A LoRa GPS Tracking PCB
Maker.moekoe’s new ESP32-based testing board features LoRa data transmission and GPS tracking.
LoRa is a fantastic wireless IoT technology, allowing for off-grid transfer of small amounts of data. If you combine a LoRa transciever with a GPS module, as maker.moekoe did in his latest project video below, you’ve got a device that enables a wide variety of sensing possibilities. The board was a meant as a platform to try out the RFM95 LoRA module, ATGM336h GPS, and the ESP32-S2-Mini, all of which he hadn’t used yet.
The device features a 16340 LiPo with a charging circuit, plus a backup battery and a dual LDO regulator setup, so that power-hungry components can be shut off when the ESP32 is asleep. To test out the setup, the new board was put into an enclosure with a solar charging PCB, allowing it intermittently wake up and send data to any cloud-based visualization service, or in this case to Home Assistant. Data collected indicates that charging works as one might expect, with voltages that increase during the day and drop off at night.
It’s an interesting project in itself, and hopefully this board, along with the knowledge gained while constructing it, can be applied to future builds. Notably, the GPS unit has gone through some early tests, but using it further will allow for exciting tracking and timing possibilities.
The video explains things nicely, and it shows the board being built in a fantastic montage at the beginning. PCB and code info is available on GitHub.