Thanks for the great suggestions.
I bought a Motorola i290 on ebay for $13.
I'll still have to experiment with putting this in an box and either
strapping a bigger battery with it or try some way to see if solar is an
option.
I'll be trying it out with the mogologo sw and will report back with the
effectiveness.
-Paul
On 2/1/11 11:21 AM, M. Adam Davis wrote:
Another free services is mologogo, and it turns out that the wireless
web feature is not needed for packet data, therefore you don't have to
pay the $0.35/day. You can get a $20 credit every 90 days (which is
never used but you have to add money every 3 months regardless of
usage) and get tracking down to $0.22 per day. You may be able to
find some convenience stores and other shops that sell $10 credits, so
you'd then only need to pay $0.11/day for tracking. See
http://mologogo.wikispaces.com/message/view/home/5054205 for details.
Mologogo is another service you can use, and it appears to be more up
to date than instamapper: http://www.mologogo.com/ with better
instructions for installation of the java mobile app on a wider
variety of phones. Troll ebay and craigslist for a cheaper, older
boost phone using the phone compatibility list:
http://mologogo.wikispaces.com/Phone+List and you may be able to find
one for free or cheaper than a new one at Target, etc.
-Adam
On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 2:07 PM, M. Adam Davis <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Go to http://www.instamapper.com/diy.html and follow the
instructions. $50 prepaid phone from Target, $0.35/day for
tracking ($50 phone includes $10 credit, so you're good for about
a month before having to buy more credit). 3-6 days standby time
(significantly less depending on cellular conditions and your
update rate - one minute update rate will drain the battery in
8-12 hours). For more time, strap a larger battery to it - the
one it has is under 1AH, so you can easily double or triple that
time with 3 AA NiMH 2000mAH cells, or some Li-Ion cells such as
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8483 and
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8484. You'll need to charge them
externally, of course. Works on Nextel/Boost network (make sure
you have coverage in the areas you're interested in). Cellular
accessories, such as car chargers, holders, etc may come in handy
if you simply want the tracker to work whenever a vehicle is on.
I have built other GPS tracking devices, and it's unlikely that
you can beat the cost if you need cellular coverage. For short
range work a hacked-together FRS radio pair, microcontollers (such
as arduino), and GPS is still more expensive to start up, but
there are no ongoing costs so might be better savings in the long
run. Note that it may be illegal to use FRS radios this way.
-Adam
On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 12:24 PM, Paul Faunik <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I'm looking to build a location transmitter that would have
the following constraints
- low cost (sub $50) for the hw
- long battery life. based on the device broadcasting location
every 5 min and doing nothing else. days between charges?
- two simple buttons : start broadcasting : stop broadcasting
- the geo coordinates are relatively accurate most of the time
- 30 meters (used almost exclusively outdoors in San Francisco)
One thought is it could some super cheap older model cell
phone, some simple native app to send geo coords to web
service or send sms (if this circumvents a data plan), super
cheap pay as you go phone plan, put it all in a box and just
expose two buttons and the charging plug.
Other alternatives?
Anyone ever built or heard of such a project?
thanks,
Paul
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