Nowadays online tracking is one of the most used systems for property and personal protection. For the thesis I chose the development and manufacturing of portable tracking device. The device collects the GPS location data and sends them over the GSM network to the data server. Tracking of a person or an object is enabled through a web interface.
The main goal was to create a convenient portable tracking device, size of a bank card with maximum thickness 10 mm. Before designing the circuit, it was necessary to find the necessary elements of the circuit, select an appropriate layout and design the housing. Concept sketches of the device were send to a designer, who designed the final product. I designed multi-layer circuits using Altium Designer software and they were manufactured by an external partner. Assembling and soldering of the equipment were manual, followed by operation test of the device. For final usability test we also 3D printed a few housings.
The device is a standalone unit and it is powered by built-in battery that is charged by standard micro USB charger. Some operation modes are switched by the embedded keys; status is indicated by LED diodes. Advanced settings are programmed through SMS messages, web server or by a serial connection.
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