Buying & configuring a cheap £34 eBay GPS tracker to provide real time web updates

Tobers

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Buying & configuring a cheap £34 eBay GPS tracker to provide real time web updates

Following on from a thread in the 1200 forum, I bought one of these mini GPS trackers for £34: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-Real...k_rvr_id=570740581333&clk_rvr_id=571691635692

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I thought it's worth a punt for £34. It arrived yesterday and I've been fiddling about and found out some quite cool things. It's about the size of a small matchbox. It comes with an O2 prepay SIM with no credit on it, 2 batteries (nice), a charger, a normal battery compartment cover and one with magnets on, and a waterproof baggie. Chinglish instructions come on a mini CD with lots of manuals for different units. The right manual to look at is the one for the TK102B, though more on that later!

Firstly, there's a free real time tracking website which you can get the unit to post updates to. That website is here: http://gps-trace.com/. If you click on the right arrow on the top right, you'll login with the demo details and you can see what it does.

I've created a free account on GPS-Trace and linked the little ebay doo-dah to it. The linking process was rather more difficult than it should have been, but I've done it and can share the method below.

Once linked, the doo-dah feeds location & speed information to the web site at regular intervals that you can configure (e.g. 30 sec, 120 sec etc) while the GPS itself samples locations at intervals that you can configure as well. The link is done by either SMS or IP (internet). The IP link is much cheaper than SMS overall, as only small amounts of data are exchanged. Configuration of the unit is by SMS or direct editing of a text file in the unit's memory from your computer via USB.

You can also set up geofences, speed alerts and suchlike. You can even put it in voice monitor mode, call it and listen to whatever is happening where the unit is, not that you'd want to do that of course!

So, before going into the linking to the website thing, how does it work?

  • The batteries came with 75% charge so worth charging one while you fiddle with the unit.
  • Load the SIM card with credit - say £10. It's worth putting the SIM card in a phone just to check it works OK.
  • Note the number of the SIM card and put it in the unit and turn it on.
  • Stick it somewhere near a window so it will get GPS.
  • After a few minutes, call the unit's SIM number from your mobile phone. It will ring a few times then go to voicemail or hang up. Shortly afterwards, you'll get a text from the unit with the location. This confirms that the SIM card is working and the GPS is working.
  • Begin entering some of the weird commands to configure the thing. You can find a list of commands here.. Note that the unit is variably known as a TK102-2 or TK102, or Coban 102 etc, which makes things quite difficult shortly.
  • The unit's default password is 123456. You can change this - check the commands on the link above.
  • Send an SMS to the unit "begin123456". This resets the unit config. You should get a response text "begin ok"
  • Send an SMS to the unit "imei123456". You'll get a response text with the IMEI (unique ID) of the unit. Write this down as you'll need it.
  • Send an SMS to the unit "apn123456 payandgo.o2.co.uk" - assuming the SIM card you got was an O2 one. This sets up the access point name for internet connectivity. You should get an "apn OK" response text.
  • Send an SMS to the unit "GPRS123456" which turns on the ability to interact over IP instead of SMS so the unit will talk to the GPS-Trace Orange servers. You should get a "gprs ok" response text.

If you are so minded, you can directly edit the config file in the root directory of the unit if you connect it to a computer via USB.

OK - so now the unit is sort of ready, and you can set up your account on the GPS-Trace Orange website so you can monitor it in real time. Create yourself an account on GPS-Trace Orange. When you've logged in you'll see a "unit" link on the upper left of the screen. This is where you set up your doo-dah. This is where things get a bit weird.

  • Give your unit a name
  • Enter the device type as Xenun TK103-2. Don't follow the Chinglish instructions in the unit's box and set it as a Coban GPS102 as it won't work.
  • Enter the unit's unique ID (or IMEI) which you got earlier
  • Enter the phone number of the SIM card in the unit
  • Enter the device password which should be 123456 unless you changed it. This is used so the website can send commands to the unit.

OK so far? You unit should now be set up on the GPS-Trace web service. You now need to tell the unit how to talk to GPS-Trace. This is quite tricky and took me several times to get right. Basically they use a different port number for each type of GPS unit, of which there appear to be many. This is so they can work out the correct message format for each particular unit type. If you get the port number wrong, the web site will not understand the messages coming from the unit and wont be able to send any commands to it. So, the next step is crucial.

Send an SMS to the unit "adminip123456 193.193.165.166 20462". You should get an "adminip ok" response text.

This tells the unit where the server is to send messages to, and what the port number is. This information can be found here in the devices section of the GPS-Trace web site. The only reason I know to configure is as a TK103-2 is after hours of googling!

Send an SMS to the unit "t030s***n123456" which tells it to update the server every 30 seconds an infinite number of times. You WONT get any response text to this message!

Send an SMS to the unit "fix030s***n123456" which tells it to get a GPS fix every 30 seconds. Obviously you can change the 030 to 200 seconds if you want, or whatever. Longer intervals = longer battery life. You WONT get a response text to this message.

So, you should be all set up. On your GPS-Trace web page, after a few mins you should see the little 2-vertical-bar icon under your tracker name go green. You probably need to mouse over it to make it change. This indicates the unit has sent a fix to the web site. The icon to the right should be green confirming the unit is online. The little spanner icon can be used to adjust the unit config.

You can look at the "Messages" section of the web site to display all the messages the unit is sending. Click "today" and message type = Data messages and parameters as Raw data and click Execute and you'll see the time, speed, GPS coordinates, and helpfully the road name, town & country!

If its all working you'll also see a map showing where it is. You can click "I'm here" at the top of the screen for a snapshot of where the unit is.

Go out for a drive/ride and come back and hopefully the unit will have been feeding info to the website in real time.

You can also get an Android app to interface with GPS-Trace. Check "Orange Client" in the Play store. And you can always just call the unit to get a text back with the location and a google maps link embedded (cool!).

You can then fanny about trying to get geofences to work. I haven't managed this myself yet as I've only just got the bloody thing working with all the port ID stuff. Anyhow, work it does, and you can see where the unit is when it is turned on and follow it about. You could easily power it from the bike as it draws USB voltage - I think there's a power save option in it somewhere too.

If you stick an SD card into the unit, it will log the track points onto the SD card. It'll have a file for each day. The file is in simple text format. You can convert it to a Google Maps file here.

If you are struggling to get the unit to connect and don't know what port to use (as it may be you get shipped a different unit that thinks it has a different message format), you can use this site which will show your device if it is connected properly. You can therefore try lots of different ports until you get the one that connects. You'll need to use tweak the "adminip123456 <IP> <port>" command appropriately. The unit's IMEI will show if it connects properly.

So there you have it. £34 + £10 airtime and some arsing about gets real time remote GPS tracking.

Personally I have changed the password and set up an authorised phone number to avoid anyone hacking the unit.
 
Or you can spend some more with Bike Trac to save yourself several hours of your life and the expense of a Chinglish dictionary :D
 
Yeah but there's no fun in that.

Bike Trac prices:
1 year: £99.99
2 years: £179.99
3 years: £229.99
 
Tobers, thanks very much for taking the time to post up your findings and tips to save anyone else going through the same learning curve :thumb2
 
IIRC most mobile phone operators close down SIM cards if they are not used for a while - I think 3 months is generally the norm. I had this problem with a similar device a few years back. The way I got round it was by switching to GiffGaff as the mobile operator as they don't close their SIM's down after a long period of no use.
 
Thanks for the write up been thinking of doing this myself for a while now but then thought about a discount on the insurance for having a tracker fitted would pay for the tracking for one year anyways or at least half of that

what you think ?
 
I have had several Ifor Williams trailers nicked over the years. This looks very interesting.
Have you got any idea how long the batteries will last between charges?
 
I think 80 hours is quoted but it would depend how often its sending updates. If you were to use the charging usb port for connecting another battery pack, then it could be made to last weeks and still be a relatively small box to hide on a trailer. Seems the unit can be left in 'idle' mode and then be triggered into life by a shock movement (think bouncing down the road).
 
What's the costs for the messages going back to the sever to enable it to show the units position?

Edit, just looked at the ebay link and it says 9p per tracking request, so I'm assuming if you've set it up for 30 secs then that means £28.80 per day? 24 hours * 60 mins * 2 divided by 100 to get £s and pence.
 
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If you are using SMS then it's priced per message with whomever the operator is that you got the SIM card from (this one came with an O2 card).

However, you can configure it to use mobile data (GPRS) instead of SMS which is bound to be a lot cheaper as you normally get something like a 500mb allowance in a £10 topup.

I've not worked out the battery life yet. There is a power save function of some sort which I need to look at, and the more frequent the updates the shorter the battery life. You could easily wire it into the vehicle power though with a 12v to 5v USB cable.
 
Tobers,

I've just been reviewing this thread. I might be ready to give this a go (my old one is dead).

Any further words of wisdom six months down the track?
 


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