GPS Cat Collar Build

This is being added a long time after Leo wore and lost his second GPS collar.  One I built myself.  Here are pics and a brief description of the build.

This first pic is of the three major components.

This is the GPS module that the system is based off of.

This module is the brain of the collar.  It’s a synapse wireless python virtual machine.  Basically n SOC.  It runs the python code that listens to the GPS module, parses the data and then transmits it back to the house.  Once the module gets acknowledged by the house, it puts the GPS in a low power sleep, then sleeps itself and waits 3 minutes.

Below are three buck boost power supply chips.  This produces a 3.3v supply from a Lipo battery that powers the whole thing.

Here is a picture of the actual data stream coming from the GPS in testing.  This is what the python codes has to parse to determine the number of satellites and location.

This is the final layout of the collar before waterproofing and wrapping in plastic mesh.

So unfortunately, the last contact was in our yard.  Leo came back to the house with cob webs on his face.  So he was probably under the garage when he unsnapped the collar 🙁