Accurate 2D positioning with 2 sonar beacons
Put 2 smart sticks in the ground and get your position relative to these sticks with cm accuracy. Uses audible sonar.
A mobile station determines its position relative to 2 fixed stations by transmitting and receiving sound pulses. All stations communicate over a 868MHz wireless link.
The mobile station is currently attached to an archaeological resistivity meter and this setup works very accurate and reliable.
In below youtube video the mobile station is connected to a PC to visualize the results.
Demo & how it works -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKz38ykqQ6M
Some extra's :
Why use audible sound instead of ultrasonic ?
My son is the 3D designer and he uses fusion-360 (for personal use) like a pro.
Electronics
I wanted to use a Texas Instruments CC1312R (High-Performance Sub-1 GHz Wireless MCU) because it has great specifications and is low-cost. ( only a few Euro's). The 0.5mm pitch made it a bit difficult to manually solder on a pcb though.
I looked at modules containing this chip and settled for a module from an Italian company Radio Controlli. (https://www.radiocontrolli.com/rc-cc1312r-868). It works great!
The prototype is a bit over designed to make it easier to experiment. Eliminating one of the op amps and one of the voltage regulators is possible.
The PCB only has tracks on the top side, the bottom is a complete ground plane. this makes it easy to etch at home.
As you can see in the movie I use a simple wire antenna. I started with a quarter wave length wire ( 8.6cm ) and then cutoff small parts until the RSSI of received telegrams is maximized (use SmartRF Studio 7 for that). The size and orientation of the wire is not critical. The range is tested to be at least 100m, but should be more then 300m if properly tuned.
Debug & development tools
The mobile station is currently attached to an archaeological resistivity meter and this setup works very accurate and reliable.
In below youtube video the mobile station is connected to a PC to visualize the results.
Demo & how it works -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKz38ykqQ6M
Some extra's :
Why use audible sound instead of ultrasonic ?
- audible sound works with a lower sampling frequency (I use 60KHz). So less processing needed and faster.
- The attenuation of ultrasound in air is much larger.
- The high quality factor (Q) of ultrasonic transceivers makes them difficult to use. You cannot transmit short or wide bandwidth signals with them.
My son is the 3D designer and he uses fusion-360 (for personal use) like a pro.
Electronics
I wanted to use a Texas Instruments CC1312R (High-Performance Sub-1 GHz Wireless MCU) because it has great specifications and is low-cost. ( only a few Euro's). The 0.5mm pitch made it a bit difficult to manually solder on a pcb though.
I looked at modules containing this chip and settled for a module from an Italian company Radio Controlli. (https://www.radiocontrolli.com/rc-cc1312r-868). It works great!
The prototype is a bit over designed to make it easier to experiment. Eliminating one of the op amps and one of the voltage regulators is possible.
The PCB only has tracks on the top side, the bottom is a complete ground plane. this makes it easy to etch at home.
As you can see in the movie I use a simple wire antenna. I started with a quarter wave length wire ( 8.6cm ) and then cutoff small parts until the RSSI of received telegrams is maximized (use SmartRF Studio 7 for that). The size and orientation of the wire is not critical. The range is tested to be at least 100m, but should be more then 300m if properly tuned.
Debug & development tools
- For Programming and debugging I use the LAUNCHXL-CC1312R1 development kit. (https://www.ti.com/tool/LAUNCHXL-CC1312R1).
- See included source code.
- All devices use the same code base. At startup the status of 2 pins is read, and this determines how the software behaves.
- It is written in C with Code Composer Studio V10.2 IDE.
- See included source code.
- This is a quick and dirty implementation, as it was only needed for development, not for using the system with the resistivity meter.
- It is a c# windows form app, written in Visual Studio Community 2019.
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