracker.

But also, the piezo tranducers only produce micro amounts of power, so would be completely useless for trying to power a tracker.

You also have the serious issue of signal reception, burying a GPS receiver in a shoe isn't likely to get very good reception.

Doesn't your son have a phone (don't all kids these days?) install a tracker app on that.

The pet tracker Ian linked to looks pretty good, but again would suffer if buried in a shoe.
 
How would I be able to charge and use the battery at the same time?
You can't. Current can flow into the battery or out of it, but not both at the same time.
 
The pet one's are really small
Just for ideas...
Thank you for the suggestion! However, unfortunately this is only bluetooth - so only useful within a few hundred meters range.

It's not a GPS tracker - so doesn't have a SIMM card as it doesn't need one, as it doesn't transmit. It's just a GPS module which you connect to a micro-controller (which you ned to write the software for), and connect that to a GPRS modem (complete with SIMM card) to built a tracker.

But also, the piezo tranducers only produce micro amounts of power, so would be completely useless for trying to power a tracker.

You also have the serious issue of signal reception, burying a GPS receiver in a shoe isn't likely to get very good reception.

Doesn't your son have a phone (don't all kids these days?) install a tracker app on that.

The pet tracker Ian linked to looks pretty good, but again would suffer if buried in a shoe.

The pet tracker appears to be of good quality, but its limited range of a few hundred meters due to Bluetooth connectivity is a drawback. Regarding the piezo transducers, I was considering using 6 or more, along with 6 or more diodes and a small lithium-ion battery. While the electricity output is minimal, wouldn't it still charge the battery during walking?

My son, who has low functioning autism, doesn't have a phone. I tried giving him one, but he kept calling me or others constantly, and also often forgot about it. I've also explored other options like watches, but they are not suitable for him either. That's why I'm considering hiding a tracker in his shoe. I've done this before, but the device was too big and had a battery life of only two days, which is not ideal. I would prefer a longer battery life.
 
A GPS "tracker" as you want contains a kind of cut-down 3G or 4G mobile phone, just the data part rather than voice, plus the actual GPS receiver that calculates positions from satellite transmissions, and a microcomputer and memory system etc. to store GPS data and send it on request.

As well as the size of the parts, to be able to accept remote instructions the phone part needs to be on, and using power.

That's why there is a limit in how small they can be, and why the battery life is short if the overall device is very small. You cannot produce enough power with piezos to run one.


How about using an Apple Airtag? They are very small and have a battery life of a year or so.

They are bluetooth, but once they are configured using your iphone, the data is automatically relayed though ANY iphone within range, rather than only working with a phone it is paired to.
 
A GPS "tracker" as you want contains a kind of cut-down 3G or 4G mobile phone, just the data part rather than voice, plus the actual GPS receiver that calculates positions from satellite transmissions, and a microcomputer and memory system etc. to store GPS data and send it on request.

As well as the size of the parts, to be able to accept remote instructions the phone part needs to be on, and using power.

That's why there is a limit in how small they can be, and why the battery life is short if the overall device is very small. You cannot produce enough power with piezos to run one.


How about using an Apple Airtag? They are very small and have a battery life of a year or so.

They are bluetooth, but once they are configured using your iphone, the data is automatically relayed though ANY iphone within range, rather than only working with a phone it is paired to.

That sounds like a really good idea. I thought airtags are bluetooth only, but if they connect through surrounding iphones, it sounds like a really good option. They also seem small enough.

Thanks a lot for the reply and idea.
 
Although current can only flow into or out of a battery at any one time, you can charge a battery and take power from the battery / charger at the same time to run a load.

If your charging source creates more current than the load takes, the battery will charge, but slower than if there were no load. If the charging source creates less current than the load takes, the battery will discharge, but more slowly than if there were no charging source.

The 12 V system in cars will go from charging to discharging as the power from the alternator varies and the load varies. There is no change in configuration when the battery goes from negative to positive current.
 
Although current can only flow into or out of a battery at any one time, you can charge a battery and take power from the battery / charger at the same time to run a load.

If your charging source creates more current than the load takes, the battery will charge, but slower than if there were no load. If the charging source creates less current than the load takes, the battery will discharge, but more slowly than if there were no charging source.

The 12 V system in cars will go from charging to discharging as the power from the alternator varies and the load varies. There is no change in configuration when the battery goes from negative to positive current.
Thanks for your extensive reply! How would the connections look like from the power source to the battery and the battery to the device if you f.e. use a lithium-ion battery? I will most likely go for the airtag, but I am still wanting to learn =)
 
Thanks for your extensive reply! How would the connections look like from the power source to the battery and the battery to the device
With any type of battery, you simply connect both the charger and the load to the battery.

You've got to make sure that taking load from the battery won't compromise how the battery is charged. With a lithium ion battery, most of the charging is normally at a certain current until the voltage hits the limit. There will also be a temperature limit for the battery.

If you have a load taking current, that will slow the charging, but that won't affect the voltage limit that the charger will charge to. You can increase the current to take account of the load current if your power source can provide it.
 
The pet tracker appears to be of good quality, but its limited range of a few hundred meters due to Bluetooth connectivity is a drawback. Regarding the piezo transducers, I was considering using 6 or more, along with 6 or more diodes and a small lithium-ion battery. While the electricity output is minimal, wouldn't it still charge the battery during walking?

Six times almost nothing is still almost nothing - it might perhaps increase the battery life by a few seconds?, that's likely to be all. If you want to try the piezo option, then I suggest you try building some in a shoe and measure how much (or rather little) power they generate.
 
Thanks for your reply! Is there any solution to this? Is there any way for the battery only to be used
while it isn't charging f.e.?
As others have said - the suggestion was completely misleading.

The device will take power from whichever provides it - any charging excess will charge the battery, and when there's no excess (all the time with piezo's) it will contribute to powering the device, but the battery will be discharging as it's providing most of the power.

Assuming a decent sized charging source, then there's a balance point where the generator will totally power the device, and the battery will be doing nothing, neither charging nor discharging.

All you need is a diode from generator to battery.
 
If a mobile phone is available as Nigel mentioned, I would go with the function (provided by Google or Google Maps?).

Some time ago I had to pick up a friend of mine in an extremely intricate area, she was walking and myself by car. I found it extremely practical and accurate.
 
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