Help Needed for College Project

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi, I am a 4th Year Student studying Embedded Systems. My Project for the year is to Design and Build a "Pet Location System using GPS". What PSoC microcontroller should I use and what way would you approach attacking this project if anyone has past experiences.

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RiGa_1547516
Level 3
Level 3
First like received First like given

Hi Jordan,

You are in the right place with PSOC for this kind of project.  The PSOC 6 release timing is probably going to be your biggest issue but as Arvind said, it's going to give you the best powder consumption numbers.  Remember on a PSOC 6 you can shut down a core if you don't need it or even hibernate until an interrupt wakes you up.  The GPS module will likely use AT commands.  Adafruit is probably your best be for that.  Here is a new one for you..  Check out LoRa radio.  Sigfox and others play nicely in that game with I2C or UART driven modules.  I am doing something like you are describing to track animals a large distances.  We fly over them and pick up their GPS positions via LoRa transmitted beacons.  No WiFi or other issues to worry about.  There are 415 and 900 Mhz versions depending on your country requirements.  Any PSOC can handle the task.  Your project would actually build two ends, the animal end, no display, battery, PSOC module, GPS and radio, and then you would want a receiving end.  Your receiving end could display a magnetic bearing and distance to the animal.  Your receiver would be the same hardware as the animal end with the addition of an LCD display.  PSOC makes the LCD display really easy to implement, with lots of example code in the Creator environment.  If you want something really low cost, look at the PSOC 4  CY8CKIT-049-42xx kit.  These things go for $4 or less!  You could consider doing the project in a bit higher power consumption mode as a proof on concept for the sake of the project and just note that tech like a PSOC 6 is more appropriate for production use but not readily available in the scope of your project timing.  The code for the LoRa and GPS would all be the same.  Good luck with the project Jordan, again you are looking in the right place for a solution, PSOC X is a great way to get the kind of thing you are looking to build up and running quickly.

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3 Replies
Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi Jordan

for GPS you need to use a GPS module . it depends on what you exactly want to do with the co-ordinates received form GPS.

can you please elaborate your idea for the project. from the description i am not able to understand what is you exactly want to prove in the project.

Sourabh

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ArvindK_86
Employee
Employee
10 sign-ins 5 sign-ins 10 solutions authored

Hi Jordan,

As Sourabh pointed out, you'll need to decide on the GPS module. The most common interface on a GPS module is UART, followed by I2C or SPI. All these interfaces are available on all PSoC families, however considering you'll be powering from a battery, PSoC 6 is recommended for it's ultra low power consumption while packing good processing power. Look for low power GPS modules as well, remember to select one with a power requirement compatible with PSoC 6 (1.7 to 3.6V)

Cheers,

Arvind

0 Likes
RiGa_1547516
Level 3
Level 3
First like received First like given

Hi Jordan,

You are in the right place with PSOC for this kind of project.  The PSOC 6 release timing is probably going to be your biggest issue but as Arvind said, it's going to give you the best powder consumption numbers.  Remember on a PSOC 6 you can shut down a core if you don't need it or even hibernate until an interrupt wakes you up.  The GPS module will likely use AT commands.  Adafruit is probably your best be for that.  Here is a new one for you..  Check out LoRa radio.  Sigfox and others play nicely in that game with I2C or UART driven modules.  I am doing something like you are describing to track animals a large distances.  We fly over them and pick up their GPS positions via LoRa transmitted beacons.  No WiFi or other issues to worry about.  There are 415 and 900 Mhz versions depending on your country requirements.  Any PSOC can handle the task.  Your project would actually build two ends, the animal end, no display, battery, PSOC module, GPS and radio, and then you would want a receiving end.  Your receiving end could display a magnetic bearing and distance to the animal.  Your receiver would be the same hardware as the animal end with the addition of an LCD display.  PSOC makes the LCD display really easy to implement, with lots of example code in the Creator environment.  If you want something really low cost, look at the PSOC 4  CY8CKIT-049-42xx kit.  These things go for $4 or less!  You could consider doing the project in a bit higher power consumption mode as a proof on concept for the sake of the project and just note that tech like a PSOC 6 is more appropriate for production use but not readily available in the scope of your project timing.  The code for the LoRa and GPS would all be the same.  Good luck with the project Jordan, again you are looking in the right place for a solution, PSOC X is a great way to get the kind of thing you are looking to build up and running quickly.

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