Winging it

So my 'running truck' * is a Japanese imported car, converted from kph to mph. As a result, the speedo is more of a general guideline that a reliable indicator of travelling speed. This is not ideal. *running truck - truck for running, it can be used as a mobile aid station etc. The previous one (RIP) was my "tri truck" then my "tt truck" before becoming "trail running truck" A speedo that says it's km/h, it isn't. It's 'closeish' and good enough to judge generally, but a more accurate display would be neat. I had intended on cobbling something together with one of the GPS modules I have, an ESP and a XIAO round display, I thought that might look pretty funky.... but... time. However, our new car has a cool HUD that displays speed (and various other bits) so I thought that might be neat, and then discovered that you can get a "dirt cheap" GPS HUD device off the internet. Well that'll be a lot easier and quicker th...

Following on from the last post  which was about the process and building, this is just an overview of the latest design. The kicad project files along with the schematic , layout , and BOM can all be found on github . The future Firstly, and I think I've expressed these comments before - but I'm still absolutely dumbfounded that the software and facilities are available for a basic hobbyist to be able to design and create something like this now. Yes it wasn't simple and took a while, but still, a few years ago this would have been impossible/unthinkable. New new design This is the new design. I spent some more time tidying up and redesigned the charger module again since the original one was too basic/primitive. The new new There are quite a few changes and improvements on this new design.  USB connection I changed to a USB-C connector, and the USB connection can be switched between the NRF and BG96 chips, most of the time the NRF will be useful but if you need/want to d...

 After the success of " Tracker Two " I decided, as I mentioned at the end of that previous write up, that it was time to see if I could build my own custom hardware. How hard could it be? 🤷 Evolution Version 0 For version zero of the tracker I tried using off the shelf 'personal tracking' devices, this proved that it was possible to build my own tracking site. Initially I thought I really didn't want to spend any time trying to build my own device, but inevitably concluded that was the solution. Version 1 The first incarnation of the custom tracker was the klutzy A9G based system  - well it wasn't klutzy at first, but after several iterations and enhancements it ended up that way. The A9G was incredibly cheap and worked reasonably well, but the module has some major design flaws and it can't do bluetooth (hence the klutzing). Version 2 The second version switched to using the RAK5010 based board , again it started elegant and ended up with multiple impr...

GUCR 2022 DNF but a valuable and useful technology test, so I don't feel too bad about it. Psychologically that is, physically I'm f***ed. I wasn't going to do this race, after the disappointing race back in January I cancelled all plans and ideas for the year. but in the month or so before I was feeling pretty good and fit*, and I'd got a place, and a hotel room booked, it seemed silly to not at least make a start? After a chat to Alex and Wendy Whearity I felt a lot more positive about taking part, and at the start I saw so many friends and familiar faces it was definitely worth it. (* relatively speaking - I'm getting tendonitis in my ankle treated but that *was* behaving, and I seemed to have recovered enough from last year's shoulder surgery to start swimming again after a couple of years break. so heh - if I fell in the canal I'd be able to swim ok.) Like a Duracell bunny The tracker worked beautifully , still having 74% battery remaining when the hum...