Bicycle Journey Tracker With Arduino and GPS Module
Introduction: Bicycle Journey Tracker With Arduino and GPS Module
This is a bicycle journey recording device utilizing Arduino and a GPS module.
I’m riding an electrical bicycle from time to time during weekends.
Several good bicycle riding routes which pass by the lakes and parks are located near to my house.
Therefore, bicycle riding become a favorite personal pastime recently.
For planning the next journey, checking previous riding history becomes very useful and important.
When GPS-based detail route information is available, a more customized and well-organized next bicycle riding journey plan can be made.
Usually, I had just passed by must to visit places such as good places to take a picture or nice restaurants where I can enjoy some special eateries.
When you store such sites information together with GPS route data, your next trip will be more satisfying by looking at the more good things to see and tasting other yummy new foods.
That’s why I made this useful gadget.
Step 1: Components of Journey Recorder
GPS data recording device requires several sub-components as it should support signal receiving from satellites, processing/displaying, and storing data to SD card of functions.
All necessary break-out modules and electronic components are assembled as three parts such as:
- GPS antenna and receiver circuit module
- Main data processor circuit module which includes Arduino and LCD display
- Power supply module
The analog ampere meter shown in the picture above is connected just for power consumption measuring purposes.
When riding a bicycle, it’s not necessary and simply can be removed.
About 200mA is required to power up the GPS journey tracker circuits.
Let’s look into more details at how this circuit is made.
Step 2: Parts
Firstly, I tried to assemble every break-out board and electric component into a single enclosure.
But as you can see, several small break-out boards that need to be interconnected to the journey tracker circuit.
Therefore, three small acrylic chassis are utilized instead for housing-related small break-out boards together to each module.
The following parts were used for this project.
- Arduino pro-mini 5V
- SD card module 5V and SPI interface
- 2GB micro SD and SD socket
- 16x2 I2C LCD module with PCF8574 controller
- Neo-6M GPS module and antenna
- 18650 lithium-ion battery (3.7V)
- 5V fixed Boost up voltage regulator
- Universal PCB board, pin-head, and cable wires
- Acrylic boards, 3.5mm bolts, and nuts
No exotic parts are used for this project.
You can easily purchase all break boards and electronic components at internet shops.
Step 3: Schematics
As four break-out boards are interconnected with Arduino pro-mini, wiring is relatively a little bit complex.
But only SCL (A5) and SDA (A4) with PCF8574 I2C LCD module is dedicated wiring.
Other connections can be changed according to the configuration setting in the sketch program.
For the wiring of Arduino pro-mini, the following connection is used.
- 5V output from power supply to RAW pin of Arduino pro-mini board
- GND of power to one on GND pin (There are 2 GND pins are available with pro-mini)
- 5V power input of all other break-out boards (GPS, SD card, and 16x2 LCD) will be connected from Vcc pin of pro-mini
SD card break-out requires relatively many connections like below to support SPI communication with pro-mini.
- CLK of SD card module to PIN 13 of pro-mini
- MISO to PIN 12
- MOSI to pin 11
- CS to PIN 4
The above connections are typical wiring conventions as defined in “SD.h” header file.
When you are using other wiring methods, port connection definition should be re-declared in sketch program.
Neo-6M GPS module needs TX and RX connection with pro-mini.
I’m using the following connection between Arduino and GPS module.
- Tx of GPS module connected to digital pin 5 of Arduino pro-mini
- Rx to Pin 6 of pro-mini
Instead of a power switch, I’m using a simple jumper wire and 3 pin-head terminal for supplying 5V power to the overall journey tracker circuit.
You can see the jumper wire turn to the power switch later when looking at more detail of the power supply module.
Step 4: GPS Module
Let’s look at each module one by one for more detail about how it was assembled is seen.
The GPS module consists of controller break-out and Antenna. 33