monitor a tracker's data consumption?
You can check logs to see what your device reported. It might be that it's reporting some heartbeat information without location.
Also you need to check your SIM card plan. What's the minimum data amount they charge. For example, if your device connects, sends a single small message and disconnects, they will still charge you the minimum amount for that. Some non-IoT plans have very high minimum, like 100kb in some cases.
I checked the log and there are no errors and no fault location.
however I would like to know if there is a way for me to record each packet that arrives so I can analyze the size and then compare it with the operator's report.
All packets are recorded already.
I understand. where I could check to measure the size of the packets?
In the log.
so should i consider the size of this string as the size of the data packet?
2022-03-08 19:02:14 INFO: [e203550b] id: 862XXXXXXXX724, time: 2022-03-08 18:56:17, lat: -17.86828, lon: -41.49912, course: 21.0
2022-03-08 19:02:15 INFO: [e203550b: gl200 < 200.233.197.5] HEX: 2b524553503a4754444f532c3343303530312c3836323034353033303433303732342c2c322c302c302c302e302c32312c3335372e372c2d34312e3439393132322c2d31372e3836383237372c32303232303330383137353631372c303732342c303033312c303831362c463539392c30302c32303232303330383138303231312c3541413724I'm noticing that my log has 304KB for the whole day but the operator says I spent 1.2mb
Is this analysis correct?
- You need to take hex length and divide it by two because it's hex format (2 characters per byte).
- You need account for other network layers, like TCP overhead.
My units reports every 40 seconds, data is roughly 100mb p/m, which is about R20 ZAR
in Brazil, the franchise for a chip is 20mb.
the equipment that I use with a time of 60 seconds, normally consume 12mb / month.... after that there's something strange...
it is happening that a vehicle consumes from 12 to 17 mb / month in a certain period. suddenly starts to consume 25 to 35 in another period, but with the same frequency of use.
really something abnormal.
I consulted the tracker manufacturer. I talked to one of the engineers. he analyzed the equipment configuration and reported that it was impossible for the equipment to consume 20mb / month
You may being stolen...
Most of my devices report around each 10 seconds and SEVERAL are reporting each 3 seconds and I have never seen 10MB/month.
That happened to me already when I started with my own GPS devices, I had to start changing phone providers because once they found these were IOT (not people answering phones, calling or SMSing) they started to change data consumption to completely bonkers stuff and no matter how much I protested and proof being presented, they didn't care at all.
I tried several chips from the same 2 companies and after at most a month, they all started to do the same, between around 15 days and a month data consumption jumped from some KB/day to several MBs/hour.
They just do it to charge you more while you don't have a claim.
On January a friend spent the the month plus some february days around Brasil on his bike, and his consumption was almost negligible.
He paid 20 or 30 R$ for the whole month on a prepaid chip. (TIM if I'm not mistaken)
After the trip he asked me for data usage and told me how much he paid, I can't remember right now but it was laughable.
Other problem is that there (Brasil) companies/everyone continuously keep calling numbers to sell stuff and some devices answer and even callback and that could be making you waste part of the data plan in the form of SMSs or calls.
How do I monitor a tracker's data consumption?
I suspect that the operator is overpricing consumption. even with the equipment stopped all day is marking consumption of 2 mb.
I checked the platform and it shows only a few records showing that the vehicle was stopped all day.