LART/1

Arduino Software for an APRS Tracker

a.k.a Livermore Amateur Radio Club APRS Tracker (LART/1)

Introduction

This arduino software provides an aprs tracker, which can act as an APRS beacon transmiter or Receiver. In beacon mode, it can send out APRS position reports (lat/lon and altitude). It also acts as an APRS receiver (KISS interface planned).
Unlike commerical units, this tracker was designed for low cost and easy of use.

Features

Reads configuration from SD card (and can writes log file)
Send APRS position reports (fields sent: lat/lon/altitude/comments)
Adaptive Interval Beacon Mode (NotSoSmart_Beacon mode)
- adjusts update intervals based on degree of position change (mph thresholding)
Adjustable Update Intervals
Adjustable APRS packet settings
- path routing, dest, preamble, tail, symbol
Adjustable Transceiver Settings
- Freq, CTCSS Tones, Squelch, Bandwidth, Filters, and Volume
Receives APRS message and print output
- KISS interface planned
LCD Display with Status LEDs

Hardware

LART1 requires/assumes the following hardware:

an Mega2560 compatible arduino board
APRS circuit based on the MicroModem Circuit. A schematic is provided.
GPS that provides NMEA output. The Ublox Neo-6m GPS, used for flight controllers, are a good choice.
2 meter transceiver module (recommend a DRA818vhf or SA818vhf)
Arduino miniSD Card Module (for setting configuration data, and writing a log)
LCD (16x2 or 20x4) i2c

Dependencies

requires the following libraries to be installed in your Arduino Sketchbook libraries/ directory. These libraries have been modified to work with the LART tracker code (bug fixes and extensions), so you'll need to use the version provided in the repository, and install them in your Arduino library.

Installation

Download the zip file and unzip to a temporary location
- unzip lart1-master.zip
- `cd lart1-master
Find your Arduino directory location <ARDUINO>
- default for Linux: $HOME/Sketchbook
- default for Mac : $HOME/Documents/Arduino
- default for Windows : My Documents\Arduino
Move the library directories to your Arduino libraries location:
- Linux/Mac: cp -a libraries/* <ARDUINO>/libraries/
- Windows: copy the directories under libraries/ to <ARDUINO>\libraries\
Create a LART1 sketchbook directory and move the src files
- Linux/Mac:
  - mkdir <ARDUINO>/LART1
  - cp -a *.ino *.h *.cpp License <ARDUINO>/LART1/
- Windows:
  - create new directory <ARDUINO>/LART1
  - copy *.ino *.h *.cpp License to this directory
Start up the Arduino IDE (or close and restart it if it was open)
- open "File->Sketchbook->LARK1"
- compile and upload the sketch to the Arduino

References

Status

Version 1.000a - first major release

dfannin / lart1