Introduction

This example demonstrates how you can create a GPS tracker with the AVR-IoT Cellular Mini board and an Adafruit Ultimate GPS Featherwing. The application will send the position to a web server which will display the tracked positions and utilize the low power functionality in the AVR-IoT Cellular library to reduce power consumption. This can be used to track your bike ride, a vehicle, or provide the position for a drone😄

Project Resources

To create the GPS tracker, the following components are needed:

• AVR-IoT Cellular Mini Board
• Adafruit Ultimate GPS Featherwing
• A CR1220 battery for the GPS Featherwing (optional, but highly recommended to reduce the time for the GPS to retrieve fix)
• A battery with a JST-PH connector, for example the ones listed by Adafruit.
• Socket headers
• USB-C cable to program the AVR-IoT Cellular Mini Board

Assembly

To build the GPS tracker demo, solder a socket header on each side of the AVR-IoT Cellular Mini Board and a pair of regular headers on the Adafruit Ultimate GPS Featherwing (should be included in the box). Then attach the Adafruit Ultimate GPS Featherwing to the AVR-IoT Cellular Mini board and insert the CR1220 battery in the GPS module. Remember to attach the cellular antenna to the AVR-IoT Cellular Mini board.

GPS considerations

The GPS might use some time to retrieve fix. It is therefore advised to have the antenna on the GPS exposed towards the sky as much as possible when testing. The battery on the GPS (CR1220) keeps track of the time for the GPS and will reduce the amount of time needed to retrieve fix. More information here. It might be hard to retrieve fix indoors, so keep that in mind when testing.

Having an external antenna will improve the signal quality and make it easier to retrieve fix indoors or if the device is in a box. More information here.