GPS vehicle tracking, any advise ?

**Danceheaven** · 06-26-2004, 04:01 PM

Ricky327

Sorry for the confusion because not everybody has the same phone lying around and if other people did want to use my tracker i was going to use a readily avliable GPRS modem with RS232 comms on it, just to keep things simple with software etc heres the one i was looking at at farnell.

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/catalog/vi...prodId=4317968
but pricey though.

Your perfectly right about the data cable part if i had a phone that supported a data cable and worked, (i broke mine

) i would use that or IR, or even bluetooth

i like the way your using frequency shift keying for the data tx cool idea.
the reason i was gonna use txt is so that i can manually request a position and if that fails there also the gprs web update option and if that fails then there is always the gsm tracking part. not very accurate but still if it can help locate your car then its great.

you have by far got the most cost effective solution going on the forum for a tracker turning any old phone into a tracker, i did read the post you mentioned about the german tracker, i did a web translation on the page to get more info it looks ok but im adiment on designing my own,

Project Progress is 0% still researching infact i havnt even purcahse my dev kit fot he MCU, may go for a microchip mplab ICD 2.

**Ricky327** · 06-28-2004, 11:43 PM

Sorry for the confusion because not everybody has the same phone lying around and if other people did want to use my tracker i was going to use a readily avliable GPRS modem with RS232 comms on it, just to keep things simple with software etc heres the one i was looking at at farnell.

Lol no problems...

That GSM module look cool...it is expensive but still it is tempting though

Project Progress is 0% still researching infact i havnt even purcahse my dev kit fot he MCU, may go for a microchip mplab ICD 2.

Theres plenty of develepment kit for PICs. Im using the PICKIT and the Valleman PIC Programmer. It only cost £49 and £25 from maplins both are easy to use.

Theres one member here who have experience in controlling the phone by MCU, texting and all sort...and willing to help out with the hardware and software questions. I think I got 1 or 2 to ask already

Let us know how it goes.

**Spaghetti** · 07-03-2004, 10:38 PM

Sorry if this has already been mentioned (reading that lot above just made me dizzy...

), but if all the above is possible, in theory could you just text a password to your car and have it switch off automatically via a serial to relay/engine????? That would be veeeery cool indeed.....

**Ricky327** · 07-03-2004, 10:56 PM

Sure you can.

Theres one member in here who used text to control appliances or something similiar. Look around, it is in another thread somewhere, theres also a link with all the details about it.

The problem is I dont think texts are encrypted...It is possible for someone to hijack your text and will therefore know your password/code to turn you engine on/off.

**Spaghetti** · 07-03-2004, 11:06 PM

Yeah but.... that would mean that the usual average thieving scumbag would have to be one very *****ing clever bastard!!!! Even more clever than you guys...?? The likelyhood of him knowing that you're covertly tracking your car at all, never mind tracking him with your mobile(!), as well as getting past the alarm/immobiliser would be pretty slim!

What would you do about keeping the computer switched on though...?

**Ricky327** · 07-03-2004, 11:11 PM

Yeah but.... that would mean that the usual average thieving scumbag would have to be one very *****ing clever bastard!!!!

Hehe thats true, because it means he got to know what sort of security is being used at the first place.

What would you do about keeping the computer switched on though...?

Ermm...Ill go for a standalone unit.

**basscoholic** · 07-03-2004, 11:14 PM

have any of you guys seen this before? sounds very interesting.http://www.gps2000online.com/

**Danceheaven** · 07-04-2004, 05:03 AM

The Design im doing will allow for two way communication using dtmf tones,
passwords can be entered via tones followed by a hash to confirm any action, this way unlimited commands within reason will be able to control anything conneted to its outputs inside the car, its highly unlikely that a theif will be monitoring the tones while hes busy trying to nick the car and hide it somewhere i wouldve thought

as for a third party person listening on the comms all he will here is tones

plus the gsm protocol as i underdstand it has never been cracked in full i should say.

**Danceheaven** · 07-04-2004, 05:08 AM

I was thinking last night, (Careful i here you say), ricky if your using fsk to encode the nmea data and transmit it via gsm then decode it with a pic then feed this is to the com port on your local machine or tracking laptop if this comm port was set up as the comm for the gps reciever and you run say a mappoint or destinator wouldnt this show live tracking as in a exact duplication of the gps screen in the vehicle if it was running? or will the gps app need to initialsie the gps mouse first somehow?

**Confused** · 07-04-2004, 07:07 AM

Originally Posted by Danceheaven

I was thinking last night, (Careful i here you say), ricky if your using fsk to encode the nmea data and transmit it via gsm then decode it with a pic then feed this is to the com port on your local machine or tracking laptop if this comm port was set up as the comm for the gps reciever and you run say a mappoint or destinator wouldnt this show live tracking as in a exact duplication of the gps screen in the vehicle if it was running? or will the gps app need to initialsie the gps mouse first somehow?

Nope, the GPS software doesn't initialise the hardware, it just blindly reads (how it reads if it's blind I don't know, but it does for the purpose of this hilarious post

) the NMEA stream that's being sent to the serial port by the GPS.

So yes, in theory, you should be able to see in (almost) real-time where the car is, it depends on how quickly you can send the stream through the phone

Garry