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This project is to build a portable GPS geared towards runners (well, me and what I think a runner wants a GPS thingy for). It’s sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s ECE Envision Fund.
The hardware is basically complete, and the software is functional, if not polished. This is what the main screen looks like while tracking, with another image to show scale (though you can also reference the micro SD card in the images further down):
It basically shows the current distance traveled and the time taken to travel that distance. And does nothing else. No start/stop, no pause, nothing. Actual niceties like that are on the to-do list. The maps are loaded from the micro SD card, and are generated from Tile Mill using a custom color scheme and Open Street Map data.
The innards consist of an LPC1778 Cortex M3 micro, a GPS, a battery, and supporting components. The case is basically two shells milled out of some polymer sheet I had lying around, held together with a silicone band I molded around it.
The nice thing about the case design is that it’s easy to fabricate with a 3-axis mill- it’s just flat cuts for both the case and the mold for the silicone. It’s also easy to disassemble (essential for programming, since I left the programming header inside), and the silicone band should keep dust and other gunk out of the ports.
Read More: Runner’s GPS build