Vehicle tracking beacon for Feather PT3 test flight (Archive) (Reference)

Grants / Bounties
,
1

This post should currently consider as an archive and reference of Grant Application. The original grant was submitted at around 2024-10-18.

Name of Grant:

  • Vehicle tracking beacon for Feather PT3 test flight

Brief:

According to earlier discussion and the PT3 task list (PT3_task_list - Google Sheets), we’re planning to introduce a device that:

  • Broadcast its current coordinates to nearby receivers at certain intervals
  • Fix or stick on to the testing aircraft

Necessary due to:

  • To be the last safety measure in the worst case
  • To reveal the location in case of the testing aircraft get missing due to certain reason
  • Uncertainty of regular cellular signal coverage in the test flight airspace

Related work:

  • Incoming PT3 test flight is related

Be entirely open source:

  • Yes

May involve… :

  • The Engineering pod:
    • One-time investment and long-term service
    • The hardware may be customized programming into various uses
  • The Arrow:
    • Experience the decentralized wireless network

Personal and background:

@KBM Light UAV operator & Project manager (Similar EX: Very rare: Arduino UNO-R3 LED blinking by LabView or IDE)

Input from another bounty/grant:

  • No

Breakdown & Date:

  • 15 Days by (Struggling not included):
    • Purchase, Shipping, Document collecting (3 Days)
    • Hardware verify, Programming (7 Days)
    • Case Modeling (2 Days)
    • Field testing, Debrief (3 Days)
  • Ideal range: 241020~241105

Problems to solve and goals:

  • Addressing the lack of tracking beacon for the aircraft
  • Learning the basic of LoRa transmission

Outcomes and due dates:

  • 1 broadcaster
  • 1 handheld receiver with screen
  • Case models for 3D print
  • Corresponding program source code
    (Dates are listed above)

Applicability:

  • It can be used not only for aircraft positioning, but also for positioning or transmitting small data between various assets in the field (Further research needed)

Evaluation:

  • Effective range reach 6 Km in line of sight
  • Battery endurance for 16 Hours

Potential risks and solutions:

  • Shipment to US will be a problem
    • Purchase new hardware in US if there’s no cheap shipment method from China
  • This person is bad at programming and totally no experience with ESP32
    • KBM will try his best to ensure that the experimental equipment won’t be scrapped

In case of unforeseen obstacles or delays:

  • Self-condemnation
  • Revoke the grant can be an option

Long-term support:

  • Depends on requirements or critical update in-needed

Work sustainability ensure:

  • Keep source code well commented will be important
  • Use GPT

Hours and funding:

  • 100 Hours est.
  • 216 USDC
  • 24 ARROW

Representing good value for Arrow:

  • An insurance for the worst possible result in test flight
  • On-site verification of long range P2P datalink in decentralized case

Payment schedule:

  • Single
  • After the debrief

How GBC verify the work:

  • Place the broadcaster 2 ft above the surface, and perform range test in rural area, walking, driving or flying with receiver can achieve different effective range
  • I wish we will never have to use it to acquire a lost aircraft

Alternatives or options have been considered:

  • Off-the-shelf GNSS tracker based on cellular network and third-party app or server
  • Or just do without a tracker, fly it wild

End Grant Application Form

Addtional custom informations (BOM / technical analysis)

Introduce:

In most scenario we use cellular network as first priority, but due to the uncertainty of cellular signal coverage in the test flight airspace, I decide to introduce a simple LoRa-APRS solution with :

BOM:

  • Broadcaster:

    • ESP32 (basic platform)
    • GNSS (Solve the coordinates)
      • e.g. U-Blox-M10S
      • e.g. U-Blox-M8N
    • LoRa (Broadcast the coordinates and other required info on-air)
      • SX1262 in 915Mhz
      • 915Mhz SMA 3DBi antenna

  • Receiver:

    • ESP32 (basic platform)
    • LoRa (Decode the information from broadcast)
      • Same in 915Mhz but SX1262 is still recommended
      • 2 way SMA separator
      • 915Mhz SMA 4DBi antenna
      • 915Mhz SMA 7DBi antenna
    • OLED screen (For displaying information on receiver’s portable device)

Pros and Cons

The limitations of the LoRa-APRS comparing to cellular network:

  • Limited broadcast range with 4~16KM typically
  • P2P broadcast
  • Antenna attitude affects broadcast range
  • Slightly more expensive then cellular network based trackers

The positive of the device is:

  • Based on decentralized wireless network
  • No third-party server connections
  • ＮＯ ＳＵＢＳＣＲＩＰＴＩＯＮ

Current shopping reference for experiment in Shenzhen:

  • Broadcaster:
  • Receiver for rescue team:
  • Batteries for all devices:
    • EVE INR-18650-35V - 2.00 USD 2 required
    • or Panasonic NCR18650B - 3.00 USD 2 required
      (The above quantities can be increased according to practical needs)

More idea in-needed,please hate me again

End of post

1 Like
2

I really liked how you formatted your first message and added the grant application form KBM, thanks!

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