Seeeduino Stalker v2.1 with GPS XBee

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Recently I have started looking at Arduino boards, the first thing I wanted to build was a data logger with GPS and Compass. After looking around I ended up choosing the Seeduino Stalker with a GPS XBEE and LSM303DLH accelerometer.

A few things to know about Seeduino Stalker and using the GPS XBEE

  • You can not read the GPS XBEE and serial at the same, I believe this because they share the same Rx,Tx lines.  I still mean try this guys suggestions http://wlba.wordpress.com/small-projects/seeeduino-stalker-v2-2/gpsbee-and-seeeduino-stalker-v2/ (Waiting on a breadboard :D )
  • Leaving the GPS XBEE on its mount and rewiring the Tx,Rx line to different digital ports works….but gives does not give valid response.  The text is valid, but the NMEA sentences are not.
  • The examples on the Seeduino wiki are out of date, you can use the standard SD and NewSoftSerial libraries instead of the libraries used in the examples.  Also I found the interrupt method shown in the example confusing and not needed (Might of been back then…)
  • GPS XBEE will work with the TinyGPS library (This is because it sends the standard NMEA 0183 sentences)
    • If you wanted to you could edit the GPS XBEE firmware and limit the types of the sentences sent to reduce processing time
  • To test the GPS XBEE you can place the XBEE on the UART and view the serial monitor at 9600 baud.  You should see the sentence coming in correctly.  Like wise you can view it through U-centre provided by U-blox however I prefer to deal with the raw output.
  • If a GPS operates at 4Hz this means that it will send GPS position 4 times a second
  • When looking at TinyGPS examples the first time, I thought while(Serial.Available()){} would go on forever, then I learn’t about the point above
Feel to re-use the code, I initially ported the code from the standard SD library

Finally finished an idea

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Sorry its been a while since my first post,

But I have a good reason, i’ve been busy working on a new idea and starting a new job.  So with out further a do, i introduce golf tuts – a free online golf lesson library, I personally found learning golf to be a fairly difficult experience and there is quite a lot of content out there,  however none of it seemed to be that good.  It all seemed to be either super long or had a hidden motive like to sell their golf changing training aid.  This is the main reason for developing it, was to give people the ability to learn golf in a straight forward, to the point way.  Developing it was fairly easy and fun, I used google app engine for the backend which relies on python.  I’ve never used python before however I found it to be very easy to use and I love the purity of the language.  I guess the most interesting and challenging part is making it SEO and google friendly.

A few tips i’ve learn’t so far regarding making it search engine compliant

  • Avoid duplicate or repetitive content, i initially had information based on the category of the lesson, however I have now removed most of it.
  • Make links as human as possible, avoid the old ?=something
  • Google and yahoo take forever to index initially, best to add a temp landing page and sitemap just to get the ball rolling.
  • Wait for content before making final layout decisions.  I love to design and mocking up designs however until you write the content and see how people react its hard to really create a truly orsm experience.
  • Be patient, like those old hair ads (Sorry this might only be an Australian reference), it won’t happen overnight but it will happen

On another note one thing that I have implemented from the start is a good internal review process.  Creating reports and reminders to review content helps keep the content correct and relevant.