Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks

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Chapter 12, How to Build a Remote Object Tracker

mitters operating on the same frequency, or if your radio will share a

channel with voice uses, set this to a low number, such as 120.

Status Beacon. If you want your transmitter to send out a short text message

every few times it sends its location, enter the message here.

Send every _ transmissions. This number controls how often the beacon text

message is sent. A setting of 1 will send it every time, a setting of 2 will

send it every other time, and so on.

MIC-E Settings. Leave these settings disabled. This is for control of a micro-

phone adapter.

After you have entered all the parameters you want,

program them into the TinyTrack by clicking the Write

Configuration button. Confirm that you’ve written

everything correctly by clicking the Read Configuration

button and verifying that you’ve saved the values you’ve

just entered.

You can test out the TinyTrack by connecting it to a radio.

Use the buttons in the Transmit section of the software

to send constant tones. Use a second radio tuned to the

same frequency as the first to confirm that everything is

working (Figure 12-10).

2. Assemble a receiver

Now that you’ve assembled the transmitter, it’s time to assemble the receiv-

er. You’ll construct the receiver using a Palm PDA or a laptop computer, a

two-way radio, and either a fully assembled box called a Terminal Network ...