What will this system differentiate from existing hardware?
Over the last years, embedded computing has developed to provide a lot more performance with low power consumption. In most cases the commercial systems got more fancy with color displays and many other features or smaller. As a result, the battery life time did not evolve adequately.
When OSM explorers forge ahead in unknown regions, we think they might need system properties like:
- >20 hours, better 40 hours and more runtime with one set of batteries
- Standard batteries that are widely available
- GPS data in a sufficient quality
- A user interface that can be used while walking.
- A display that works well in a sunny outdoor environment
To achieve this goal, the system concept will make use of:
- 3 x AA battery (Alcaline or NiMH rechargeable)
- A reflective LCD matrix display (lowest power, perfect for daylight)
- No LCD Backlight
- Build the system around an 8bit microcontroller
- Power saving in hard and software
- A GPS module on a large size mainboard. That will provide a good ground plane for the GPS module antenna
- A GPS system providing NMEA data connected via serial link can be connected. This will also save the cost for the on board GPS module.
- A system that will use keys for all inputs to provide some tactile feedback to the user.