Introduction

Statement of Purpose

As we all know, the public security has long been an issue in Champaign-Urbana area. Specifically, bike theft in our campus town run wild and keep haunting Illini for years, which crime has seriously damaged, is dramatically violating, and shows no indication to cease to tread on our legitimate right of personal property. When come to the course of personal property, it becomes necessary for some people to stand out and try to curb the serious violation. Thus, a conception of a low-cost, long-duration, high-efficiency, good-concealment, and tiny-volume GPS Bike Tracker comes to our mind. We believe that this device can effectively protect our bicycles, or at least help us to find lost bicycle and assist the police to handle a case. An Arduino-based signal transmission device, including a GSM module and a lithium battery power source, will be used to realize the communication between the GPS module and mobile phone.

Background Research

 As this project needs exercisers to find some ways to fight back if bike theft happens. It is needed to know how your bikes could be stolen. After investigation (online research , interviewing Walmart’s bicycle mechanics, and interviewing a former bike thief in my hometown), it is found that in most occasions, the theft action can separated into two parts.

• • • The first is to steal the whole machine. In this case, the criminal will use tools such as but not limited to: chain saws, bow saws, circular saws, electric drills, electrician’s side cutters and lock picks to invalidate your locks and take your bikes

    • The second is to destroy your bike, or just take parts away. In this case, thieves will use tools such as screwdriver, pliers, spanner, crowbars, and so on and so forth, including those mentioned in the first part, to disassemble your bike.

 In process of the project, exercisers should always keep one point in their mind, which is this project based on a fact that we can hardly find an unbreakable lock. This conclusion comes from investigation and analyzation.

 Thus, two plans, which are:

• • • A. To design different kinds of adaptors which can be added to different kinds of locks to detect if the locks are invalidated.

    • B. To use machine learning to let the system to self-learn which kind of movement or vibration of the bike could be a sign of act of theft. Then the system should deliver a message to a prepared terminal and police office.

are vetoed for reasons such as: plan cannot practically protect the bike; focus sways to mechanical engineering; time limit, and financial limit.

 Thus the current plan comes. It is decided to design and realize a product to be attached to the tracked bike. Commands will be sent via text messaging, and then processor will process the commands and get the location information from GPS sensor. Base on the command, the processor returns the GPS information via text messages or phone app.

 Later on, research on power supply problem and attaching point problem is done. There are companies in China using solar panel on their bikes, or man-generating power to empower their locating system. Considering most bicycles in US do not have place for solar cells due to their design, and man-generation system is out of the scale of a single-fall-semester-project. These methods are vetoed and it is decided to use double-layer control structure to keep the main system in dormancy when unused thus save the power. About attaching point, according to online research, inside handlebar or outside on the surface of keel are good choices, yet the experiment about signal processing should be done later.

Design Details

Block Diagram / Flow Chart

System Overview

 This product will either fit inside the bike frame or made invisible enough to be attached to the outside. Commands will be sent via text messaging (e.g. GET LOCATION, RECORD LOCATION, etc.), and then Arduino processor will process the commands and get the location information from GPS sensor. Base on the command received, the processor is capable of returning the GPS information via text messages.

Parts

• • Adafruit Feather 32u4 FONA

  • Slim Sticker-type GSM/Cellular Quad-Band Antenna - 3dBi uFL

  • Lithium Ion Battery - 1Ah

  • Lithium Ion Battery - 2Ah

  • JST SH Jumper 6 Wire - 1.75"

  • GPS Receiver - GP-735 (56 Channel)

  • SparkFun Mini GPS Shield

  • Break Away Headers - Straight

  • Photon Stackable Header - 12 Pin

  • 2G SIM Card

Possible Challenges

• • Reducing the financial cost of this tracker.

  • Finding a proper space on a racing bicycle to invisibly and securely arrange the device.

  • Achieving high electrical energy efficiency (possibly solved by using interrupt pins and putting all devices into sleep / standby mode to reduce current flow).

  • When integrated into the bike frame, the aluminum body might block both GSM and GPS signals.

References

https://www.welovecycling.com/wide/2017/02/23/dont-want-bike-stolen-get-gps-tracker-late/

http://www.cyclingweekly.com/group-tests/find-your-stolen-bike-with-a-gps-tracker-165579