Close

Hardware and Software for the Tracker

A project log for Urban Red Fox Tracking Project

To build a low cost tracking system without GPS for Animals and Human Animals.

brenda-armourBrenda Armour 09/23/2016 at 17:580 Comments

I am using IBM Bluemix , CC2650 Sensor Tag and Raspberry Pi 3 to deploy motion data to the IBM Cloud. I will be using Node Red to wire the data and calculate next Longitude and Latitude based on Motion data . I will also need to predict when a step has been taken for distance. Below is a nice visualization of the motion data from the Sensor Tag. I'm moving the sensor tag around for this demo.

I have installed iot-sensor-tag from Git Hub. Information can be found here. This code is licensed under Apache v2. I'm using the newest Sensor Tag and the Raspberry Pi 3 rather than a Beagle Bone. The program allows me to connect to IBM BlueMix.

My initial Node Red setup looks like this:

The Trigger ISS Distance Check is a flow available from the node red library and triggers a msg payload to tell you how far you from the International Space Station from your current location. It also is a great learning tool for using Math functions in Node Red. You can find the flow here. The rest of the setup is my work. I kept nodes with different calculations for testing. The debug tabs are used to check the output and also check for errors in the flow.

I will be using FreeBoard's Thingproxy to create a data source for the FreeBoard dashboard and map the output on Google Maps. More information on Thingproxy can be found here. The license info can be found here.

I recently upgraded to Raspberry Pi 3 and now I don't need a WIFI or Bluetooth dongle. I had no issues with the new Pi and was impressed with the speed. The only dongle I have installed is for my wireless mouse and keyboard. The Sensor Tag had no problems connecting to the onboard bluetooth.

You can find details of the sensor tag here. The Raspberry Pi 3 details can be found here.

My next log will explain more of the math behind the calculations and the Dashboard.

Discussions