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Parallel Track is offering “Electronics-Lab Blog” 10 copies of its vehicle tracking software for the GM862-GPS / GSM module from Telit. The module is used on the Sparkfun GM862 Evaluation Kit along with other off the shelf hardware. Simply buy the hardware, load on the software and you have a fully functional vehicle tracking system.
Features:
- Position reporting via GPRS automatically or SMS on request
- Geo-Fence support – SMS alert on fence breach
- Windows GUI based configuration utility
- Configurable position send interval
- GpsGate / HTTP Post protocol support
- SIM Pin support
- Sample PHP code
The software can be configured to send positions to the Parallel Track website (showing current location / location history) your own website (running the sample PHP code), GpsGate BuddyTracker (free community based tracking service) or your own custom coded application (i.e. any language that can accept a standard HTTP Post).
Further information: http://www.paralleltrack.co.uk/index.php?p=systems_integrators
Instructions to receive free software:
The first 10 readers to email mail[@]paralleltrack.co.uk (replace [@] with @) putting “Electronics Lab Competition” in the subject would receive the free software. For your participation to be valid you should attach a photo of your hardware (Sparkfun board / custom PCB etc) or any other proof that you have the appropriate hardware or you are going to buy it.
This Opto Isolator board allows you to pass signals between two circuits without having to connect them electrically. They are great for eliminating noise problems, or to connect circuits that have different voltages. [via]
General purpose Opto Isolator board v1.0 – [Link]
This page describes how to communicate with HD44780-based LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays) using an Atmel AVR microcontroller.In many microcontroller applications some sort of display is needed to present information and status of the controller to the user. Although a few LEDs can provide a lot of information, a more advanced display is sometimes needed. A solution which is quite often seen is using a HD44780-based character LCD module. These modules come in various configurations from one line of 8 chars to 4 lines of 40 characters. [via]
Using HD44780-based LCDs with AVR microcontrollers – [Link]
One of the first things people want to interface to a design is an LCD display, both to help with debugging their programs and as a way to provide results to the outside world. Unfortunately LCD’s require both a lot of I/O lines (7 at best) and require precise timing and command structure that sometimes are not easy to achieve.The easiest way to overcome all these problems is to create a “front end” to the LCD that will accept serial data and thus require only 1 line from the mcu and almost no programming effort to display some text. [via]
Serial LCD Interface – [Link]
Internet0 is a project designed by Neil Gershenfield, Raffi Krikorian and Dany Cohen. The concept is a new network of physical objectsthat are IP enabled. Any items we use in everyday life would have the ability to communicate in IP, and thus send data over the internet in a standardized manner, without considerable electronics or cost. [via]
Internet0 transceiver – [Link]
Here is the simple Lithium Ion Battery Charger. Lithium Ion batteries pack a lot of power by weight compared to other types. There are 2 things that need to be handled differently than nicad on NiMH 1. They cannot be used as a direct substitute (even if they look like other AA’s) since they run at about 3.6 (or so) volts.2. They cannot be charged in the same way as nicad or NiMH. [via]
Lithium Ion Battery Charger – [Link]
This is a test project built hastily on a solderless breadboard. It uses a LM75 to read the current temperature via I2C and displays the result on three 7 segment displays. It uses a PIC16F628 with an internal 4 Mhz clock.The program was created using JAL.
LM75 Temperature Sensor with 7 segment display output - [Link]
This project is an instance of the UsbProg project created by Benedikt Sauter. Bene released the schematics, board layout and firmware as an open-source project.The board works when connected to a Win32 PC and with an update to the firmware, enumerates on a Macintosh as well. [via]
UsbProg-SHARP – [Link]
