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Tips on creating a GPS data logger?

Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 12:03 pm
by dnelson
Hello,

I am trying to build a weather balloon, for which I am making a circuit board that will (hopefully) allow a GPS (and a few environmental sensors) to transmit a stream of data through a PIC to an SD Card. The trouble is that I have minimal experience with circuitry and therefore am quite a bit clueless as to how to do this. As a starting point, I would greatly appreciate any tips/tutorials that would help me in creating a circuit that will send data from the EM-406 to a PIC18F2455, then write it to the SD card using a breakout board purchased from this site.

Thank you!
-David

Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 12:15 pm
by ohararp
I have been down the road you want to travel. Overall, its not to hard to do from a hardware standpoint. Trouble is having a compiler witht the SD library ready to go. There are a number of options out there. Check out the blog and I can try and help out if like.

Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 12:30 pm
by dnelson
ohararp,

Thank you for your quick reply! I've looked at your blog a few times, and your circuit diagrams and such have been a big help.

Is the SD library you're referring to a C library? What compiler did you use for your project? I don't understand the SD card very well, so I'm curious as to whether the breakout board is enough for reading, writing, formatting, or whatever else I need to do.

Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:00 pm
by ohararp
I use www.picbasic.org and SWRIGHT has written an SD File System that allows you to use the FAT16 file system. SWRIGHT has written the code and made it freely available. I have found it to be very robust and reliable. The cade can be found at http://www.protongeeks.com/index.php?op ... &Itemid=44

Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 11:47 pm
by gussy
You can use an AVR with the Bascom Compiler (Free version avaiable)

This has inbuilt SD compatability.

@ ohararp: How did you mount the EM-406 on your PCB, i see no mounting holes on the module in the datasheet?