Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Building a GPS receiver
Hi everyone! Shortly after publishing my iOS 4 jailbreak last October[1], I got to work on my next hobby project: a from-scratch homebrew GPS receiver, which can solve the user’s location solely from billions of radio antenna samples. I took a commodity SDR (alongside the Python standard library and numpy) and built a signal processing pipeline that can detect and track GPS satellites over many minutes, drop and pick up satellites as they come in and out of view, and precisely determine the user’s position and clock inaccuracy. All told, gypsum can go from a cold start to a fix on the user’s…
Building a GPS receiver is a hobbyist signal processing project that creates a functioning GPS receiver from scratch using a commodity software-defined radio (SDR), Python, and numpy. It processes raw radio antenna… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 1 we have checked on their own sites. Building a GPS receiver launched in 2024; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
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I built LocalGPT over 4 nights as a Rust reimagining of the OpenClaw assistant pattern (markdown-based persistent memory, autonomous heartbeat tasks, skills system). It compiles to a single ~27MB binary — no Node.js, Docker, or Python required. Key features: - Persistent memory via markdown files (MEMORY, HEARTBEAT, SOUL markdown files) — compatible with OpenClaw's format - Full-text search (SQLite FTS5) + semantic search (local embeddings, no API key needed) - Autonomous heartbeat runner that checks tasks on a configurable interval - CLI + web interface + desktop GUI - Multi-provider:…
Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Hello Hacker News community, I'm excited to share my open-source project, Ground Station – a full-featured software solution for satellite tracking and radio communication. Designed for amateur radio operators, satellite enthusiasts, and researchers, it provides a comprehensive and easy-to-use platform. Key Features include: - Real-time Satellite Tracking: Precise orbital models and automatic TLE updates. - SDR Integration: Stream and record live radio signals from a wide range of SDR devices (RTL-SDR, SoapySDR, UHD/USRP). - AI-Powered Transcription: Real-time speech-to-text for…
Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Hey HN, This is a follow-up to our original Show HN post, where I launched the first version of MBCompass. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44155741 Since then, I've added several features based on user feedback and community input... I just released v1.1.9 of MBCompass - Minimal, FOSS compass and navigation app. New in this version: - Theme toggling (Dark/Light) controlled via settings - Fix current location arrow visibility - Compass accuracy alerts - Sensor status indicator - Explicit button for showing the GPS current location - Smooth transitions and many more..…
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Building a Bus Clock for my House using a Raspberry PI and Python. I won't miss the bus ever again!
2022 · purplehoisin.com · its alternatives →
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Hi HN - My name is Andrew, and I'm a high school student. This is a write-up on StratoSpore, a payload I designed and launched to the stratosphere. The goal was to test if we could estimate physical altitude based on algae fluorescence (using a lightweight ML model trained on the sensor data). The blog post covers the full engineering mess/process, including: - The Hardware: Designing PCBs for the AS7263 spectral sensor and Pi Zero 2 W. -The biological altimeter: How I tried to correlate biological stress (fluorescence) with altitude. - The Communications: A custom lossy compression…
Nov 2025 · radi8.dev · its alternatives →
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GeoSpark▲197Location tracking SDK with 90% less battery drain 🔋
2018 · geospark.co · its alternatives →
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I got pretty good at (and very addicted to) the lunar lander game from a few days ago... so I decided to make an autopilot for the lander based on what I felt like was the best strategy! Now I can have perfect landings every time without lifting a finger :D Writing the autopilot code was a lot more fun than I expected! It felt a bit like programming a robot. Source code: https://github.com/szhu/lunar-lander-autopilot Original lander HN post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35032506
2023 · szhu.github.io · its alternatives →
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Aegir GPS/LTE/Iridium Tracker. Contribute to cepa/aegir-gps-tracker development by creating an account on GitHub.
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
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We built the smallest dual-band aircraft trackerfrom $48/mo▲95I grew frustrated with closed source ADS-B receivers a few years ago, and wanted to build a true low cost embedded ADS-B receiver from scratch for low power applications. I ended up developing a custom radio frontend that uses RP2040 PIO for Mode S preamble detection and demodulation, and also released the first open soruce implementation of UAT decoding on an RF MCU from TI (which works somewhat beyond the publicly stated specs for the chip). Today, ADSBee is a fully featured dual-band ADS-B receiver, with Mode S, ADSB, UAT ADSB, UAT TIS-B / FIS-B, a ton of configurable reporting…
Aug 2026 · pantsforbirds.com · its alternatives →
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I'm working on a GPS track visualizer for quite some time. It shines in hilly and mountaineous terrain (where a 3D view makes more sense), but it also offers quite a lot of Strava-like features (statistics etc.). You can upload your GPX and FIT files manually, or sync directly with Garmin, Coros and Polar. See https://cubetrek.com for the live app and check out some examples there. It's free and opens source. Also, anyone who likes to work with 3D visualizations (especially Babylon.js), let me know if you like to help polish this thing further.
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Build live prototypes faster using mobile device sensor data
2021 · moonsense.io · its alternatives →
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Real-time Geospatial and Geofencing. Contribute to tidwall/tile38 development by creating an account on GitHub.
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
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SpotVault▲92Collect, save, and keep your foraging spots private
Feb 2026 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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Hey! I'm a solo developer having fun learning Go. I have a side hustle and wanted to implement currency localization. I could use existing IP databases, but hosting on serverless is slow. So I built my own. I was surprised how fun it can be to use Go, and it's fast. Thankfully, Go's speed makes up for my dodgy code. Anyway, I'd love to get some feedback on my website/API. After a few weeks of testing and losing money on ads, I'm confident it's very reliable. This isn't a promo. It's basicly free (30k lookups/month), so there's no need to pay. Any advice or tips on how to grow and…
2024 · ipflare.io · its alternatives →
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Hey everyone, I wanted to share what I have been working on recently. I had this itch for a long time to figure out if terrain contour matching could help with ground navigation, by only only relying on iphone's sensors and public data. So far I have had decent results. This is a working prototype, but there is a lot that is in the pipeline. If you notice anything weird, let me know or open a PR. Any feedback, comments are welcome :)
Jun 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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GoFindMe▲84A GPS Tracker Works Without Cell Service and Monthly Fees
2019 · indiegogo.com · its alternatives →
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Geotunes▲68Music discovery app for iOS using geo-location and Spotify.
2015 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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OneGlanse▲77Free open-source GEO tracker for LLM visibility
Apr 2026 · oneglanse.com · its alternatives →
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International Space Station Tracker on an ESP32 CYD (Cheap Yellow Display) costing $20. Live update over Wifi, touchscreen, backlight power management. Cheap and interesting classroom STEM project. Fully open source.
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Check out our new project to add some insight into OOM kill events for Go programs. Source code: https://github.com/parca-dev/oomprof/ Description of how it was put together: https://www.polarsignals.com/blog/posts/2025/08/13/oomprof
2021 · polarsignals.com · its alternatives →
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Real-time Geospatial and Geofencing. Contribute to tidwall/tile38 development by creating an account on GitHub.
2016 · github.com · its alternatives →
Also compare
- LocalGPT – A local-first AI assistant in Rust with persistent memory alternatives
- Ground Station – All-in-one satellite monitoring suite (Python, SDR) alternatives
- Tiny FOSS Compass and Navigation App (<2MB) alternatives
- Tracking my local bus with a RaspberryPi alternatives
- Mapkin alternatives
- I turned algae into a bio-altimeter and put it on a weather balloon alternatives
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →