
Traccar – Modern GPS Tracking Platform - OrgNet
https://www.traccar.org/
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spacemanmatt
I stumbled onto Traccar via Home Assistant, which offers Traccar as a plugin.
Ultimately I wanted a boolean sensor for whether I'm at home or not, and
Traccar (as installed by the HA plugin) provided that to HA without
configuration.

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vanous
Thank you for the tip! Hass user here too. I was reluctant to use GPS based
detection but traccar seems like good private solution. I still have to check
whether I must spin my own instance or if the traccar server is running
automatically on (my) Hass server.

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spacemanmatt
I'm also looking into client-side geofencing, e.g. an app that reports an
event to HA when a fence is crossed, compare to Traccar collecting all the
locations and inferring the crossings. My goal is tiered presence detection.

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tibu
How about Owntracks. It can do geofencing

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THE_PUN_STOPS
This is awesome. I wish I had a fleet of vehicles to use this with.

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Fnoord
Seems the server is 50 USD/month for 50 clients. Since it is FOSS, I suppose
you can self-host?

This seems shady:

"* In addition to standard version available on the Google Play, Traccar
Client for Android comes in a special hidden version. It includes
modifications to make the app less visible to the phone’s owner. Name is
changed from “Traccar Client” to “Device Settings”. Default Android settings
icon is used as an app icon. After first start, the app removes itself from
the launcher. To open it again dial 8722227 (TRACCAR)."

I highly doubt that's GDPR complaint. Then again, it is a Russian company who
sell their server capacity in USDs.

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amingilani
They probably meant "user" here, and a lot of companies would want to be able
to track their phones without the user deleting it. I think it's fine if the
phone is company property.

I don't think there's anything wrong with a Russian company selling online in
USD if they want to hit a higher market. As someone from Pakistan, I wouldn't
price my SaaS in PKR either if my market includes people from outside the
country.

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ctz
> They probably meant "user" here, and a lot of companies would want to be
> able to track their phones without the user deleting it. I think it's fine
> if the phone is company property.

There is no reason to try and hide such an app, though. Phones that are
company property will be under MDM which can ensure a given app is installed
and prevent uninstallation.

These features, presumably, are to target the shady "spouse spying", domestic
abuse and similar adversarial tracking markets.

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amingilani
Yeah, I can see how they'd be used like that and I don't condone it. At the
same time, the optimist in me hopes they're trying to make it less obvious to
the employees that the phone is being tracked. Like when you don't necessarily
need a glowing red camera to remind workers that big brother is watching.

But I certainly see your point. I'm just hoping they're a legitimate vehicle
tracking solution that's letting you add an accompanying hard-to-remove client
app on a spare phone to use as a easy vehicle tracker.

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max_
Anyone know of a GPS device that sends data to a server via a simple HTTP post
request? I have trouble working with sockets.

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pmontra
I have an old Sanav CT-24. It sends HTTP requests with a NMEA protocol
payload. It's been a long time since I used it. I created my first Rails
application to receive its data back in 2005/6\. It uses GPRS (yes) and falls
back to SMS. I'm sure there are more modern models.

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wiradikusuma
How does it look like? Can I say it's like Google Maps + moving pins (e.g.
tracked vehicles) for the server-side, and SDK/client library for GPS devices?

Also, what Android/iOS got to do with this? A "viewer" (dashboard) for the
server?

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tananaev
It does look like Google Maps with moving pins, but it has a lot of extra
functionality like geofencing, various reports, notifications and more. You
can also view history for one or multiple devices.

There are two mobile apps. One app is basically for tracking your phone
(Traccar Client) and the other one is the viewer (Traccar Manager).

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StavrosK
This looks pretty nice! Does anyone know of a device that uses data (not SMS)
and that I can put in my car to track it in case of theft, but that won't kill
my battery? I suppose I should wire it to only run when the car is on.

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lultimouomo
Many cheap gps trackers support "vibration wake up", they go to sleep after a
while they've been still and wake up when you start the car. They run in sleep
mode at least a week on an internal battery so charging them only whole the
car is on is not a problem.

Traccar supports many protocols so you are usually able to buy a random
tracker and reconfigure it to work with your traccar instance.

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StavrosK
Vibration wake up sounds very interesting, I'll look into it, thank you!

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zwerdlds
Would someone be able to provide a comparison with OwnTracks?

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NicoJuicy
GRPS and older layout if memory serves me correctly

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amingilani
I actually just ran into this a few days ago. Has anyone used this with a DIY
device? How does it perform? Have you used it on your cars/bikes?

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OrgNet
The submission time of this post must have been changed, I posted it
yesterday.

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OrgNet
I wonder why the admins on this forum feel like they should control/change
everything? Was that you Daniel G.? dang... god mode enabled

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NicoJuicy
It means they found it interesting and gave it another chance

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OrgNet
They should let the next submitter get the karma or change their ranking
algo... I was not even awake at the time that I supposedly submitted that
link.

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NicoJuicy
No, your history should display the correct date.

It's not sure that it gets submitted again, this is the best alternative.

It's just temporarily to show it in the front page. They mentioned it
somewhere.

As long as it works, there's no problem

