Vehicle Tracking for developers / hobbyists
The Telit GM862-GPS, and GM863-GPS (already used in commercial vehicle tracking hardware such as the EZ10-GPS) are a relatively obvious choice those for those designing / putting together their own vehicle location tracking systems.
They are single electronics modules with combined GPS functionality for retrieving the current position accurately, and (quad band) GSM functionality for transmitting back via the mobile phone (cellular) network with e.g. SMS text message or GPRS.
Vehicle tracking functionality can be achieved either via the use of an external micro controller interfacing to the modules or custom Python code (modules feature an onboard Python interpreter).
For those interested in developing on the GM862-GPS see:
- GM862 Evaluation Kit, Sparkfun Electronics
- Python Debugger, Round Solutions
- GM862-QUAD-GPS, Cool Components
- GPS and GPRS application kit for M2M FOX based projects, ACME Systems
For further information on other low cost fleet management systems including reviews of the Aplicom A12, Siemens TC65, Telit GM862-GPS, Wavecom Q2501B, Sony Ericsson GA64, and Motorola G24 see this thesis by Nils Hellstrom, Linkoping University.
Further Resources:
- Open GPS Tracker
- Interfacing an AVR controller to a GPS Mobile Phone, Tinkerlog
- Using Google Maps with a Mobile GPS Tracker, Tinkerlog
- Open Device Monitoring and Tracking Protocol
- Open GPS Tracking System Project
Commercial products aimed at the hobbyists market:
- GeoChron - Field-hardened GPS Logger, Sparkfun Electronics
- UberTracker, Sparkfun Electronics
- SD GPS Data Logger V3.0, Ohararp LLC
- GooPs
- EYTracker
- TinyTrak3+, Byonics
- OpenTracker+ (OT1+), Argent Data Systems
- Tracker2 Series APRS Tracker, Argent Data Systems