DIY GPS Tracking

[flatoutfree]

I feel like with modern technology, it shouldn't be too difficult to build some kind of DIY tracking beacon. From what I understand, a beacon determines its location data via trilateration from one of the many GPS satellites floating around up in space. Whether it's GPS from your phone or your TomTom, this is how GPS works.

 

What I'm wondering is - is it possible to build a cheap DIY GPS tracking device? Something I could attach to a moped so I can see where the thing is if I let a friend borrow it, or if it gets stolen?

 

Do you need to have something like a SIM card / monthly bill to leverage trilateration/data transmission on these satellites? If so, what's the cheapest route to take?

 

Thanks for any info you can provide

[+GeoTrekker26]

I feel like with modern technology, it shouldn't be too difficult to build some kind of DIY tracking beacon. From what I understand, a beacon determines its location data via trilateration from one of the many GPS satellites floating around up in space. Whether it's GPS from your phone or your TomTom, this is how GPS works.

 

What I'm wondering is - is it possible to build a cheap DIY GPS tracking device? Something I could attach to a moped so I can see where the thing is if I let a friend borrow it, or if it gets stolen?

 

Do you need to have something like a SIM card / monthly bill to leverage trilateration/data transmission on these satellites? If so, what's the cheapest route to take?

 

Thanks for any info you can provide

 

There are standalone devices that will do what you want and there are apps for both Android and Apple phones that will provide location data. Google is your friend.

[+pppingme]

This seems to be popular:

 

http://findmespot.com/en/

 

Also works where there is no cell service too.

[team tisri]

I feel like with modern technology, it shouldn't be too difficult to build some kind of DIY tracking beacon. From what I understand, a beacon determines its location data via trilateration from one of the many GPS satellites floating around up in space. Whether it's GPS from your phone or your TomTom, this is how GPS works.

 

What I'm wondering is - is it possible to build a cheap DIY GPS tracking device? Something I could attach to a moped so I can see where the thing is if I let a friend borrow it, or if it gets stolen?

 

Do you need to have something like a SIM card / monthly bill to leverage trilateration/data transmission on these satellites? If so, what's the cheapest route to take?

 

Thanks for any info you can provide

 

No reason why you shouldn't do it but a few technical issues you'd need to consider.

 

I'll assume you're not interested in strapping an Android device to your moped, so off-the-shelf solutions may not be suitable for you.

 

You'll need two aspects to your device - one to determine where it is (GPS) and another to report where it is (some form of mobile internet). GPRS will work fine - since all you're doing is broadcasting a location you don't need a lot of bandwidth.

 

If you're wanting something to track your moped if you lend it to a friend you can reasonably assume your friend has no desire to disable it. If it gets stolen the thief will want to find and remove anything that will track if, for fairly obvious reasons. So you'll need it to be small and discreet but at the same time it's going to struggle if it's too tucked away because it will struggle to get GPS and mobile signal. It also won't help you much if someone puts it in the back of a box truck and it can't get a GPS signal at all, or if they take it somewhere with no mobile signal.

 

You'll also have a potential issue with battery life but that's probably secondary to making it work without being readily detected.

[+Glenn]

I feel like with modern technology, it shouldn't be too difficult to build some kind of DIY tracking beacon. From what I understand, a beacon determines its location data via trilateration from one of the many GPS satellites floating around up in space. Whether it's GPS from your phone or your TomTom, this is how GPS works.

 

What I'm wondering is - is it possible to build a cheap DIY GPS tracking device? Something I could attach to a moped so I can see where the thing is if I let a friend borrow it, or if it gets stolen?

 

Do you need to have something like a SIM card / monthly bill to leverage trilateration/data transmission on these satellites? If so, what's the cheapest route to take?

 

Thanks for any info you can provide

 

It sounds like you want to do real time tracking of your moped. You have a few problems to overcome. The first is getting the data from your GPS to somewhere else, like your home computer. You need some kind of radio link for this because the GPS system is a one way link. Your GPSr receives signals from the GPS satellites. The GPS satellites don't receive any signals from your GPSr. Once you've come up with a way to transmit the data from your GPSr you have to have a way to receive it and you have enough receivers cover the area you want to do your tracking in. Finally, you need a way to take the data your receivers are getting and display the information in a format that you can understand.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Glenn