Outdoor Real-Time Bluetooth Tracker Design

I’m building a brand-new tracker aimed at hunters and other outdoor enthusiasts who need to see the location of their harvested game is in real time. The core requirement is straightforward: reliable location tracking that appears instantly on a smartphone and must be as small and light as possible.

The idea is that a bow hunter can easily track and find their game after a shot is taken. This would ideally be the most ethical form of locating an animal to ensure that it is not gone to waste.

Here’s the functionality I have in mind:
• The device gathers GPS coordinates, pushes them to the user’s phone over low-energy Bluetooth, and refreshes quickly enough to feel truly live.
• When Bluetooth isn’t possible or range is lost, a secondary short-range radio link should take over so position updates continue (I’m open to the specific protocol you recommend).
• Everything must be optimized for battery life, ruggedized for rain and mud, and small enough to be fit into a broadhead style design for an arrow and light enough to not majorly affect flight path.

I would like it rechargeable as well, and a way to turn it on and off to preserve battery life.

I’ll lean on your expertise to choose the right chip set, antenna layout, power-saving firmware techniques, and mobile-side integration. A concise mobile demo app (Android or iOS) that plots the device on a map will round out the proof of concept.

Once I have a tracker device with size, weight and shape, I will handle the rest of the design in terms of how it affects flight path, delivery and durability. I need a raw design and can take the rest from there. I am looking for a partnership of a sort to develop this idea and take it the long haul. If we make it work, I will want to continue to evolve the product and that would mean giving you a share of profit as well.

Deliverables
– Schematic and BOM for the tracker hardware
– Embedded firmware with Bluetooth LE (and radio fall-back) support
– Companion mobile code or sample app that displays real-time position
– Build and test instructions so I can replicate your results

If you’ve already wrestled with BLE pairing quirks, GPS drift, or low-power location algorithms in the wild, I’d love to see what you can do here.