Hi,
It seems the Heltec wireless-tracker is a good choose to start and the size is also very good for a eBike tracker. I’ll order one. Thank !
You tell me I don’t have to install Heltec libraries and documentation are poor.
Where can I start with this device ? @descartes : what do you mean with “bee-atch” ? LILYGOO :
About the “T-Beam Meshtastic”.
I though it can be also used for LoRaWAN. Is this device only for https://meshtastic.org/ ? I suppose it’s a question of FW and can work on both system ? Or is it specific HW for each Network ?
Which Lilygo device is best with better GNSS? cicerone
Once I have played with Heltec, I’ll check the Cicerone board (Size good)
@stevencellist will be along shortly to point the way - we use RadioLib for LW, the rest he knows about.
Steven has the board full under his control, it is his bi-tch.
They promote it to the Meshtastic community and ship it with the firmware pre-loaded. But it is generic hardware that can be used for LoRaWAN - I’ve two on my desk doing that right now - you just write your Arduino program and download it to the board like any other board. If it turns out that the Meshtastic firmware has turned off the GPS, then we can give you the commands to turn it back on.
Lilygo tend to mix & match which GPS module they put on from the u-Blox range but any of them will narrow down where your bike is - if you can get on with a Neo-8M on it, that’s better but it’s not super critical. They don’t do anything with a “better” GNSS module, mostly because “better” is hard to define with so many options that need things like an internet connection or for inertial assist etc.
Mostly a question for the Heltec forum, but here’s a quick start:
get the display going with Adafruit’s library for the ST7735 (and ST7789).
to get it actually display something, the Vext_Ctrl pin (GPIO3) and Backlight pin (GPIO21) should be set to HIGH.
get the GNSS receiver going with TinyGPS++ library.
to get it actually receiving something, the Vext_Ctrl pin (GPIO3) should be set to HIGH
get LoRaWAN going with RadioLib as mentioned by @descartes
Most importantly, you will find great use in printing the schematic diagram on an A4 or A3 paper and keeping it on your desk. It took me like 3~5 hours of staring at that thing to start to understand it, but eventually found out that all of the necessary bits are on there.
For all the other parts: it is just an ESP32-S3 with WiFi, BLE and all sorts of pins, but all of that can be found using mister Google. Or the Heltec Forum search button - there are quite some useful bits to be found there.
The 8M GPSs are ‘better’ in the sense that they are lower power consumption, but otherwise in relation to fix times and accuracy there is not a lot of difference.
As a general point, bigger GPS antennas will reduce fix times and thus in turn reduce power consumption.
Is it possible for a tracker device to register for two different Network (Helium and TTN) ?
The goal is increase the coverage for a tracker which can move around Europe (stolen bike).
The most important things to select from that list are:
a) connectivity (WiFi/ethernet/4G)
b) external antenna is very much a plus
c) basic station is generally a plus
d) price of course
Nope, it’s not. And, as you are likely to use RadioLib, that doesn’t support Helium either. Plus this forum is TTN only, not Helium for which you should look at Helium communities / forum if any of that is still active.
So it’s probably best to get on your bike and cycle around Belgium promoting LoRaWAN and TTN so that people start installing more gateways to improve coverage
I’ll first make my first step with the original antenna.
But yes, a better antenna will be good for an installation in my attic.
Do you have a recommendation for a better antenna?
The goal with the tracker is to follow the bike when I go riding far from my house.
I suppose it is possible to ask the tracker to send the position each 10 minutes to the TTN Network when it moves or each 30 minutes when it stays at the same place?
I suppose it is possible programming the tracker…
For the gateway, are both RAK7268 and SenseCAPM2 comparable in term of features/documentation/support ?
Tracking stolen bike using LoRaWAN in a well covered area, OK, not great, but OK.
Any form of live tracking, just no. It won’t be 10 minutes, it will be in breach of the Fair Use Policy before you’ve even taken it on its first run out.
If it hasn’t moved, why send at all?
As for antenna, how about one outside? As for the docs, you need to read them and see if they make sense to you - not that you particularly understand the details, but that you can follow along. The bottom line is that RAK ship a lot of gateways, for Seeed it’s just another product.
What you’ve put in three bullet points is fine. But your previous post indicated you were thinking of transmitting tracking whilst on your bike which is problematic for a whole host of reasons and pointless if it can store it on device for download via home WiFi &/or via BLE on your phone. Or even not bother at all as your phone could track your ride and save the device battery for if the bike is stolen.
Please read the Learn section to fill in the blanks on such core information - which includes the Fair Use Policy and legal limits on how often you can transmit.
The presence of a commercial device does not side step either, so not a solution to what you want to do.
And perhaps you should re-read my message - stolen bike tracking OK, live tracking not OK. There are so many forum posts on tracking that you may want to try using the search facilities.
Just get the basics going and learn about the background to what you are doing as you progress, rather than trying to come up with the ultimate spec which then crosses over the line of legality. And as a security device, the simpler you make it, the more likely it is to work when you need it.
Every 30 minutes when I go ride (I need to activate it on a specific day) : this is to know that a TTN Network is availble in the region I ride. Otherwhise, how can I know it? And how can I know the Tracker is working ?
When the bike is in the status stolen, every 10-15 minutes. I need to have an update ASAP to find the bike quickly.
So, I suppose LoRaWan will be possible for a tracker system and respect the limitation.
I’ll also read other post on tracker here on this forum.
Best Regards
Eric
I would like to do the exact same thing as you (make a tracker from a Heltec Wireless Tracker 1.1). If you make it work would you consider sharing your code?
Sort of - one device that is in the legal limits of your jurisdiction that burns up your 30s in shortish order isn’t going to impact the servers which is the main consideration.
A whole pile of devices doing it simultaneously over a space of time is anti-social in a shared spectrum.
But we are mostly guessing here as you’ve not indicated what a very short period is or why you need to do it. We have experts just begging to help but they need some context.
Short answer would be yes - device messages often end up being sent in ‘lumpy’ sets with longer gaps in between, indeed when mapping gw/community coverage it is not uncommon for users to spend 1,2,4 or how ever many hours ‘mapping’ then stopping for the rest of the day, as such activity often requires some interaction vs autonomous device sending on a regular basis spread through 24hrs.
The caveat would be ensuring that any message burstiness doesnt then also fall foul of other limits such as shorter term duty cycle limits etc.
In practice actual guidance would be determined by what you ar trying to do, how often and at what scale…1,2,3…10 trackers mappinglikely ok - a fleet of 1000 devices in small area no-no and likely to also need a TTS private instance (not subject to FUP) vs TTS(Sandbox) i.e. TTN community use…
