Welcome to bGeigie Nano project

This is a lighter version of the bGeigie Mini which is meant to fit in a Pelican Micro Case 1040.

Requirements

Arduino Fio or Arduino Pro Mini
OpenLog
GPSBee or Adafruit Ultimate GPS
Inspector Alert (with audio jack connector)
3.7V 850mAh Lithium battery (~15 hours logging)
Pelican Micro Case 1040

Extensions (optional)

Solar panel
Serial LCD Display

Assembly

Pins assignment

Arduino pin	Attached to
VCC	VCC pin of the GPS and OpenLog
GND	GND pin of the GPS and OpenLog
D2	pulse pin from the Inspector audio jack
D5	TX pin of the GPS
D6	RX pin of the GPS
D7	TX pin of the OpenLog
D8	RX pin of the OpenLog
D9	GRN pin of the OpenLog

Power consumption

Fio: 0.045mA sleep, 6mA at run time
OpenLog: 2mA idle, 6mA at maximum recording rate
GPSBee: 102mA acquisition, 44mA tracking
Adafruit Ultimate GPS: 25mA acquisition, 20mA tracking

Estimation with GPSBee

The total current used at run time can be estimated around 56mA (= 6+6+44) per second which will result in a consumption of 0.0155mAh (= 56mA/3600). So the total log duration if using a battery of 850mAh will be (850/.0155)/3600 = 15.17 = 15h10m

Estimation with Adafruit Ultimate GPS (MTK3339)

The total current used at run time can be estimated around 32mA (= 6+6+20) per second which will result in a consumption of 0.0088mAh (= 32mA/3600). So the total log duration if using a battery of 850mAh will be (850/.0088)/3600 = 26.56 = 26h33m

Summary table

Battery capacity (mAh)	Estimated log duration GPSBee (days hh:mm)	Estimated log duration Ultimate GPS (days hh:mm)
850	0d 15:10	1d 02:33
1000	0d 17:51	1d 07:15
2000	1d 11:42	2d 14:30
6000	4d 11:08	7d 19:30

Build process

Using the Makefile

export ARDUINODIR=/home/geigie/arduino-1.0.1/
export SERIALDEV=/dev/ttyUSB0
export BOARD=fio
make
make upload

Using the prebuilt image

You can use directly the prebuilt image to flash the Arduino Fio. Here is an example with Arduino Fio connected to ttyUSB0:

/usr/bin/avrdude -DV -p atmega328p -P /dev/ttyUSB0 -c arduino -b 57600 -U flash:w:bGeigieNano.hex:i

Usage

Once powered on the bGeigieNano will initiliaze a new log file on the SD card, setup the GPS and start counting the CPM.

Sample log

# NEW LOG
# format=1.0.0nano
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:02:36Z,4,3,4,V,3543.1917,N,13942.0190,E,25.30,A,9999,0*69
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:02:41Z,5,1,5,V,3543.1909,N,13942.0200,E,25.30,A,9999,0*6E
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:02:41Z,7,2,7,V,3543.1909,N,13942.0200,E,25.30,A,9999,0*6D
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:02:41Z,11,4,11,V,3543.1909,N,13942.0200,E,25.30,A,9999,0*6B
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:02:41Z,13,2,13,V,3543.1909,N,13942.0200,E,25.30,A,9999,0*6D
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:03:02Z,14,1,14,V,3543.1687,N,13942.0260,E,25.30,A,367,4*51
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:03:07Z,18,4,18,V,3543.1636,N,13942.0280,E,25.30,A,367,4*55
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:03:12Z,19,1,19,V,3543.1624,N,13942.0290,E,25.40,A,368,4*5E
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:03:18Z,23,4,23,V,3543.1609,N,13942.0290,E,25.40,A,369,4*5F
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:03:23Z,28,5,28,V,3543.1616,N,13942.0290,E,25.40,A,369,4*58
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:03:28Z,30,2,30,V,3543.1628,N,13942.0280,E,25.40,A,370,4*50
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:03:33Z,32,3,33,A,3543.1628,N,13942.0280,E,25.40,A,370,4*4D
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:03:38Z,31,2,35,A,3543.1616,N,13942.0290,E,25.40,A,371,4*4F
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:03:43Z,33,3,38,A,3543.1604,N,13942.0290,E,25.40,A,372,4*4D
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:03:48Z,32,1,39,A,3543.1604,N,13942.0290,E,25.40,A,372,4*44
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:03:53Z,31,3,42,A,3543.1653,N,13942.0260,E,25.40,A,353,5*4C
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:03:58Z,32,3,45,A,3543.1653,N,13942.0270,E,25.40,A,353,5*42
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:04:03Z,34,3,48,A,3543.1638,N,13942.0270,E,25.40,A,151,6*4E
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:04:09Z,32,2,50,A,3543.1682,N,13942.0250,E,28.50,A,140,7*44
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:04:14Z,33,2,52,A,3543.1682,N,13942.0240,E,26.80,A,140,7*49
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:04:19Z,34,5,57,A,3543.1670,N,13942.0240,E,26.30,A,140,7*47
$BNRDD,1,2012-07-05T12:04:25Z,31,2,59,A,3543.1658,N,13942.0240,E,26.00,A,140,7*4D

Notes

OpenLog config

The OpenLog should start listening at 9600bps and in Command mode. Here is the content of the CONFIG.TXT file you have to create on the microSD card:

9600,26,3,2

SoftwareSerial update

To make sure all of the NMEA sentences can be received correctly, we will need to update the _SS_MAX_RX_BUFF definition from arduino-1.0.1/libraries/SoftwareSerial/SoftwareSerial.h header file. Here is the modification:

//#define _SS_MAX_RX_BUFF 64 // RX buffer size -- Old Value is 64
#define _SS_MAX_RX_BUFF 128 // RX buffer size for TinyGPS

Licenses

InterruptHandler and bGeigieMini code - Copyright (c) 2011, Robin Scheibler aka FakuFaku

Safecast/bGeigie-transitional