SparkFun Forums

[trac-les]

I am looking for the smallest GPS transmitter and don't know where to find it...can anyone help me out I need something about the size of a grain of rice or mayby up to twice that size but not much bigger then that.
If anyone can help please send information to mike@trac-les.com

thank you for you help

[fll-freak]

1) It is considered very rude to ask for information to be emailed to you. That tells us you think your time is much more important than ours. You don't want to be bothered to read the Forum, but you think we should drop everything to send you information. Perhaps you will come back and read this, perhaps not.

2) The smallest GPS transmitter that I know of is about the size of a microwave oven and cost close to $500,000 USD. It is only useful for lab testing. Grain of rice is completely absurd. Most transmitters are the size of a automobile and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build and more than that to put into orbit. Perhaps you were thinking in your great wisdom of a GPS receiver?

[MichaelN]

Ouch - not sure that was called for...

Anyway, we need more info on what you actually have in mind, and as Skye suggests discussions around here are on the forums, not by private email.

Maybe you're actually referring to a something you might use to track animals (ie, a GPS receiver with a transmitter built in)? GPS receivers can be really small these days, but not quite as small as you're suggesting.

[skimask]

http://www.trac-les.com/index.htm

[MichaelN]

http://www.trac-les.com/index.htm

Neat idea. It seems you’ve already designed this product – what are you looking for that the product doesn’t already do? Is it just that you’re looking for a smaller solution? Or is the product not actually developed yet?

Looking at your specs (21 days continuous transmission, ½ mile range), I would think that the battery alone would take up the space shown in the photos, even with very tight power management and if the GPS receiver & transmitter was the size of a grain of rice.

EDIT: pardon me – I see that your existing system ISN’T GPS based, and you’re presumably looking to change to GPS for better tracking ability. Do you have an existing receiver in mind (which would drive the choice of transmitter)?

As for the GPS module, there are many tiny modules available (e.g. the AMY-5M from U-Blox which is 6.5 x 8 x 1.2 mm), but you’ll also need to add a passive antenna and possibly a small microcontroller to coordinate everything (unless you use a GPS module that has spare I/O pins and allows you to reprogram it).

[fll-freak]

Ouch - not sure that was called for...

Perhaps not, but this just hit my pet-peeve button real hard. In hind sight I would soften the reply, but the basics would be the same. It is not appropriate to ask for private replies. I do believe this is covered in "how to ask a smart question".

[teekay_tk]

If the OP comes back

This is a GPS bluetooth transmitter with a range of about 100 meters or a bit mroe

http://www.e-shepherd.co.uk/index.php/p ... es/ttx-tag

[hugoortega]

@fll-freak ... love your work!

I'm new to the forum but this post intrigued me. Wondering if the smallest receiver (as per links below) has moved along since this post was last updated?

What I'm looking for is to setup something to setup at multiple tables, in a single venue, and setup a virtual map for entrants to use GPS to see where they are and where to go. Any idea if this type of solution is achievable? Cheers guys!