Motion Activated Cell Phone Tracker

HOVER OVER THE PHOTOS WITH YOUR MOUSE FOR TIPS AND ADDITIONAL DIRECTIONS. !!

This is the tutorial on how to build the switch I developed, to turn a cell phone used for GPS tracking, on and off with motion. This switch will alleviate the problem of J2ME java applications from locking up during long run times (over days or weeks).

Soldering is required. Sparkfun has a great Soldering Tutorial if you need help.

The next step will walk you through what I do when I make them and the order that I have found works best, as well as a couple of tips to make it easier.

Good luck and more importantly, have fun!

Step 1 Solder the 28 Pin DIP socket first

This shows the 28 Pin DIP socket, which will hold the AVR chip in place, in the board. Notice that there is a small semi-circle cutout at one of the long ends of the socket. This should match up with the picture on the circuit board.

Comments

[angelars]

Fornzix, when will your chip and board be available? We have PayPal if that's helps :)

[JATT187]

where can i get ur programed chip?

[rkpatt]

This is great . Please post a schematic and pictures of both sides of the board . - Thanks

[tinkerC]

So does this track? Where is the GPS chip?

[wild803]

Great instructable. I have been playing around with the i415's. I have been looking at your pcb, and I would like to make my own. Do you have close up photo's of each side. Or a schematic? I found instructions on how to make my own PCB. All of the guys at my work think this is the greatest thing. Scott

[random1197]

Nice instructable, where did you get the circut from?

[ReCreate]

I like how you yell so many times "HOVER OVER THE PHOTOS WITH YOUR MOUSE FOR TIPS AND ADDITIONAL DIRECTIONS. !!" "PAY ATTENTION TO THE DIRECTION. IT HAS A SMALL SEMI CIRCLE ON THE END CLOSEST TO THE 28 PIN SOCKET. THIS SHOULD MATCH THE PICTURE ON THE BOARD." "you will BURN OUT THE PHONE." "DO NOT SOLDER TO THE BATTERY !!!!!!! YOU ARE SOLDERING TO THE PHONE !!!!!!!" "YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE YOUR ORIGINAL BATTERY AFTER THIS STEP. YOU WILL HAVE TO USE AN EXTERNAL 3.7 volt BATTERY" And "IF YOU MESS THIS PART UP, YOU'LL BURN EVERYTHING UP." You really convinced me into doing this ,especially in the last one

[ReCreate]

"IF YOU MESS THIS PART UP, YOU'LL BURN EVERYTHING UP!" you are so convincing

[skippydownunder]

Nice work is the schematic \ circuit available?

[frollard]

I love the concept! - Is there any reason you chose not to have the accel chip within the bounds of the motherboard? To have it hanging off the side and over the atMega seems extra bulky. The traces could be brought to the top of the board, where all that spare space is or perhaps redesign the board to have a smaller footprint if its easier to stack the child board on top... All so java wont crash ;)

[fornzix]

I don't think it's the Java crashing. I think it's the phone's J2ME handling of the VM that hangs. It stops responding after 2-3 days of continuous running. Re: the board hanging over....that was caused by me reversing the 6 contacts. If they were flipped end over end, then the board would have filled that spare space. I didn't find the mistake until after the board was ordered. If I order another batch, then I'll change it.

[frollard]

Good deal - it seemed as if you had planned for it to be up there. ...All so Java wont crap the bed in the JRE VM ;)

[explosivemaker]

......I suddenly have the urge to find a GPS chip......