GPS is a tremendously great tool for the protected exploration of distant areas, liking wilderness backpacking trails. GPS navigation will help individuals keep away from getting misplaced within the first place and will help them discover their approach again to civilization in the event that they do get misplaced. However smartphones and devoted GPS gadgets run on batteries, which is an apparent drawback in survival conditions. To handle that, Gokul Okay B designed this “Photo voltaic Survival Tracker” that mixes a GPS receiver and a photo voltaic panel.
GPS gadgets are solely receivers — they don’t transmit something. They decide up indicators transmitted by a constellation of satellites orbiting Earth and by measuring the timing variations between a number of transmissions, they will calculate their very own place in three-dimensional area. As a result of they don’t have to transmit, GPS receivers don’t require lots of energy and that’s key to Gokul’s design.
The Photo voltaic Survival Tracker has an built-in 0.63-watt photo voltaic panel and a photo voltaic cost controller with a built-in holder for a 1200mAh lithium battery. Gokul designed the gadget so it might cling on a belt or backpack strap, the place it should obtain daylight. Because it does, the photo voltaic panel retains the lithium battery charged up.
The battery solely must energy three issues when the person requires GPS data: a NEO-6M GPS module, a Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32C3 growth board, and a 1.3” monochrome OLED display screen. The XIAO pulls GPS data from the NEO-6M, then shows the latitude, longitude, and altitude on the OLED display screen. These parts match into a pretty 3D-printed enclosure.
If a person ever will get misplaced, they will change on the Photo voltaic Survival Tracker and see their actual location.
After all, that is just one piece of the puzzle and it doesn’t assist the person decide the place they need to go. But when they’re in communication with a rescue staff, they will present their coordinates. In any other case, a paper map with detailed latitude and longitude traces would assist them work out which course to go. Although it could be good if the Photo voltaic Survival Tracker had a strategy to direct the person to a protected location — perhaps Gokul will add that characteristic in a future model.
And as a bonus, the gadget doubles as a USB energy financial institution.
