S14: Location Tracker
Contents
Grading Criteria
- How well is Software & Hardware Design described?
- How well can this report be used to reproduce this project?
- Code Quality
- Overall Report Quality:
- Software Block Diagrams
- Hardware Block Diagrams
- Schematic Quality
- Quality of technical challenges and solutions adopted.
Project Title
Abstract
The location tracker is designed to help you keep on eye on where someone—like your kid—is. An Android application communicates with the locator beacon to determine the location of the target and how to get there.
Objectives & Introduction
Two nodes shall be designed to communicate over GPRS/GSM network. Node Android requests data from node target. The Android application pinpoints the target and finds the fastest path to the target based on the received location. A SMS message is sent by the app to trigger the beacon to start sending its coordinates back. A GPRS/GSM module controlled by the SJ One Board on the beacon receives the SMS message, and triggers a new GPS coordinate reading from a GPS module. The GPS coordinates are sent back periodically through SMS messages for the app to map.
The project required the following objectives to be accomplished:
- Read GPS coordinates from GPS module
- Receive and send SMS messages from GPRS/GSM module
- Send and receive SMS messages from within Android app
- Map location of Android phone and target
- Retrieve and draw driving/walking path from source to target
Team Members & Responsibilities
- Arpit Amin
- GPS: communication and data parsing
- Caleb Chow
- Android application: SMS message handling, Google Map API and UI
- Cynthia Ho
- SMS: multitasking design to handle SIM900 and GPS modules
- Abraham Ruiz
- Android application: Source to destination path algorithms and Google Map API
Schedule
| Week# | Date | Task | Actual |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3/6 |
|
|
| 2 | 3/13 |
|
|
| 3 | 3/20 |
|
|
| 4 | 3/27 |
|
|
| 5 | 4/3 |
|
|
| 6 | 4/10 |
|
|
| 7 | 4/17 |
|
|
| 8 | 4/24 |
|
|
| 9 | 5/1 |
|
|
| 10 | 5/8 |
|
|
| 11 | 5/15 |
|
|
Parts List & Cost
| Part Name and Link | Price |
|---|---|
| SIM900 GPRS/GSM module | $48 |
| Ublox NEO-6M GPS Module | $23 |
| EasyAcc USB Power Bank DC 5V 2.1A, Output | $23 |
| Mini SIM card | $20 ($10 card + $10 T-Mobile prepaid service) |
| SJ One Board | $80 |
| Total | $194 |
Design & Implementation
The design section can go over your hardware and software design. Organize this section using sub-sections that go over your design and implementation.
Hardware Design
Discuss your hardware design here. Show detailed schematics, and the interface here.
Hardware Interface
In this section, you can describe how your hardware communicates, such as which BUSes used. You can discuss your driver implementation here, such that the Software Design section is isolated to talk about high level workings rather than inner working of your project.
Software Design
Show your software design. For example, if you are designing an MP3 Player, show the tasks that you are using, and what they are doing at a high level. Do not show the details of the code. For example, do not show exact code, but you may show psuedocode and fragments of code. Keep in mind that you are showing DESIGN of your software, not the inner workings of it.
Implementation
This section includes implementation, but again, not the details, just the high level. For example, you can list the steps it takes to communicate over a sensor, or the steps needed to write a page of memory onto SPI Flash. You can include sub-sections for each of your component implementation.
Testing & Technical Challenges
Describe the challenges of your project. What advise would you give yourself or someone else if your project can be started from scratch again? Make a smooth transition to testing section and described what it took to test your project.
Include sub-sections that list out a problem and solution, such as:
My Issue #1
Discuss the issue and resolution.
Conclusion
Conclude your project here. You can recap your testing and problems. You should address the "so what" part here to indicate what you ultimately learnt from this project. How has this project increased your knowledge?
Project Video
Upload a video of your project and post the link here.
Project Source Code
Send me your zipped source code and I will upload this to SourceForge and link it for you.
References
Acknowledgement
Any acknowledgement that you may wish to provide can be included here.
References Used
List any references used in project.
Appendix
You can list the references you used.
