River Rover (Floating Netduino with Communication)
#1
Posted 02 October 2011 - 01:45 AM
#2
Posted 02 October 2011 - 11:48 AM
The minimum requirement would be that the "River Rover" could:
1. Retrieve it's GPS location (some of the time).
2. Electronically send this information (some of the time).
3. Have enough battery power to survive for a least a week.
The extras would be:
1. Tell me the temperature
2. Tell me if water has leaked in.
3. Listen to commands that I put on a server such as "SLEEP 24" (You are stuck so sleep for a day while we wait for heavy rain that may dislodge you).
4. Monitor and report the charge on the batteries.
5. Be able to use solar power to charge all of the electronics on board.
6. 5. A low res camera.
I do realize that I most likely will never see the electronics again, unless of course if gets stuck a mile or two down river and keeps reporting the same location. Even then it might be really hard to get to. But I do plan on enclosing a laminated card with my information in the rare event that it is found by a kind person.
This project sounds like so much fun to me and I am really enthusiastic about it. I'm a professional computer programmer and a novice electronics hobbyist. I certainly need help with this. I would appreciate your thoughts and ideas.
Thanks,
n_yohan
I developed something with your minimum features. I used a DROID-X phone and programed it with App Inventor. It would turn on the GPS, wait for the position to be determined, take a GPS reading, turn off the GPS and then send it to a server at programmed intervals. Between intervals it would pause. Using a standard battery, it would run for about 24 hours. I think a larger battery could keep it running much longer, especially if you used something external, like a small 12 volt to continuously recharge the phone. It was connected using Verizon's network. My application was to track a person's position, for example a hiker.
When I did this, app inventor did not yet support the taking of pictures, but perhaps that has since been added. It would also not be able to support the other sensors you wanted.
The droid-x is still pricey, but I expect that to change now that the droid-3 is out. The best price I could find on ebay for a Droid-x was $50
#3
Posted 02 October 2011 - 02:34 PM
1. Tell me the temperature
Easy, check out Dallas's OneWire temp sensors
2. Tell me if water has leaked in.
Again, easy. See if SFE has some water level sensors
3. Listen to commands that I put on a server such as "SLEEP 24" (You are stuck so sleep for a day while we wait for heavy rain that may dislodge you).
4. Monitor and report the charge on the batteries.
Voltage divider and ADC port are all that's needed for that
5. Be able to use solar power to charge all of the electronics on board.
This might be kind of troublesome
6. 5. A low res camera.
I don't have much experience with serial cameras, but I think Linksprite makes one.
Replies in bold.
#4
Posted 08 October 2011 - 04:55 AM
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