5 replies to this topic

[speaksgeek]

I've just finished the basics of a project to track our work fleet of 18 vehicles. Thought there might be some people interested in some hints on how to set it up.
I wanted to use hard wired HTTP based GPS tracking devices, and have a central server to give me reports and live maps of where they all are, or were at any point.

The commercial products, of which there are many, generally offer this for around $725 for the hardware installed, and then $30 a month for the tracking service all included.
My end cost is around $320 for hardware installed(professionally), and $10 a month for tracking per vehicle, utilising basic servers and internet connections I already have. My time was considered at $0, although it is a significant part of the whole thing, I'm the salaried IT gimp at our business, so I mostly did it in my spare/down time

The biggest trick was finding tracking software and devices that were already compatible with one another. There are a bunch of already hosted free and cheap GPS tracking services, but it was very hard to find any credentials for them, so I was unwilling to trust my business to them. There is also the open source OpenGTS system that is a actively developed project, that isn't difficult to install, and have pretty simple requirement.

The devices I used are the Sanav GS-818, which are supported by default in OpenGTS using the GC-101 data template. These are paired with a 150MB per month Telstra Telemetry service SIM card for $10. Also available as $39 for 1GB of data, although that's pretty overkill for this usage.

I'm running it on a spare mac mini with 1.8Ghz Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of ram, it uses around 5-10 of the CPU, so nothing really to worry about, this server runs Mac OS X server 10.6, but it would just as simple to run it on Ubuntu or similar.

For a small amount of usage, either Google Maps or OpenStreetMap are great for the mapping provider. As usage builds, google becomes not free, which then become minimum $10K per year, but the OpenStreetMap and Mapquest API step in with pretty OK data, at a nice price (free).

I have ended up with an interface like this:
 Screen shot 2011-06-25 at 8.27.25 PM.png   953.3K   11 downloads

Feel free to ask any questions, and I'll try to answer as best I can.

[vic]

Hi I am trying to do the same with the sanav GS-818, everything works fine except that when you hit the dhow/hide details within the vehicle mapping page, the status remains "Location" instead of "start", "in-motion" or "stop", I guess is something to do with the DCS, device communication Server. Have you got similar problems? Please let's know.
Thanks

[nkaiser]

Hi,

I have install OpenGTS and try with an Android Phone and Open2GTSFree. It works great.

So I buy a GS-818 to try it. But I don't understand how to configure it in the GS-818 and/or in OpenGTS.
I create a new vehicle in OpenGTS:
Vehicle ID:gs818_001
Unique ID:Test002
Active:YesVehicle Description:
IMEI/ESN Number: #####The IMEI Device Number ####

In the device, I just enter the URL of the server

Do I forget something ? Can you give me the information you enter in the GS818 ?

Bests regards.

[speaksgeek]

The URL my devices send to is:
http://myserver.com:8080/gc101/Data

I also use gc101_##IMEInumber## as the vehicle ID in the setup

nkaiser, on 16 December 2011 - 03:20 AM, said:

Hi,

I have install OpenGTS and try with an Android Phone and Open2GTSFree. It works great.

So I buy a GS-818 to try it. But I don't understand how to configure it in the GS-818 and/or in OpenGTS.
I create a new vehicle in OpenGTS:
Vehicle ID:gs818_001
Unique ID:Test002
Active:YesVehicle Description:
IMEI/ESN Number: #####The IMEI Device Number ####

In the device, I just enter the URL of the server

Do I forget something ? Can you give me the information you enter in the GS818 ?

Bests regards.

[MasonSierra]

I've searched all over the internet and your forum entry was the only place that I was able to find info regarding the GS-818 working with OpenGTS. I work for a very small IT firm in New York and we're about to offer GPS tracking as a paid service to our clients. Before I go and purchase a handful of devices, I'd like your opinion of the GS-818. I know that the GS-818 works with the Basic Enterprise edition of GTS, from what I've read you said that it works with the OPENGTS version based on the GC-101 template. If this is true, have you any complaints or have you noticed any bugs? Are you happy with this model? Did you also install any of the optional features such as the panic button, reset buttons, ignition kill swith etc.?
I've actually wrote various Emails to Sanav and unfortunately they're very late with their replies and they've failed to be helpful. Any help from you will be greatly appreciated.
Thanking you in advance,
Mason Sierra

[vic]

Hi am not sure if you've been able to sort something out but the unique ID should be in the form gc101_123456 where 123456 is the imei for the gs818 device. check this read me file which is located $GTS_HOME "src/org/opengts/war/gc101/README.txt".
hope this helps