Homemade GPS logger

[Brian Dorricott 1]

FlyinFinn I've played with the XIAO but not familiar with the others . If you have any spare boards I'll gladly pay costs ( the bin is getting full ) plus postage .

Cheers 

[FlyinFlynn]

Don't have any boards yet, still awaiting the postie to drop them off!  Then I need to build one or more to prove the pcb design. The firmware seems to work ok on a mockup I made.  If all goes to plan I will PM you.

 

There is little to choose between the super mini and the xiao except the unit cost with the xiao being put together by a reputable, fairly long standing company and the super mini not 🙂   Never had a bad one though.

[dave windymiller]

Hi Flyinflynn,

Yesterday my ESP32C3 super mini dev arrived.  As you said, a nice bit of kit bar the pin count in which case the esp32 would take over  (used one of these to make an internet radio which works well).   Progress indeed.  When ive got time i will try the ported code you sent thanks

 

Cheers

 

[FlyinFlynn]

It must be nice to have a postal service that still works on bank holidays , I'll be lucky to see my postie by Wednesday 🙂

[FlyinFlynn]

So my postie did manage a delivery albeit on Thursday.  I have now built the first one from my first batch of PCB's for the ESP32C3 super mini ( I always find revisions to make after pressing the buy button!)  It all works ok ...... eventually. It took a day of pis****    messing about and eventually fixed a problem with SoftwareSerial not working when the RXPin is set to pin 2 as per my boards, I think it has something to do with pin 2 being the hardware UART2 RX pin and software serial simply refused to recognise the incoming packets on pin 2. The workaround was to not use software serial and use hardware Serial1 instead on pins 2 and 3 - problem solved.  After a couple more tweaks on the sketch I am happy it all works as intended.

 

Everything is here

[dave windymiller]

Looks good!

[FlyinFlynn]

Sorry guys, I forgot to open the folder to everyone. For those that couldn't be bothered asking for access I have now opened the folder to all.

 

I ordered 5 boards from JLCPCB  panelised with 4 circuits per board so I have a few spare. If you would like one/some I would ask just 50p per circuit PCB plus postage, which looks like €1.80 for up to 20grams international postage from France. 3 boards should be just under 20 grams.

 

1 board = 50p + £1.50 = £2

2 boards = £1 + £1.50 = £2.50

3 boards = £1.50 + £1.50 = £3

 

PM me with your address if you are interested with payment via paypal.me/GPSLogger ,otherwise the gerbers are included in the download.

 

Have fun.

 

 

Edited April 6 by FlyinFlynn
add board info and pic

[FlyinFlynn]

Quick update, I have revised the sketch so it now configures the GPS module to 38400 baud for you so it should work brand new out-of-the-box. I've added it to the download folder

 

Thanks for most of the code Dave. I couldn't get it work using nmea protocol but ubx worked fine (not surprising really ....for a u-blox device)

 

All this is very much v1.0 still!

[dave windymiller]

No Probs, many minds and all that!!!

 

Cheers

[FlyinFlynn]

I've completed the version that uses a Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32C3 and uploaded it to my drive  Same deal as the supermini really, if you want a PCB PM me. They are 50p each with £1.50 postage up to 3 boards because of the 20gram postal limit.

[Flying Squirrel]

What an interesting project, not that I need anything else to think about right now but I'd like to give this a go. @FlyinFlynn what would be the requirement to have an lcd readout of 'live' max alt/max speed?

 

Thanks

[FlyinFlynn]

15 hours ago, Flying Squirrel said:

 

15 hours ago, Flying Squirrel said:

.......what would be the requirement to have an lcd readout of 'live' max alt/max speed?

 

 

The short answer to that is 'more than I can manage!'

 

The ESP32 is a powerful beast and for a real coder I would imagine it would not be too difficult, but I am just a tinkerer messing around in the code margins. There is a world of difference between taking a line of code and modifying it to do what you want and writing that code from scratch.

 

This existing gps logger code would need to be extensively modified to create a wifi hotspot, password protected, then form the csv data package and squirt it out over wifi. You would then need a receiver and display of some sort, either a laptop and a specially written app or another ESP32 device with a screen that you hold in your hand on the ground and displays the data.  That data would also be problematic because you would need to filter out any obviously erroneous data that would inevitably get in there for your max speed or max height readings. The GPS is notably quite bad at accuracy of height data which is why Windy Miller included the barometric sensor in his original version to get the altitude.

 

You also have to keep in mind the commercially available units that possibly have this functionality and their cost..... in order to put the work in to make a home built one you have got to want to do it for the satisfaction... the  cost of it isn't in your favour ( I've already spent more on PCB's and components than the cost of a commercial unit... but where is the fun in that?)

 

Having said all that, if you dig into This thread on RiD's  you will see that that device already has the functionality you ask for, a display on the ground showing you your aircraft's position, speed, course, altitude, max speed, max altitude and a bunch of other data too. I'm not sure how the author of that software handles erroneous readings from the GPS because it is written into the app he wrote. I built a ESP32 based device with a 2.2" TFT to decode the data that is sent from the RiD and with a bit of tinkering I have got a rudimentary speed and height display (that needs further work) but have not yet managed to work out how to pick out the max values received by the device..... maybe more progress incoming.....maybe! 

[FlyinFlynn]

 

 

The remote ID device (HT1818Z3G5L GPS module and a ESP32C3 super mini) and the ESP32-2432s022 display unit.

display

super mini

HT1818Z3G5L GPS

 

No PCB required.

[Bob Burton]

16 hours ago, Flying Squirrel said:

what would be the requirement to have an lcd readout of 'live' max alt/max speed?

 

When you say "live", where do you envisage the LCD being stationed ?

With the pilot so that the readings are live in real time or on the model so that they are available to view immediately upon landing ?

[FlyinFlynn]

Good question Bob. I envisioned it as on the ground - live. If it was on the aircraft I wouldn't consider that as 'live' ..... but Im sure FS will enlighten us shortly.

[Flying Squirrel]

Sorry, I should have been MUCH clearer! I did mean just sited within the model and simply being able to see at a glance when the model is back on the ground the max speed/alt achieved. Similar to Dave windymillars post 23rd March.

 

I say 'did' as speaking with my (much brighter than I) son last night about the Xiao he mentioned the 'possibility' of a 'ground station' readout he'd like to explore.

 

Just to clarify, I certainly wasn't asking you to rewrite code etc, just confirm if it was 'do-able'

 

[dave windymiller]

Hi Flying Squirrel. The post on 23 march will do exactly what you are saying.  I only made a mockup of it so didnt post any pics of it. The max height recorder I made several years ago is similar except it now includes max speed too as well as max altitude.  

[FlyinFlynn]

On 10/04/2024 at 09:44, Flying Squirrel said:

Sorry, I should have been MUCH clearer! I did mean just sited within the model and simply being able to see at a glance when the model is back on the ground the max speed/alt achieved. Similar to Dave windymillars post 23rd March.

 

I say 'did' as speaking with my (much brighter than I) son last night about the Xiao he mentioned the 'possibility' of a 'ground station' readout he'd like to explore.

 

Just to clarify, I certainly wasn't asking you to rewrite code etc, just confirm if it was 'do-able'

 

Ah well.....   in that case it would be a much easier task to add something like a 0.91" oled display to the Xiao/HT1818 board . something like this 

 

 

The display has two lines of text so perhaps alternately display alt / max alt and then speed / max speed.....  

 

Of course Windy's solution is proven and 'off-the-shelf' and this one would need a bit of work and a new PCB.  More tinkering methinks!

 

[Flying Squirrel]

11 hours ago, dave windymiller said:

Hi Flying Squirrel. The post on 23 march will do exactly what you are saying.  I only made a mockup of it so didnt post any pics of it. The max height recorder I made several years ago is similar except it now includes max speed too as well as max altitude.  

That's brilliant, thank you. I've been looking at the 'speedflea' for some time but I also have an inquisitive mind so would much prefer to learn something by putting it together myself, I do have some experience but certainly not enough to start from scratch!

[Flying Squirrel]

35 minutes ago, FlyinFlynn said:

Ah well.....   in that case it would be a much easier task to add something like a 0.91" oled display to the Xiao/HT1818 board . something like this 

 

 

The display has two lines of text so perhaps alternately display alt / max alt and then speed / max speed.....  

 

Of course Windy's solution is proven and 'off-the-shelf' and this one would need a bit of work and a new PCB.  More tinkering methinks!

 

Thanks, I need to sit down and study things a bit!

[Brian Dorricott 1]

Just getting round to populating the Flyinflynn boards and am finding the GPS module a bit hard to find , HT1818Z3G5L in UK . AliExpress has them but will not ship to UK according to website . 

Anyone got a contact for them I don't want to bodge another unit in unless I have to.

 

[Brian Dorricott 1]

I've got around it my address was incomplete on AliExpress, until it's has complete data not just postcode it gives error " cannot ship to country" .

[FlyinFlynn]

Like most things electronic I'm not surprised you can't find it from the UK. Even if you did it would just be a supplier in the UK who has bought some from a the same supplier you find on the likes of Aliexpress in China and added their markup.

 

I can't fault the delivery of items from China - especially Aliexpress. I will accept not everyone will have the same experience but I rarely have an issue and if I do Aliexpress usually side with the purchaser. I , very recently, ordered two replacement glass tubes for my desoldering gun, both arrived damaged and Aliexpress refunded me within 6 hours.

 

As far as delivery goes, I only order from places offering 'free' shipping if you order over $10 worth... thats $10 in total, not from the same supplier - you do see the price reflects this cost and have to add stuff up but I find it usually works out cheaper in the end. Of course you need to be ordering enough stuff to make the €10 minimum but for me that is rarely a problem 🙂

 

I'm currently finding 10 day delivery is quite normal for me on the continent... it just gives me time to start the next project!

 

I'm not sure it makes a difference but there are two versions of the HT1818z3G5L.. one with flash and one without.  I always go for the one with flash just in case the GPS baud is stored in flash but seeing as how the firmware instructs the GPS module what rate to use at boot up it shouldn't matter if you have the non-flash version.

 

Happy soldering!

[FlyinFlynn]

So... having taken a look into FS's wish list I have come up with this -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have mocked up the code to produce a max speed and max height reading that should display on a 128x64 pixel oled, looking like this 

 

 

I hope.  I'm awaiting the PCB's and constructing one before releasing any other details.

 

 

On a separate approach, I am also working on a gps logger Tx and Rx combo that will display on a ground based 2.2" display showing the TX modules current height, speed, max height and max speed based on the French RiD. Whilst ,no doubt possible, incorporating the wifi/webserver into the above unit is above my pay grade....and why re-invent the wheel?

 

 The module on the left is the transmitter in the model and the display is an ESP32 and  2.2" display in one.

 

Just early days of the display development, it now has the max data too, along with the current  lat & long so it acts as a lost model locator too!

 

I find the GPS altitude data to be too skitish and unusable, I am working on integrating a barometric sensor into the RiD module to send data from that sensor which has, in the past, proved to be more reliable. Windy Millers data logger also uses a barometric pressure sensor to provide altitude data, presumably for the same reason.

 

Again, awaiting the postie to deliver some goodies before I'm able to build one and test it out.

[Brian Dorricott 1]

You know what it's like when you get a new module to program , at first it won't compile because the libraries are incorrect ( hours wasted ) then it won't upload . More time wasted until someone on the Internet mentions you have to push the boot switch while connecting ! Knowing that would have saved me hours but its tinkering in something new so hey-ho . ESP32_C3 getting to like the the finicky little devil now I know how to talk to it .