Is it possible to use the free GPS service to send other types of data such as plain text/XML/HTML??
E.G. systems for taxi companies - each car has in it a box which receives and sends information to and from the controller/ dispatch, back in the office. The driver can view all bookings and accept them, as well as tell the controller when the customer has been picked up and when they have been dropped off.
Is this all possible via the free GPS service? Or would the system's manufacturer have to pay to to rent a private satellite? Or would the system be using something similar to a mobile phone network? I would think it would be one of the first to options, as constant reliable signal is vital.
I know the question above is pretty open, and it's not what I'm too desperate to have answered...I just want to know if it is possible for me to build a device with a GPS receiver and have it send text and XML via the free GPS service?? (I want an admin to operate a team of employees from a browser, like with a taxi fleet management system).
No, GPS is a chip with an antenna that can receive only Location data.
It is not possible to send data via GPS.
All that devices that drivers, taxies, busses, tolling system use, send their data via mobile phone network.
So a device needs such a communication chip and a sim card.
Then you can send what you want.
Related
I am working on a product which requires a real time gps tracking.
I searched on google to collect information, so I got an overview on how does basically GPS work.
Now what else do I need except for a GPS receiver to display on my mobile through an app (designed by us) where a GPS receiver is attached to my product?
I don't want the whole navigation functionality, but just to display where it is located.
I know a GPS receiver continuously sends and receives signals from satellites, but how to display that on my mobile app?
Do we send some info to some kind to a database and then program the app to collect the info from there?
Basically, You need a kind of connection between your receiver and your phone. Since all the phones have their own gps receiver, I assume that you are gonna track the location of a remote device. So the easiest way to do that is creating a basic web service which holds just 2 pages in total.
1 to update data by receiver (I suggest you to use a hash key to prevent bots to piss your database)
1 to get data to mobile app
Depending on your background and project needs you can either use a database to keep location data or you can use just a file (like xml file or something like that)
Also you will need to parse NMEA code to get the actual data. It is easier to do that on web side (like in php). So you can just pass the NMEA code as it is to server, parse it, record it to database/file. Then you can fetch the data from your mobile app by using simple http requests.
If two devices will be close to each other you can easily use bluetooth but I don't know if there is any case that it make sense to place an additional gps receiver just next to a smart phone :)
First of all, you need some kind of communication channel to send location from your product to a server (1) of directly to the phone (2).
Usually GPS tracking devices use GSM modem with GPRS to connection to a remote server. Then your phone app can request location data from server via HTTP API. You can use open source GPS tracking server for your project and use some simple protocol to send location data to it.
Second popular option requires GSM modem again, but in this case device can send SMS messages directly to your phone. In your app you can intercept SMS and retrieve location data.
I am new to development using GPS so any help will be most appreciated.
Project:- I am attempting to locate gps tracking hardware for a student project to locate animals.
I do not want to use cell phone SMS or yearly subscriptions packages as this is not practical where there a number of animals to be tracked. A solar powered device would be a bonus?
My understanding is the following will be required:
A GPS receiver (to get the gps location from satelites) - result is a 'navigation message'. This hardware device would be on the animal.
A transmitter with an antenna which will listen out for radio waves on set frequencies from the receivers, amplify them and its tuner will filter based on a particular frequency.
The 'navigation message' (or number of navigation messages) would be held on the the transmitter.
I am not sure if I can get an appropriate hardware transceiver with both the receiver and transmitter in 1 that can be attached to the animal?
The data would then to be sent over the internet from the transmitter to a web server via a HTTP request and parsed to be stored on the database.
A phone app / web app could then query the database to identify where the animal is at its last stored location or analyse data to determine its route over time when required.
If you have any advice / suggestions on the process above or advice on types of hardware / location of hardware to complete this project I would really appreciate it.
Polly, here are a few commercial solutions for GPS Animal Tracking. Some are rather expensive, but at least this shows what is out there professionally.
I think one of your primary issues here is battery power, size, and weight. GPS receivers use a fair bit of power when on, so it would have to be "off" but for a few seconds every-so-often, the rate determining how long the batteries will last. Solar recharging is an idea, but is that compatible with these particular animals?
If you wanted to construct something like this, there are a vast array of GPS modules to start with, depending on how integrated and customized you want to get with the idea. But these are receivers only - they will not broadcast anything. To get the GPS data remotely, you're going to need both a way to store the GPS data, and a transmitter (your #3) to send it to you. Since the transmitters would be small and low-power, this will limit the range you can receive them from. Not impossible, just a little more challenging.
Is a web developer available that can write that web and database code?
Is a phone developer available for the phone app?
Here are some interesting articles from others that have DIY their own low-budget trackers. I hope this gives you some ideas.
I am trying to create a web service that retrieves my GPS tracking device data.
Let's say for example that I want to create a simple web page that shows me my GPS tracker location by it's coordinate each moment.
I made a little research and found out that I need a server that will accept GPRS input and will parse the data to tcp/ip.
I am not sure what I can do with this information. The best solution for me would be to use a cloud service that could do this for me.
If not, Do I need to purchase a GPRS modem?
I'd be happy to hear about different solutions that would make it easy for me to create my web service using the GPS tracker.
Thanks
I can comment as an owner (and developer) of GPS tracking solution. The basic things you will need:
GPS tracker with GPRS connectivity.
GPS tracker communication
protocol (often they are proprietary and will cost you extra)
Protocol implementation on the server side
Web based application to
display the current device position.
The development process will take you at least couple of months.
Cheapest way is to buy the device monitoring service from your local provider. This will save you money and effort.
We are planning for vehicle tracking system. We would like to relay on GPS Tracking System and view position report via Google Maps.
For hardware requirement we are thinking of GPS modem that can transmit data to our system.
Which GPD Modem is suitable for my project?
Use a smartphone. Haha.
On a more serious note, since it's for vehicular application only, there are a lot of companies that manufacture GPS modules (u-blox is one of them). Just google and you'll find thousands of companies manufacturing them. But before you choose a GPS module, make sure you check the regulations of your target country. If the module works on the Iridium satellite network, countries like India & China won't allow it as Iridium frequency is close to their military frequencies. In Europe you'll be better off with the Inmarsat network. So, do your homework & you should be good.
Also, if you're developing your own map interface, you might wanna ask the manufacturer if they have any existing mapping interface you can hook into or disable. You mag be charged for either.
All the best!
Are mobile networks (like GSM/GPRS/UMTS) available where you are?
if so check-out the tracking products from this site or this site (Google keywords: GPS GPRS)
If not, you should consider a custom solution, maybe someone like this company can help...
I have worked on a project that involved sending data over GSM/CDMA network. It used a simple GSM/CDMA modem connected to an embedded linux device and was a stationary piece of hardware. Attach a GPS device and it may very well be a tracking system. The problem is when the network drops or the device moves out of the network coverage area. I am not sure if there any GSM/CDMA modem available with GPS added to them as we didn't have this facility in our hardware and it was very much desirable. We needed to use a separate GPS device, mostly iPhone, separately to determine the lat long of our device.
You can use any GSM/GPRS modem equipped with GPS device. The modem will forward the GPS data to your central server through GPRS and at the server side you just need to process rcvd data and display it on google maps.
I am looking for information on sending GPS coordinates from a GPS module to a server. How would I go about doing this?
I have done countless google searches on the subject and all searches fail to reveal any information on how the data generated from the GPS unit might be actually sent from the gps module to a server.
There are obvious ways to do this using a GSM deivce, but I can't find any information on low cost data plans, networks, etc
All I would need to do is occasionally send the GPS coordinates from the module to a server. This would be done several times a day. One device would probably have bandwidth of a couple KB per month, that's it. What options are out there?
you need:
A GSM modem that support whatever frequencies / technology your intended cellular provider uses. Bunch of examples here: http://www.sparkfun.com/categories/66 Make sure the module manages the TCP/IP aspects and has an easy interface (AT commands).
A data only account with that cell provider for each device. 200MB a month is like $15-20 from most carriers in the US
The GPS Module. Examples here: http://www.sparkfun.com/categories/4
A microcontroller to manage the GPS and the cell modem. Arduino is probably the easiest one to get started with.
All GPS receiver modules output serial NMEA data. Which is fairly simple to parse, and from there you can do whatever you like with it, store it send it, plot it, etc.