Battery powered ESP8266 WiFi for Live GPS tracking

Hi,

I would like to preface by mentioning that I am new to the hardware side of microcontrollers. I would be very grateful for any opinions and input.

I have spent the better part of a week researching how to create a wearable battery powered WiFi live GPS tracker. I am confident that a micro-usb powered WiFi GPS tracker is feasible using the Node MCU + NEO-6M GPS module configuration.
I was planning to buy a Node MCU and Neo-6M GPS and make my own Voltage Regulator to connect a LiPo battery but saw that Adafruit sells the Feather Huzzah that is essentially a battery operable ESP8266 WiFi.

The project for the most part is a proof of concept - that will only need to run for three hours. I am aware that a wearable ESP8266 transmitting its location every 10 seconds is power hungry to a point that renders it unfeasible for long prediods of time. (Elected for a 4400mAh)

I have created a “shopping list” and am finally ready to get started, however I am after a final clarification from the community if I have included everything neccessary or whether there is a better solution or if the project is a futile.

Shopping list

  • U-blox NEO-6M GPS Module
  • Adafruit Feather HUZZAH with ESP8266 WiFi
  • Hook-Up Stranded Wire - White (22 AWG) - Rx -> Tx
  • Hook-Up Stranded Wire - Black (22 AWG) - Gnd
  • Hook-Up Stranded Wire - Red (22 AWG) - VCC -> 3V3?
  • Polymer Lithium Ion Battery (LiPo) 3.7V 4400mAh

Other

  • Lithium Battery Charger

Any help is greatly appreciated - any improvements or advice whether this is possible would really help me out. Thank you in advance,

Cheers,
A

Hi A,

It all looks pretty sensible to me! The continuous output of the 3.3v regulator on the Huzzah is 250mA , and the 6M GPS module pulls 67mA max so you should be ok on the power supply front - that setup should last a lot longer than 3h.

See the NEO data sheet: https://www.u-blox.com/sites/default/files/products/documents/NEO-6_DataSheet_(GPS.G6-HW-09005).pdf

And the Huzzah power management page: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-feather-huzzah-esp8266/power-management

Oliver
Core Electronics | Support