BlazeTrak - ESP32 with GPS, IMU, Altitude Sensor, USB and Data Logging

[roobituk]

I'm a lover of miniature IoT solutions and a huge fan of ESP8266.

Having only recently started playing with an ESP32, I thought it'd be a cool idea to take full advantage of the extensive peripheral set and the ESP32 SDK and put together a high-end all-in-one tracking solution - BlazeTrak.

The current BlazeTrak prototype has the following features:
- Concurrent GNSS, supporting Galileo, GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou allowing global satellite coverage
- 9doF attitude sensor with built-in filtering system to allow super accurate and super smooth pitch, roll and heading computation
- Absolute altitude sensor
- MicroSD socket for data logging and storage
- USB connectivity to the ESP32 using standard AT commands and enhanced commands for communication with the above sensors
- 50mm diameter
- JTAG access to the ESP32 for bare-metal firmware solutions
- ESP32 bootloader access for firmware updates over USB

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be pushing the firmware onto GitHub - a link to which will be posted to this topic.

Given the flexibility of the ESP32, its planned that the BlazeTrak will have worked examples for Arduino IDE, ESP IDF and also MongooseOS.

I've attached a couple of images to this topic of development so far. There is an alpha testing program current running which allows people to sign up to become an alpha tester of BlazeTrak. If anyone would like to know more, I can post a link here.

I'd love to hear feedback about the above - both good and bad.

Thank you,
Kevin

[Franco]

Hi Roobituk, this looks interesting and the hardware design is very clean. Congrats.
Adding GPRS could be a nice feature, there are GNSS/GPRS modules like the G60.
Any plans for a Kickstarter fund raising campaign?
Ciao. Franco

[roobituk]

Hello Franco,

Thank you for your feedback.

I am already considering a GSM/GPRS version of the BlazeTrak however this will very much depend on whether BlazeTrak is a success. I'm also investigating an application featuring a DAB digital radio module but this is a long way off yet.

I wasn't planning on crowdfunding the BlazeTrak - I can be convinced otherwise though.

If you know of anyone who may be interested in the project, I'd greatly appreciate a little help with sharing and promotion.

Roobit UK

[Coffee]

This is something I would be interested in, buying a few actually. Depends on how long a battery would last.

Keep it GPS/Wifi for me.

Else, board and BOM self-build rather than nothing.

Not everything that needs tracking needs a SIM card and real time feedback.

e.g. Thing returns to base : "OK, tell me where U been today?"

Really happy if someone else found another use case.

[roobituk]

Thanks for your reply.

Since posting this topic, I've had another set of prototypes manufactured to fix a couple of artwork issues and also to improve GPS performance with an increased ground plane and closer-to-50R impedance trace feeding the GPS module from the antenna. These changes have pushed back the reset of the development by a couple of weeks but these are necessary adjustments resulting in a far better product.

Latest pictures of the development so far are attached.

The manufacturer incorrectly used green silkscreen rather than black as requested on this latest batch, however, they sent me some free replacement "black" boards 3 days after receiving these. Fantastic service!

Initial power on was extremely positive. Good performance from the GPS, receiving 18 satellites with a good position fix. HDOP and VDOP figures were lower (2.16 and 2.4 respectively) than the previous iteration (4.2 and 6.9 respectively) of board, providing a high level of confidence in the position achieved. The ESP32 successfully powers up and communicates over USB via an FTDI UART device however it only has the diagnostic firmware in at present, still responds to the basic commands available at 115200 baud.

Need to write a little bit of code to now do something useful with the ESP32: read the IMU sensor over i2c; read/write to the microSD card; read the GPS/GNSS information; poll the atitude sensor. This shouldn't be too much hassle but will take a few weeks to complete.

Use cases, I'm thinking along the lines of the following:
- high-value asset tracking
- sports tracker (can also be combined with another product with capacitive touch screen)
- iBeacon
- high-performance dead-reckoning system with WiFi/Bluetooth connectivity
- sensor mesh networks
- environmental data logger

I'd really appreciate feedback and thoughts on the above.

Thank you.

[JonnyBGod]

This looks great. Congrats.

I would very much be interested in a GSM/GPRS version.

Any idea of the costs for small batches?

[andrer]

Also interested in a GPRS (2g/3g, since 2g is being phased-out in a lot of countries) version.

[Dugger]

Hi BlazeTrak Looks really good we would like to use it. What are the power requirements? Would it run off a Li-ion battery? Do you have any battery charging circuitry built in? We are about to start a project using something like this for asset tracking on fairly large outdoor sites.
Thanks Doug.
[http://strident.co.nz]

[mfischer]

Sensor looks great! Where did you get the board manufactured? And what layout software did you use?

[denisdee]

Hi There.
I would love to buy some of these to use on my farm.
Could you please tell me where I could order them, or from you personally?
Thanks in advance.