GPS is a tremendously great tool for the secure exploration of distant areas, liking wilderness backpacking trails. GPS navigation might help folks keep away from getting misplaced within the first place and might help them discover their manner again to civilization in the event that they do get misplaced. However smartphones and devoted GPS units run on batteries, which is an apparent downside in survival conditions. To deal with that, Gokul Ok B designed this “Photo voltaic Survival Tracker” that mixes a GPS receiver and a photo voltaic panel.
GPS units are solely receivers — they don’t transmit something. They choose up indicators transmitted by a constellation of satellites orbiting Earth and by measuring the timing variations between a number of transmissions, they will calculate their very own place in three-dimensional area. As a result of they don’t must transmit, GPS receivers don’t require a whole lot of energy and that’s key to Gokul’s design.
The Photo voltaic Survival Tracker has an built-in 0.63-watt photo voltaic panel and a photo voltaic cost controller with a built-in holder for a 1200mAh lithium battery. Gokul designed the system so it may grasp on a belt or backpack strap, the place it would obtain daylight. Because it does, the photo voltaic panel retains the lithium battery charged up.
The battery solely must energy three issues when the person requires GPS info: a NEO-6M GPS module, a Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32C3 improvement board, and a 1.3” monochrome OLED display screen. The XIAO pulls GPS info from the NEO-6M, then shows the latitude, longitude, and altitude on the OLED display screen. These parts match into a sexy 3D-printed enclosure.
If a person ever will get misplaced, they will swap on the Photo voltaic Survival Tracker and see their precise location.
After all, that is just one piece of the puzzle and it doesn’t assist the person decide the place they need to go. But when they’re in communication with a rescue crew, they will present their coordinates. In any other case, a paper map with detailed latitude and longitude strains would assist them determine which course to go. Although it might be good if the Photo voltaic Survival Tracker had a approach to direct the person to a secure location — perhaps Gokul will add that characteristic in a future model.
And as a bonus, the system doubles as a USB energy financial institution.
