DIY Project: How to make a simple GPS system using Mepits Diamond Board

ABSTRACT

A GPS or Global Positioning Satellite module is used to get the current position of an object. This is utilized for many applications such as vehicle tracking, person tracking etc… The GPS module generates data based on the current location. The data consists of latitudes and longitudes on the current location. The GPS module is interfaced with the microcontroller. The data received from the GPS module is processed and decoded by the microcontroller and then displayed on an LCD display as text. This coordinates provided by the GPS in turn can be used to track down the position and precise location of the thing. 

COMPONENTS REQUIRED

1. Mepits Diamond board
2. GPS module
3. LCD display

BLOCK DIAGRAM

WORKING

The connections are made as per the block diagram provided. To the Mepits Diamond board the modules are plugged in as shown in the diagram given below.

Mepits diamond board provides the user a unique advantage of ease of connection. No soldering is required. Just plug the required modules in the board. For this project GPs module, PIC Microcontroller and an LCD display are plugged to the device.

The heart of this board is PIC16F883 microcontroller. It is an 8 bit 28 pin microcontroller. It is chosen because of the following points

• Low cost
• Optimum number of pins
• Optimum peripheral connections

Mepits Diamond board has already given some default programs for certain applications like GPS, GSM, Serial interface etc.

The GPS module will provide the latitude and longitude of the current position of the device. This data is given to the microcontroller through the TTL logic output of the GPS module. It is given to the Rx pin of the controller. From Digital out pins, it is given as input to the LCD to display the value.  

Making this as base you can take this GPS tracker project to next levels like:-

1. Trace the lost vehicle
2. Sending SMS to the nearest police station if met with an accident

An additional GSM module has to be added to the Mepits Diamond board.  The board’s Rx pin is connected to the GPS module and the Tx pin to the GSM module. The coordinate data received from the GPS is transmitted to the GSM module. This data can be uploaded to the server using GPRS.By uploading it helps the user to remotely access the net available data from anywhere. The same information if required can be made to send to some predefined number at particular interval from the start of the vehicle.

In the next case you have to add an extra vibration sensor module plug to Mepits Diamond Board along with GSM and GPS. This vibration sensor will act as a shock sensor. When the vehicle meets with an accident there will be some sort of shocks will be generated. These are detected by the vibration sensor and depending upon the intensity it will initiate a process to send an alarm message to a predefined number along with the location details. It will also make an automatic call to the number. Using GPRS, the location data can be uploaded to the server so as to be viewed remotely from anywhere.   

CONCLUSION

Hope you guys will try these projects with Mepits Diamond board. Have a happy learning experience through the Mepits Diamond Board.