AVR Based GPS Tracker

Global Positioning System technology is a system of satellites that sends signals to a GPS system device which then calculates the current position by latitude and longitude. This project shows the method of communication between the GPS module and microcontroller, wherein the source code and hardware were made minimal.

This project will explore the basics of connecting one of these GPS modules to a microcontroller in order to receive the data and record it for later use in a computer mapping program such as Google Earth. The GPS module came with a small cable and connector set for installation onto a printed circuit board, The cable that came with the GPS had a male 8 pin connector at each end, Once the eight colored wires were soldered to the header pins, the GPS cable was now ready to be plugged into any solderless breadboard for rapid prototyping.

To communicate with the computer, the serial transmit line on the 324p is fed to an RS232 level converter so that the voltage expected by the PC is correct. The status that LEDs show the record and playback mode status as well as the GPS locks status.