Hey,
I’m trying to create a project where I can track birds using GPRS technology, but the problem is, is that the GPRS has to be under 3 grams due to the bird I’m studying (gps units can onlyu be 3% of the birds bodyweight. Does anyone have any recommendations for designing my own mini GPRS that could send packets of information from the bird remotely, and that could hook up to a solar panel or lithium battery.
Any help would be appreciated.
The solar panel and batteries are also included in the 3g limit? Just a 0.5" coin cell weights at least 1.5g, add to that the gps, the antenna.
If you need to track the bird in real time you also need a transmitter to send the data to you. I don’t see how this could weight 3g. :?
This device [here is over 12g, has a battery life of 5-6hrs and only logs the data. You have to retreive it and connect it to a computer to see where it has been.](Sanav ML-7 GPS Logger - GPS-08836 - SparkFun Electronics)
These [guys are pretty much the leaders in bird tracking but the smallest one they have is just under 10g and it uses ARGOS for tracking.
It might give you some ideas, though. Good luck!
Hi GrahamC,
3 grams is certainly ambitious, particularly for a GPS logger with remote interrogation or GPRS. As gm mentioned, Microwave Telemetry sell some very small tags, but as far as I know, they’re not GPS, rather they’re PTT tags, with all the inherent accuracy problems. Still, 9.5g is a great achievement even without GPS.
Have you considered “old-school” VHF tracking? I just posted a reply in a thread about tracking turtles (viewtopic.php?t=13805&postdays=0&postor … 724f260924) asking if there was anybody interested in helping to develop a cheap, open source tracking beacon. Could prove of interest for all of us wildlife people (and James Bond aficionados).
I’m all for ambitious ideas so I wish you the best with this project and if anything else jumps to mind I’ll post.
talking of ambitious projects, I am developing a solar gps logger with weight under 1 gram for small birds research (including song birds). Getting it to 3 grams was easy, getting it to 1 gram is darn difficult!! As far as engineering is concerned it is very very tough. You have to account for weight for each and every thing, including surface mount passives and amount of copper on the PCB.
I have sent off my first prototype boards today for manufacture so waiting for the results in a few weaks time.
Have you seen this project www.dtusat.dtu.dk, is pretty much mutch the bird tracking device you taking about, and a satellit to pick up the signal from the tracking device and relay it back to earth.