TomDunlap

I wanted a way to be notified when there was snail mail in the box which is on the street about 150ft from my door. I put a magnetic reed switch on the mailbox door and wired it in parallel with the push button. Works great so far. Planning to add a solar panel to keep the battery charged. and clean up the installation.Thanks for a fun project and solution to my problem.

Been having some fun testing this device. Haven't yet put it on scout, but it works quite well walking around the property. I changed the code to put out more Google Earth friendly data. void execute_command_export(){ int itemsCount = 0; read_int(0, itemsCount); Serial.print("read itemsCount="); Serial.println(itemsCount); Serial.print("Latitude,Longitude,LineStringColor,Icon,IconColor,IconHeading"); struct LocationItem loc; for (int index = 0; index < itemsCount; index++) { read_location_item(index, loc); print_location_item(loc); } }void print_location_item(const struct LocationItem &v){ Serial.print(v.lat, 6); Serial.print(","); Serial.print(v.lng, 6); Serial.print(",cyan,none,yellow,line-180"); // See …

Been having some fun testing this device. Haven't yet put it on scout, but it works quite well walking around the property. I changed the code to put out more Google Earth friendly data. void execute_command_export(){ int itemsCount = 0; read_int(0, itemsCount); Serial.print("read itemsCount="); Serial.println(itemsCount); Serial.print("Latitude,Longitude,LineStringColor,Icon,IconColor,IconHeading"); struct LocationItem loc; for (int index = 0; index < itemsCount; index++) { read_location_item(index, loc); print_location_item(loc); } }void print_location_item(const struct LocationItem &v){ Serial.print(v.lat, 6); Serial.print(","); Serial.print(v.lng, 6); Serial.print(",cyan,none,yellow,line-180"); // See the ExcellTo Kml website to explain this.// Serial.print(v.time.hour); Serial.print(":");// Serial.print(v.time.minute); Serial.print(":");// Serial.print(v.time.second); Serial.println(); }If you copy the data and save it to a .csv file (Excel comma delimited text) then use the web site:https://www.earthpoint.us/ExcelToKml.aspx#GpsTrack... to convert it and load it into Google Earth you get a nice track line.I've also been playing around with the read interval. One or Three seconds is too much detail. 30 seconds may be too long. I'll know more when I can get it mounted on Scout. I'd like to be able to leave it on for 8 hours or more in case he decides to pull an all nighter.

Completed the breadboard. Everything sees to work. Not real impressed with the accuracy so far. How to know when it's actually recording? I turned it on and went to the store with it. Got back and had no data at all. It looks like it's not recording on battery, only on USB power.

Fun Project. I was looking for this because our dog Scout just hates being confined to the 45 fenced acres and prefers to roam the thousands of forest acres around us. Occasionally he's gone over night and we want to see where he goes and exactly where he gets out of the fence. So far I've got the Nano and the GPS talking and waiting for the EEPROM to get here from China, this week I hope. Looking forward to trying the real-time version. Thanks.