Open GPS Tracker device?
I think there will be a lot of interest if price is comparable to Chinese made GPS devices.
Ublox is very common and standard for Chinese GPS devices. The cost of developing and manufacturing such a device is very prohibiting even if using a Chinese electronics manufacturer. As a hardware guy I can tell you that start up costs are high and difficult to compete price wise. While an open GPS hardware is great idea, the reason there are so many different protocols is basically ROI --the need to recoup costs in development and manufacturing.
It is best to use the Ublox chip within a unique application that requires GPS --such as drones (similar to vehicle tracking) which already has that but could use another and better entrant solution -particularly if Traccar has the capability to include altitude, etc.
Thanks for feedback.
Traccar does support altitude and many other attributes.
Good to know Anton. Possibly use the geo-fencing to create air traffic corridors or no-fly zones. That would be awesome. Thanks.
Have you heard of the Particle Electron? The nice thing about Particle is that their hardware and cloud based code is open source. They also can manufacture GPS tracking units based on their design or you modify it and place orders.
I've played with a lot of Chinese units, dealt with a lot of Chinese manufacturers over the past few years, and this is the cat's ass to use as a foundation.
https://www.particle.io/products/hardware/asset-tracker
STM32F205 ARM Cortex M3 microcontroller
1MB Flash, 128K RAM
Cellular modem: U-Blox SARA U-series (3G)
36 pins total: 28 GPIOs (D0-D13, A0-A13), plus TX/RX, 2 GNDs, VIN, VBAT, WKP, 3V3, RST
Board dimensions: 2.0" x 0.8" x 0.3" (0.5" including headers)
The price is comparable to good branded GPS tracking devices.
So what's needed is just a phone and the paid service on the app, then we can use the tracking service directly without any other requirements ?
I'm a long term traccar user and currently planning to develop an open source tracker based on this hardware:
https://www.elecrow.com/32u4-with-a7-gprs-gsm-gps-board.html
But I wonder which protocol I should implement? It would be great if it will be a available for UDP.
@tananaev: As you implement different protocols for traccar: which one do you think is most versatile?
You can implement some protocol like Teltonika. It's very flexible, but I'm not sure what the legal implications are because it's a proprietary protocol.
The problem is the modem. GPRS is a 2G technology that is being phased out. Look for product that don't list GSM or GPRS but UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+ or LTE instead. Investing in 2G/GSM/GPRS technologies is not a good idea for long term use.
I have tried many versions of Chinese made GPS tracking devices.
I was wondering, if we have an open Tracking platform like Traccar, why not build an open GPS tracking unit?
I have source Global SIM's that work well in any GPS device, now the Traccar mapping, is there interest in an Open GPS tracking unit?
My background is hardware, is there interest in open hardware?
Ublox has a fairly inexpensive cellular modem, GPS, https://www.u-blox.com/sites/default/files/SARA-U2_DataSheet_%28UBX-13005287%29.pdf