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Request for SPOT hack materials

Well, it took a year, but someone has finally shown an interest in the SPOT GPS tracking device hack that we built.  I’m proud.  As promised, here are the files: 

SPOT Hack files

There is a PDF for the schematic but the board design will need to be brought up in Kicad.

Everything supplied is as-is.  No guarantees, no responsibility if it burns your house down, no apologies for missing documentation.

This entry was posted on 4. August 2010 at 10:42 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Request for SPOT hack materials”

  1. James says:
    6. August 2010 at 06:17

    Thanks very much for posting these…here’s an intriguing application of your clever idea. I work in remote parts of the world where people kill too many animals and authorities are eager to stop them but can’t for lack of technology. SPOT coverage is good in many parts of the world. If we could get an on-the-ground poacher sensor to trigger a message from a hidden SPOT unit that would be a low-cost, reliable signal for authorities to respond to. Your solar panels in the pelican case are a real genius. The costs for several such systems would be manageable. I’m no electrical engineer but think this could really work. Have some funds and just need to find a collaborator…

    Thanks again.

  2. Sean says:
    6. August 2010 at 10:01

    James,

    Sounds like an interesting application. We’ll send you a note offline to discuss.

  3. Curtis says:
    18. October 2010 at 17:29

    Can you provide a little detail how you are soldering the connections to the On and OK button pads? It looks like they are soldered directly to the pad connections, but I can’t tell for sure from the picture.

    I also notice from the code that you are leaving the device powered on for 30 minutes after activating, is there a reason for that?

    Nice little hack here. I can’t wait to get a SPOT and try it out. Do you know, does the license agreement limit the frequency you can send the OK reports? What if I wanted to send a position report every 10 minutes?

  4. Sean says:
    19. October 2010 at 07:59

    Hi Curtis. We soldered some kynar (thin solid core) wire to the positive half of the buttons. It was very tricky and I’m surprised we didn’t get a solder bridge. Once the connection was verified, I glued it down with rubber cement so it wasn’t as fragile.

    The SPOT signal actually involves about 5 attempts spaced 5 minutes apart. That’s the reason for leaving it on for 30 min.

    Unfortunately, the terms and conditions outline a couple of things (just recently discovered). 1. As soon as you modify the board, the warranty is void. 2. You’re not permitted to use the SPOT for asset tracking or other non-recreational purposes for which it was not intended. There is a blurb about the cost going up considerably for that.

    Thanks for the post.

    –
    Sean

  5. Curtis says:
    25. October 2010 at 08:19

    Thanks Sean. I actually just read through the Terms and Conditions and it specifically says: commercial tracking of personnel or assets So if you are doing tracking for your personal use…like in a high altitude balloon or in an autonomous boat, as long as it is for hobby purposes, I would think that wouldn’t violate the “Commercial” aspect of this. It seems they have this limitation due to the Google Maps license agreement. I’ll have to read that one too but it seems to be for privacy concerns. (ie. Don’t use it to track your wife’s car to see where she is going ;-) )

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