Can there really be cheap GPS tracking? (long)

[AdrianH]

If this is not suitable in the brew room then please move or remove!
I know some of you have work vans, or mobile equipment so not sure if this would be an interest to you.

I bought from the bay of E a very cheap GPS tracking device for all of £10.99 including delivery, took about a week to arrive. It is one where you provide your own SIM card for it and then set it up.

Now my personal mobile is on Giff-gaff, as I am not constantly on text or the net and Giffgaff is a pay as you go network, so I got another free Giff-gaff SIM in the post. Stuck a £10 credit on it and set it up first in a spare phone and then in the GPS device.

At present I am planning to use it by sending a SMS message to it, it responds by SMS back to my own phone with a web link giving it's location. I can open the web link in Google maps and it shows me on the resulting map where the device is.

So for me the plan is to fit it to my Kit car up under the fibreglass dash and to connect it to a permanent 12 Volt source.

It seems to draw anywhere between 36 milli-amps and say 80 milli-amps, I guess it is transmitting with the network, not sure what? whilst the current drain is not that bad I think over a week or so it would flatten the battery, but a trickle charger connected via the 12 Volt socket would keep the battery topped up when in the garage. But the main idea is for tracking when I go out in the car and go walk about talking pictures. An open top car that relies on a steering lock and ignition key would be easier to nick than a normal tin top.

There seems to be some free GPS web sites i could register with, I am looking at OpenGPS and wondering if suitable? I have this thing about nothing is free so trying to figure it out. I can not put the costs against any work expense hence trying to find the cheapest way to go about it

Some of you could well have GPS tracking already on gear or may be considering it for your vans. If anyone else has gone this route I would be interested to know your thoughts.

Just wondering what you think/experiences are?

Adrian

 

[mr_splatter]

Hi,
The main expense will be the mobile costs ie. the SIM. Not sure exactly how the Giffgaff tariff works but looks like you can do a PAYG for 5p/text. The GPS part is free and I assume you get back a text with GPS coordinates as you describe. Something like Google maps can display the position from the coordinates. The mobile side of the device will take some current as there is background communication with the network even when you are not using it and also GPS is relatively power hungry so as you say battery drain could be an issue.
HTH

 

[knighty]

my nephew wrote me an android gps tracking app and a program to run on my cctv server

app isn't great... I've had to dig phones out from under the dashes quite a few times to reset them :-(

but.. it sends gps info to the server every 60 seconds, phone uses about 250meg or data a month - the phones auto top up with £5 every time they runs out and get another 500meg of data... so works out about £2.50/month

(it uses data not text)

really handy, can track work vans when customers phone up wanting to know what time their delivery will be etc.

and I have a screen in the tea room showing the tracking map, so everyone knows how far away stock we're picking up is and when they need to be ready for it

I keep meaning to chase my nephew to improve the app or have a look around for something else... just no time :-o


for me the phones sit on charge under the dash 24/7 - no noticeable effect on the battery at all, standing for a week etc. is no problem - I guess if it was going to be stood for a long time I'd get one of those little solar panels which sits on the dash to keep the battery topped up

 

[Morrisman]

Steering lock and ignition lock? I bolted a large welded link to the floor in my hot rod, with a large heavy motorcycle security chain that could be looped through the steering wheel and pad locked. Crude, but effective. A big disc grinder would have removed it, but your average opportunist thieving toe rag probably would not expect that with a car.

As for the GPS sender, could you not hook up a small solar panel to make up for its current draw? .

 

[AdrianH]

my nephew wrote me an android gps tracking app and a program to run on my cctv server

That has got me thinking about hosting software here at home, I have a few old HP Thin clients I repurpose, one is running asterisk telephone server.

As for the GPS sender, could you not hook up a small solar panel to make up for its current draw? .

It's in a garage for long periods so sunlight would not be available.

 

[pedrobedro]

Could you stick an old iPhone somewhere and use find my phone ?

It's in a garage for long periods so sunlight would not be available.

A long piece of wire would fix that Not guaranteeing sunshine though

 

[AdrianH]

Could you stick an old iPhone somewhere and use find my phone ?

A long piece of wire would fix that Not guaranteeing sunshine though

The GPS tracker cost £10.99, running the SIM is the cost of it, how much would an old Iphone be worth. As said I can find it now by using SMS and google maps. The software web server side gives me something to play with, or I try out a free service online.

Next time Aldi or lidl have a small intelligent trickle charger in I will purchase one of them

 

[fizzy]

I used to chain my Landie to a lamp post.
If you are going for a long walk how about jacking it up and removing the wheel? I do that on trailers.
Just beware of parking somewhere with no signal - but of course once the car starts moving it will register.
Battery drain should be fine - remember a phone will last a good few days if you aren't making calls - and a car battery is about 100x the size!

Just worked it out you should get about 1000hrs or more with a 0.08 amp draw. That is over a month!

 

[Shox Dr]

Bloke I do work for has them in all his vehicles. If they are not used for a week or so they are hard to start.
I’ve a couple and keep them on trickle chargers while parked.

No need to put a fiver on every month with GG, as comms between 2 GG cards is free for 3months.

Set the card to 2g before fitting to the tracker. Better coverage, and less power consumption.

 

[daedalusminos]

With an Arduino and accelerometer you could make a low quiescent current, movement sensitive power switch. When movement is detected it powers up the GPS, keeps it powered for (say) minimum of 15mins then back to sleep if no more movement detected.

 

[knighty]

I read up on OpenGPS a bit last night... I think I'll give it a try, pretty sure I have spare phone and giffgaff sim somewhere

I like mine because it keeps sending gps info to the server and storing it there.... if it only sent when you requested it I'd be worried a van could be nicked and then parked inside somewhere where there's no gps signal... at least if it's been sending gps info every 60 sec you'll know where it was and the direction it was heading 60 sec before it went undercover... opengps looks to do the same :-)

 

[AdrianH]

OK sorry for not being on this post for a while but I have made some progress.

But before I go on, I must try as @Shox Dr suggests I must find out how to restrict the SIM to 2G. The data 2G is really only for web access as I think using SMS is not using a data service, but I can be told different.

I am trying a software package called traccar, it is all Java based, I have it running on an old HP thin client running Opensuse13.2, which is an old distribution (32 bit) as all modern stuff is 64 bit. I have port forwarded to the HP from the internet router, set up my Vehicle GPS tracker and logged in via a web page to the HP. After some faffing around trying to figure the correct port for my GPS unit I now have it working.

That for me is a major success.

But I continue to play!

Adrian.

p.s. just changed it to 2G and removed street names

 

[mr_splatter]

Looks good. Your tracker device will only support 2G so no need to do anything with the SIM. You're right the SMS does not use your "data" allowance but it looks like you are using your data to hook it up to the app (unless you have some SMS forwarding step)

 

[AdrianH]

Well I seem to be getting the software sorted and making small tweaks as I go along.

Here is a thought, I am awaiting a couple more basic trackers to arrive, if any Member wants to try it for a short period FOC. Please message me, there are apps for smartphones and IOS.

It's a case of caveat emptor though, this is for me to learn about it and keep my grey matter working, there will be periods of no service as I periodically change things and get things wrong.

It will also give you the chance to play with tracking before going the whole hog!

Adrian

 

[AdrianH]

Update time.

I found that the GPS trackers GT02D are the better ones to use, they can have a wire for ignition so you can tell when on or not, they still have permanent 12 Volts to them as well. These can be set to report location every 5 minutes or so not moving and then change to every few seconds when moving. They also seem to report every few seconds on tight bends or hard acceleration., but for now my settings are 30 seconds moving and 5 minutes stationary. they can also have vibration settings to a phone etc.



Costs is a very interesting one, but one of my early units that reported every 30 seconds moving or not cost me 4 pence per day on giffgaff.
A later unit fitted to my kit car reported every 5 minutes as the car is in the garage cost me 1 pence per day. The same type now fitted to my normal car is costing me 2 or 3 pence per day depending on my driving, but I do little travelling typically 25 miles max per day occasionally, just work and back.

There is one thing to note with the Ebay Trackers

They are programmed out of the box to log in to China mobile network, so are going to try and report to that network if accepted or not. It may be possible to stop them reporting if everything is wiped from them and only report via sms, but not sure! So if you get one of the cheap Ebay items please make sure you program them with care, or get them on to a local network at least.

Adrian

 

[Bobtail4x4]

I have a few ebay tk102 trackers, never had one report to china.

http://solidgoldsecurity.com.au/tk102-gps-tracker-command-instructions/

is useful for instructions not in chinglish, I have 1p sims in mine yup 1p per text, anyone want a code for an extra fiver of free calls/text/data?

 

[AdrianH]

These are a Chinese made clone that are probably originally destined for that market, this is the type of box they come in.


And I have to program as one does to get them to work on my own server, but what I am trying to warn people about them is that unless you change settings it could be pointing and trying to send data to someone else's server.
For example on the side of the box is this label-

And the units have had information already programmed into them.

So if someone want to just use them via their own phone via SMS messaging to report locations, to be aware they could still be accessing network data trying to send to a server in China even when not activated on that server!

It all costs money if going PAYG sim's.

Adrian

 

[MetalMonkey]

I built a minibus tracking system using a customised version of traccar a couple of years back, about the best free solution out there at the time.
We just used the driver's android phones and the app, works really well if you force it to use just the GPS location.

 

[AdrianH]

It is up to version 4.3 now, and it seems to have lots of followers, I can not modify it as my skills in programming especially Java are low to non existent. But it works.
For the price of the Cheap Ebay trackers and a PAYG SIM, it seems a lot cheaper and less hassle then trying to hide an old mobile under the dash and keep it powered you can even trigger an output relay to switch off a 12 Volt feed to a fuel pump or similar, have vibration settings and even a panic button? The apps for IOS and android are free and add free as well.

It just takes a bit of time investment.

Adrian