gps compass connected to EL light tape project

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ascool

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Dear All,

I have a project that i wish i can realise, but i dont have any idea how to do it.

I am looking for a developer i guess and some electric competence to achieve this prototype.

I need to connecte a gps module to a EL light tape.

When the GPS (compass) find the desired location , the EL light goes on.

is that something complicated to do?

Does anyone is interested in my project?

Thanks
 
Generally, in these forums, people won't do the code for you, but they are usually willing to help you along, assuming you are willing learn how to do things.

If you have never done anything with a Teensy, I would suggest doing some of the examples, such as blink, adding simple buttons or sensors, etc. to get your feet wet before tackling something that has a few more steps such as your compass project. As I have said elsewhere, you only learn when you are going past what you already know. And don't get discouraged by initial failure. We ALL fail. Those of us that do get the hang of it, pick ourselves up, learn from our failure, and adapt. I've seen some people that one or two initial failures means they lose interest, and move onto the next new shiny.

If I understand the technology, you don't want EL light tape, as with that only light up the entire strand at once. Instead you want something directional, so that you can indicate north, south, etc.

I would suggest getting an Adafruit NeoPixel ring, which is my current favorite new toy. It is a ring of 16 LEDs that are each individually addressable. That way when the compass is pointing north, you light up the LED for north, etc. Unfortunately, they are sold out right now, but they should get stock shortly: http://www.adafruit.com/products/1463. Without a NeoPixel ring, you can certainly use other lights, such as individual NeoPixel leds chained together, or even 8 or 16 LEDs hooked up to your Teensy, and placed appropriately in a circle configuration.

Then you need to get a compass such as http://www.adafruit.com/products/1120. Most of them involve using I2C, which is a software bus you can hook various devices on. On the Teensy you will need two 4.7K resistors for the pullups for I2C. This page describes i2c and the wire library: http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_Wire.html

Then of course you have get your hands dirty and do the connection of pieces, soldering and programming. How hard it is depends on you and what kind of experience you have. Since, I've been a professional programmer for over 30 years now, the programming is the simple part of the project. If you have never programmed before, then expect it to take longer. Unfortunately, there is no royal road to programming. You have to get in an grok what is going on. I don't know how to teach this (particularly remotely), but often times beginners seem to have an aha moment, where nothing makes sense (and C/C++ are not beginner friendly languages), and then after you've looked at it for a bit, suddenly, it makes sense of how the pieces fit together.

One of the techniques is to break projects down into smaller pieces. With your project, there are two pieces that can be tackled independently. First is figuring out how to program whatever lights you are using, and hooking them up. Then it is hooking up the compass and reading from it, printing to the serial port the direction. Finally, once you get both pieces working, then you want to glue them together.

Adafruit does have a video that marries the NeoPixel with the Compass (http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2013/08/14/arduino-neopixel-compass/), but it looks like they haven't posted the code yet.

If you have a local makerspace where people use Arduinos or Teensy's, it might make sense to go there, as often it helps to have somebody in the room that has traveled the road before.

Good luck! It can be quite a rush when the project you've worked on for a bit, suddenly comes together. :cool:
 
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Generally, in these forums, people won't do the code for you, but they are usually willing to help you along, assuming you are willing learn how to do things.

If you have never done anything with a Teensy, I would suggest doing some of the examples, such as blink, adding simple buttons or sensors, etc. to get your feet wet before tackling something that has a few more steps such as your compass project. As I have said elsewhere, you only learn when you are going past what you already know. And don't get discouraged by initial failure. We ALL fail. Those of us that do get the hang of it, pick ourselves up, learn from our failure, and adapt. I've seen some people that one or two initial failures means they lose interest, and move onto the next new shiny.

If I understand the technology, you don't want EL light tape, as with that only light up the entire strand at once. Instead you want something directional, so that you can indicate north, south, etc.

I would suggest getting an Adafruit NeoPixel ring, which is my current favorite new toy. It is a ring of 16 LEDs that are each individually addressable. That way when the compass is pointing north, you light up the LED for north, etc. Unfortunately, they are sold out right now, but they should get stock shortly: http://www.adafruit.com/products/1463. Without a NeoPixel ring, you can certainly use other lights, such as individual NeoPixel leds chained together, or even 8 or 16 LEDs hooked up to your Teensy, and placed appropriately in a circle configuration.

Then you need to get a compass such as http://www.adafruit.com/products/1120. Most of them involve using I2C, which is a software bus you can hook various devices on. On the Teensy you will need two 4.7K resistors for the pullups for I2C. This page describes i2c and the wire library: http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_Wire.html

Then of course you have get your hands dirty and do the connection of pieces, soldering and programming. How hard it is depends on you and what kind of experience you have. Since, I've been a professional programmer for over 30 years now, the programming is the simple part of the project. If you have never programmed before, then expect it to take longer. Unfortunately, there is no royal road to programming. You have to get in an grok what is going on. I don't know how to teach this (particularly remotely), but often times beginners seem to have an aha moment, where nothing makes sense (and C/C++ are not beginner friendly languages), and then after you've looked at it for a bit, suddenly, it makes sense of how the pieces fit together.

One of the techniques is to break projects down into smaller pieces. With your project, there are two pieces that can be tackled independently. First is figuring out how to program whatever lights you are using, and hooking them up. Then it is hooking up the compass and reading from it, printing to the serial port the direction. Finally, once you get both pieces working, then you want to glue them together.

Adafruit does have a video that marries the NeoPixel with the Compass (http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2013/08/14/arduino-neopixel-compass/), but it looks like they haven't posted the code yet.

If you have a local makerspace where people use Arduinos or Teensy's, it might make sense to go there, as often it helps to have somebody in the room that has traveled the road before.

Good luck! It can be quite a rush when the project you've worked on for a bit, suddenly comes together. :cool:


First of all thanks for taking the time to reply

I wish i could be a good programmer to do such a project

Also, if i may , i would like to better explain my project , so maybe someone who's reading this post will be interested helping me.

the source of light could be any type of light as you said to begin, could be led, light, lighttape etc...

this biggest part is:


First step: enter the user location manually by selection city for example

Step2: turning the compass 360° till your location reach the default location that already has been programmed in the gps.

Step3: if user location = default location send signal to light ON

if not , no signal


I will start using kit as you said , to start learning but , that will take me forever to learn :)

Thanks again
 
That makes it somewhat more complex. What cell-phones and GPS systems have to do is incorporate maps, etc. so that if you want to go 45 degrees from the current position, you might have to go down to where there is a street and then do a 90 degree turn. Teensy, etc. just does not have the memory for this. Cell phones do this by moving the processing to the back room computers at the cell provider (though modern phones are getting to the point that they have enough memory and processing power to do this locally).

It also depends on how accurate your GPS reader is, and whether you have a clear view of the sky to receive the 3 or more GPS signals to do the triangulation.
 
That makes it somewhat more complex. What cell-phones and GPS systems have to do is incorporate maps, etc. so that if you want to go 45 degrees from the current position, you might have to go down to where there is a street and then do a 90 degree turn. Teensy, etc. just does not have the memory for this. Cell phones do this by moving the processing to the back room computers at the cell provider (though modern phones are getting to the point that they have enough memory and processing power to do this locally).

It also depends on how accurate your GPS reader is, and whether you have a clear view of the sky to receive the 3 or more GPS signals to do the triangulation.

Hi, good afternoon, and thanks for your reply

i think if the default position is numeric like Longitude and Latitude position

and the compass will be numeric as well , so when the 2 numeric position match that give the signal?

i may be wrong.

Thanks
 
Is your goal to make a game or puzzle?

Maybe it is not too hard. There are many ways to do this. Can you give us more detail about how it would be used? How tight is your budget? How much time do you have? Are you interested in learning how to make it yourself, or do you really want to pay someone? Will you make just one or do you want to sell many?
 
Is your goal to make a game or puzzle?

Maybe it is not too hard. There are many ways to do this. Can you give us more detail about how it would be used? How tight is your budget? How much time do you have? Are you interested in learning how to make it yourself, or do you really want to pay someone? Will you make just one or do you want to sell many?

Hi,Thanks for your reply

No my project is not a game, but something very useful for my daily tasks

I would prefer someone working on the prototype.
I will be working on the design, cause i would like to implement it in clothes material
I can pay for the prototype , then if it's working well, we can go for improvement with better componant as it must be thin and small to be integrated in a clothes.
When the prototype is ready and 100% working and tested
I can go for mass production.
I do believe in this project that why i would like to invest time and money( depending on the tasks and materials ).
I wish i could also learn from the prototype, so would be easier for me to improve it.

Thanks
 
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