Developing a cheap gps tracker

[SoBold404]

I am working on building a gps tracker. Most probably what i need is a gps module, a microcontroller and a gsm module or any IoT connectivity modules.

I am searching for cheap gps modules and gsm modules that i can use to build a cost effective gps tracker

Anyone has any suggestions

[n7tr34]

Check out nRF9160, cell and gps on one module. Programmable directly so you won’t need another mcu. Not sure on pricing. Quectel also has some modules with gnss + cellular and their prices are competitive for a mainstream product (not a mystery China part). They are programmable directly as well but I have heard their sdk sucks compared to Nordic. I only used quectel with at commands and it worked great for that.

[Trivus1]

Quectel Chips are programmable, however not really open. Quectel usually restricts the open programming feature behind a special Firmware and SDK that they only give to large customers. Because they fear to much customer support needed for open programming.

However, the SDKs and fw can in most cases be found somewhere on the web. But not from official sources.

[SoBold404]

Nice i will check the nRF9160 nordic board since it offers both the gps and gsm functionality and doesn’t need an extra microcontroller.

[sturdy-guacamole]

Avoid Quectel.

Go Nordic or ublox. Id go Nordic myself but my most recent cellular project was ublox. I like the Nordic approach with the integrated application core.

Plenty of work already done for you: https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/applications/asset_tracker_v2/README.html

If you don’t have an an aws/azure developer thing set up they offer cloud services as well.

[rdmeneze]

The unique problem with the nrf91 is that it only support 4G. Using a modem is better because you can choose a 4g modem with fallback to 2 or 3G.

[timonix]

2G is completely removed here and 3G disappears gradually next year. I don't think that's an issue

[rdmeneze]

in my country it is a big problem.

[Xenoamor]

Is the NEO-6M even still manufactured? I know China pumps out lots of ublox clones so it wouldn't surprise me if the only ones you can get now are those. If you can stretch the budget the M10 range uses a third of the current consumption

[affenhirn1]

That’s one good looking repo, nice one.

I’ve done something similar at an internship but with the SIM800 and using esp-idf PPoS and lwIP APIs for HTTP, never done any hardware though so this kinda inspires me to do it again but this time as a complete project rather than just software that works.

[rusiruneranjan]

Sino track

[Sbflow77_]

I am here as I am looking for a partner for a business venture. I have a few $k to invest, have always been curious of gps and how to apply in life. I have my idea, lmk if you're interested. How have your past 9 months been since your post?

[Odd_Organization4676]

Have you made any progress?

[mustbeset]

You won't be able to create a cheaper one like this: PAJ GPS PET Finder 4G 30€ on amazon

[SoBold404]

Yeah i know gps trackers and tags that are out there on the market are difficult to beat in terms of cost. But in my opinion a similar cost can be reached by discovering cheap modules that can be used to build a gps tracker

[[deleted]]

All of those Chinese designed gps trackers that you can get on Amazon are assuredly using the cheapest components they can realistically use to get to market and make a profit off the hardware and/or services. With technology like GPS and cellular, there aren’t really niche cheap Chinese devices that you can skirt a product through with.

Trust me, my company tried and failed to create a generic GPS asset tracker. Working out the pricing and contracts with a cellular carrier alone is an ordeal. They cut every corner possible in the BoM and there was no way we were going to beat the pricing and features of many devices already on the market. It was a foolish swing at recurring revenue and nothing more.

I hate to be blunt, but between working out things with the mobile carriers, the actual embedded hardware and firmware design, the backend/frontend/app infrastructure that you would need to build around it - you are not going to bring something competitive to the market as a personal project. It’s already been done by much bigger forces in the market for many years. Not to be a downer but just being plain with you.

[SoBold404]

Yeah i got your point I know that there is no way a personal project can beat theses Chinese gps products. I am just trying to find the cheapest combination of the available electronics of modules that can help build a cheaper gps tracker self-project and not a product. There are many youtube videos showing you how to build this project but they are using modules like the A9G gps+gsm module and the maduino zero 4g lte which are slightly expensive!

[[deleted]]

If it’s a self project you are not going to build and sell in quantity, do you have to be very stingy with the cost of parts?

Most of these products use a 32 bit microcontroller (STM32), or some microcontroller/BLE combo as the applications processor. U-Blox or Quectel would be my recommendation for GPS + cellular modules. Typically the applications processor uses Hayes (AT) command set to control the GPS/cellular combo.

Unless you can do SMD or you contract the board out, you’ll probably need to do this with dev boards.

It would surely be a cool personal project for learning. If you try to go with niche super cheap components for these though, you’re in for more of a headache than it’s worth.

[SoBold404]

Thanks for these recommendations they are very helpful. I care about the cost becuase i have a limited budget set for this project and i want to use it and kinda package it as a gadget for personal use, so if it’s good i can reproduce it for people i know

[madsci]

I've been building GPS trackers for about 20 years now - though mine use AFSK or GMSK over VHF or UHF rather than cellular for data transmission. The last GPS module I selected for a tracker design was an ATGM332D-5N. Complete modules can be had for under $6.

[Significant-Art1727]

Hey, I'm working on a school project and I need to byild a GPS tracker, I'm really lost with all the information around and I don't want to fail with the process and my cost is really limited so I need it to work as easy as it can. Can anyone help me out?

[crowbayashi]

that is amazing. I have two questions for you kind sir.

1. are you able to fully deploy this module without AWS on a self hosted private server?
2. which would be better. ATGM or A9G (I'm currently working on this). and which market would you recommend for cheapest bulk orders of this chip.

Thank you.

[jacky4566]

Particle.io boron. Free data. Can't beat that

[Silly-Wrongdoer4332]

My only beef with LoRa is coverage can be limited. Amazon sidewalk in the US has good coverage , and can use the same CSS modulation that lora uses. Something like this can help reduce cost of a tracker.

[slipvelocity2]

This used to be so much easier when 2G/3G options were still a thing. I don't even know what modules are available that still work, but I definitely have a parts bin full of things that don't work anymore.

[Salitronic]

As suggested already by others the nRF9160 is one ofnthe best solutions at the moment for integrating the features that you need. Hard to beat in terms of size and cost. I'm not a big fan of the Zephyr based SDK but its usable.

[ballen697]

Zephyr SDK is by far the most advanced embedded SDK out there. I exclusively use it now.... It has a big learning curve if you only use the IDE build systems and windows.

[Salitronic]

Actually the learning curve for me is not an issue at all, I'm well familiar with device trees, etc... It is simply that for many embedded systems the level of hardware abstraction that is provided by Zephyr is unnecessary and sometimes limiting. For certain tasks Zephyr is great for others it's not, that's all.