| On June 26th 1993, the
U.S. Air Force launched the 24th Navstar satellite into
orbit; this completed a network of 24 satellites now known
as the Global Positioning System (GPS). These satellites
act as reference points to calculate positions anywhere
on the planet to a matter of meters. In it infancy, this
information was only accessible by the military or large
organisations; however, as technology has developed, GPS
receivers have been miniaturised and their cost reduced
making this technology accessible to almost everybody.
Nowadays GPS is becoming commonplace used in many applications
from cars, boats, planes, construction/survey equipment
and even laptop computers. As this technology develops,
GPS will become as common as a mobile telephone becoming
a universal utility.
GPS receivers come in a wide range of shapes and sizes
from small pocket sized hand-held devices to compact
flash receivers used in laptop computers and PC’s.
Many of these devices however need to be mobile, reliable
and work in remote areas likely under extreme conditions.
Because of this, the battery packs used to power such
devices must be able to cope with all of these demands.
Many of the basic handheld GPS devices commonly used
by walkers, hikers and sailors run off standard AA NiMh
rechargeable cells. Some of the more advanced receivers
such as Chartplotters, Automotive Trackers and PDA’s
make use of more specialised rechargeable Lithium Ion
batteries.
Sonnenschein Lithium Gmbh offer a wide range of lithium
thionyl chloride cells and battery packs and have been
chosen by many designers and have been the source of
long term power in a number of different GPS applications.
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