# Question about a project **URL:** \ **Category:** Development Boards\ **Created:** [December 3, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/question-about-a-project/18434 "2010-12-03T18:23:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fozzie21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f6c823/32.png) [@Fozzie21](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/Fozzie21)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/question-about-a-project/18434/1 "2010-12-03T18:23:09Z")
What is the best way to go about building or buying a gps device that is very small… I want something similiar to what [pocketfinder.com](http://pocketfinder.com) has… Is it possible to turn on and off transmitting when i need it to? I am new to the gps world and have this project to get off the ground thanks ---
**Author:** ![Thric](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Thric](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/Thric)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/question-about-a-project/18434/2 "2010-12-06T03:49:53Z")
Seems like a challenging project and if your looking to buy something like pocket finder, I would just buy their product. however if your planning it as a DIY than you need to look for a small, low power gps, a micro to parse the data, battery, and a transmiter (probably cellular). this isn’t too hard to put together but getting all that to the size of an oreo is going to be a little tricker. I would probably create my own PCB to get everything as compact as possiable and use smd components. since your new to gpss heres a little info on gpss: A GPS works by detecting the signal of a minimum of 4 satalites which are transmitting the time and their location. The reciever calculates its position through finding how far the satelites are and then calculating its position. [http://www.nasm.si.edu/gps/work.html](http://www.nasm.si.edu/gps/work.html)