dj1an/cubecell_lora_aprs_tracker

LoRa APRS Tracker for Heltec Cubecell GPS Boards

Cubecell GPS LoRa APRS Tracker

This Project is a fork of @peterus LoRa APRS ESP32 Tracker ported to the Heltec Cubecell GPS ASR650x CPU

The code has many parts of the CubeCell-GPS Helium Mapper

Supported boards

At this moment, only the Heltec CubeCell GPS is supported:

• Heltec CubeCell GPS-6502 (HTCC-AB02S)

This board cost around 25-30 Euros, a little bit cheaper and smaller than the widely used TTGO T-Beam.

Keep in mind: you need a 433MHz version!

Project State

First Goal was the Port to the ASR650x platform, keeping the great Tracking and SmartBeacon Functions from Peters Project.

This Firmware is still in a very early and not well-tested State. Expect Bugs and Functions not working.

Please feel free to open an issue if you found Bugs.

Compiling and configuration

How to compile

The best success is to use PlatformIO (and it is the only platform where I can support you).

• Go to PlatformIO download and install the IDE.
• If installed open the IDE, go to the left side and klick on 'extensions' then search for 'PatformIO' and install.
• Windows users may have to install GIT
• When installed click 'the ant head' on the left and choose import the project on the right.
• Just open the folder and you can compile and upload the Firmware.

Configuration

• You can find all necessary settings to change for your configuration in src/config.h.

Button Actions

Top Button can be used, the lower Button is hardwired to Device Reset.

• Button > 1s: Send Position Beacon
• Button < 1s: Open Menu / Next Menu Item
• Button > 1s in Menu: Change Setting

cubecell_lora_aprs_tracker's Issues

New Profile with fixed Position

Add a static Beaconing Profile with fixed preconfigured Position without GPS

GPS positioning, not very precise

I've let the board run for a while at a stationary position. It seems to move about, I assume this might be a GPS issue, but I have a feeling it might be the conversion from GPS Coordinates to APRS packet format. It's not TOO far off but will test this further.

HELP on starting GPS

Hi,

as you may already know the GPS is different than typical NEO6M code with Tinygps and I'm trying to make a CubeCell HTCC-AB02S run as a simple GPS logger but can make it run even importing all needed in platformio.

any help?

Optimize Energy Management

Just did a few Measurements with the actual Firmware:
Current was measured in between Battery and the Cubecell Board without USB Power.

1. LCD on, GPS: on: 50-63mA
2. LCD on, GPS off: 17.9mA
3. LCD and GPS off: 11.27mA
4. LCD, GPS and Radio off, CPU Sleepmode : 11.17 mA

As there is no On/Off switch on the Device itself, we have to fully rely on the Sleepmode for Standby use.
The advertised 21uA from the Datasheet is not nearly reached, so the Battery gets drained fast.

Platformio issue Solved

The Platformio.ini below is the only working one, if you want to compile without trouble please change accordingly !
The older " platform = asrmicro650x " in the original code is no longer valid from Heltec cubecell.

[env]
platform = heltec-cubecell
board = cubecell_gps
framework = arduino
monitor_speed = 115200
lib_deps =
https://github.com/dj1an/APRS-Decoder-Lib.git#cubecell
paulstoffregen/Time @ 1.6

[env:cubecell_gps]
#upload_port = /dev/ttyUSB1
#monitor_port = /dev/ttyUSB1
build_flags = -Werror -Wall

All the best 73
ON2ON

Get rid of Heltecs LoRaWan_APP

Is it really necessary to use Heltecs LoRaWan_APP for controlling the Hardware?
All example Codes and other Projects i found are using this.
Would be cleaner to directly access the Hardware.