As an Electrical Engineer and complete geek there are few things I enjoy more than solving problems. 

 

With a passion for electronics I have been playing with Raspberry Pi’s and Arduino’s (they make good educational gadgets for kids going into Secondary School – pro tip), and just about every sensor you can throw at them (pressure, radiation, knock, barometer, laser, pew pew).  You can couple them to screens, touchscreens, LCD, I made a boost gauge for my Mk1 which Ill demonstrate if anyone has interest btw.

 

Anyhoo, I used what I knew to make a  GPS Tracker using a Raspberry Pi, an inexpensive GPS module some coding and a Mobile Broadband Dongle.  It uploads a steady stream of data once every 20 seconds to a second Raspberry PI which is coded up as a LAMP server (LinuxApacheMySQLPHP) with Node-Red running.

 

 

Node-Red is the **** when it comes to the Internet of Things, a way of connecting stuff to other stuff using the interweb.  You can do so much with it, it can make coding simple enough for the masses.

 

 

 

Parts List

 

So parts list as follows :

 

Raspberry Pi x 2, £26.60 each

Cases x 2, £6.85 each

Dupont Cable (Ribbon Cable), £2.24

8Gb SD Card x 2, £2.60 each

32Gb USB Stick x 2, £11 each

UBLOX GPS, £7.50

Double Sided Foam, £2

 

Mobile Dongle from 3, 1Gb per month, £7

 

A PC to do some of the coding stuff......  Minimum requirements are Putty and Angry IP Scanner.

 

Brief guide

 

I firstly downloaded Raspbian, the operating system for the Pi's and using Win32 Disk Imager I extracted the image onto one of the SD Cards.

 

After placing the SD Card into the first Pi connecting a keyboard, the LAN cable and HDMI cable to monitor (or TV), I booted and configured the system.  

 

 

So the first thing was select option "2", changed the password to one of my choice.

 

Next, option "7".  I overclocked mine to "High", could have gone "Turbo" if I wanted, but it was not really necessary.

 

Next, Option "8".

 

There are a few things I selected on this next page.

 

Hostname, use this to change the name of your Pi on a network, I changed mine to my registration number.

 

Memory Split, use this to alter how much memory is used by the GPU and how much is allocated as RAM to the Pi.  The Pi is a System on a Chip (SoC), so combines both CPU and GPU on one chip and they both share RAM.  As I am not using the GPU for any part of this I dropped it to 64Mb.

 

SSH, enable it.  I use this to connect to my Pi once it is disconnected from the screen (known as a headless system).

 

Everything else was left as is and I reboot the Pi.

 

Once rebooted, it asks for a username and password.  "pi" is the username, I used the password set earlier in the config.

 

First things first, by typing at the prompt "ifconfig" the Pi will indicate what the IP address the Pi has locally.  I copied this down and then went to my PC.  I have software called Putty, to remotely access the Pi.  Using the IP address, I used the same username and password to login.

 

Then, in order of importance I did the following:

 

Insert USB and Copied the root system to the USB (faster and avoids the re-writing issue knows to kill SD Cards).

 

LAMP Server install

 

FTP Install

 

Java installation

 

Node-red

 

Node-red Modules, first I needed to go to where I installed node-red, then I searched the npm repository and installed all the nodes with node-red in them. 

 

Serial UART config

 

At this stage I shut the Pi down and removed both the SD Card and the USB.

 

Using Win32 Disk Imager, I created images of both the SD and USB.  Used the "Read to File" option rather than "Write", then imaged the 2nd SD Card and USB.

 

This effectively give me clones of both.  I needed to change the Hostnames on one of the devices though as they are a perfect copy, including all the initial config.

 

Booting up the "Server" PI, I logged in then used this to change the Hostname to one more appropriate.  Being the server, I also needed a static IP address on the LAN as I will be sending information from the internet to it.  I used this guide to select my IP, then set up port forwarding on my broadband router.

 

I then installed Mosquitto, its a message broker transferring messages from once place to another.

 

With Server Pi ready to go, I put "Remote" Pi back together and connected the GPS to the Remote Pi GPIO.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The UBLOX has 4 connections, VCC which goes to Pin 2, 5 Volts.  GND to Pin 6, then the RX and TX to UART.

 

Once connected, power up while on the LAN, then use Angry IP Scanner to find it on your LAN.

 

 

I connected to it via Putty, and tested the Serial Connection from the GPS using "sudo cat /dev/ttyAMA0", it should give you similar to :

 

 

These are NMEA Codes, a whole raft of detail on these can be found here.  I am using $GPRMC, which gave me access to :

 

Time, Latitude, Longitude and Direction, most of the other data in there isnt really required.

 

Then I used the IP address and connect to it via my web browser using port 1880.  This is what Node-red looks like (note the GPRMC messages down the right hand side).

 

 

 

Down the left hand side are "Nodes", you literally drag these onto the canvas to start creating code.  The most important thing first was to set up data is the Serial Input Node (as I am connect to the UART) and the MQTT Node (Mosquitto  Message Broker) that'll transmit messages.

 

The Serial Node needed to be configured as per the UBLOX datasheet, /dev/ttyAMA0 at 9600 baud.

 

 

The MQTT Node needed to be configured as per your Server PI MQTT connection.

 

 

I used a switch node in the middle as a filter, if the Serial message came in but didn't start "GPRMC", the message was dropped, if it contained it the message was sent over the internet.  Nice and easy

 

I then logged onto the Server Pi Node-Red and created a receiver for the messages coming in.  Using a MQTT input node and setting it up as per the Remote Pi MQTT output, I was quickly receiving data.

 

I then used "jquery-ui-map" to generate the mapping side, coding it directly with Node-Red Template Node, I will add this to a follow up post.

 

Once data was following into the system, it generated the maps and location of the car, every 20 seconds with a log being saved over time (for historic purposes).

 

 

 

I could zoom in more but you get the idea.  Accuracy is dependant on Satellites in view, but, I can zoom down and be within 5 metres of the car (usually 3).

 

Finally, I connected the USB Dongle and used software on Remote Pi called Sakis3g, I configured it using this guide to make it run and connect on boot.

 

The Pi case needed modifying to allow the SMA connector to pass to the outside, I then placed this in the car connecting the Pi temporarily to a 5v USB in the boot.  This is only temporary till I relocate it somewhere safer.  I have been running it for 2 weeks now with no issues.

 

Data transfer is looking at using 300Mb per month, this allows me 600Mb of overhead to do other geeky things at the same time.  The Pi can sample acceleration rates, prevent power to circuits by using solid state relays (remote ignition ope circuits), connect to the OBD connection, lots of other geeky things which no doubt I will do at some point when work allows.....

 

Any questions let me know but total cost for materials is below £100, running costs £7 per month but I know where my car is at all times.  Ill tidy up and make more of a guide later, but this will give you a taster.

Nice little project but I'm guessing this is to locate your car if stolen? Can I ask why you'd want it back?

Looks interesting but moved to a more appropriate section.

Very interesting indeed. I'll have a proper read when it's not so late and I'm so tired.

Not enough Likes available for this post. Brilliant guide.

Nice neat little project indeed. I've played around with APRS units using VHF radio equipment, they report direct via base stations either locally or can go through a gateway and out to the net (www.aprs.fi) is the most popular site. Got to say though yours is defo the best option for the majority of people just wanting tracking.

As the post took an age to do annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd I was half asleep I forgot to say that all of it is password protected, I have also started setting up encrypting the data from the car using MQTT SSL.

 

From start to finish, you could do all the above in a few hours, it doesn't take that long once you get started.  The other handy thing is that I create images along the way which people are free to download if they wish.  They are sanitised for anything relating to my IP or Passwords and are generic, but you'll have all the software installed, just need to add your own config.

 

Power requirements are tiny, the Pi uses less than 2w of power so costing over a year is circa £6.

 

There are a few more things I want to do with it or what you could do with it :

 

1)  Enhanced mode which tells me when the car moves and Im not in it, Ill either use Bluetooth or a RFID fob, fairly easy to do using GPIO.

2)  Sensor Unit, comprising of 3 Axis Accelerometers, in case of impact collision.  This data will be stored locally and not transmitted.

3)  Install a solid state relay in line with the ignition with a button in the Map Panel to effectively "disable" the car by loss of power (not steering or braking just power), tied into speed so if it is TWOC I can merrily stop the car.

4)  Add a camera which records video on a 30 minute loop, in case of accident.

5)  Haven't thought of anymore yet but you get the idea.

 

Most of it is preventative but having paid 27K for a car, I want to have some peace of mind over its location.

Not enough Likes available for this post. Brilliant guide.

 

 

+ 1, Brilliant.

You are a very bright guy Nuriyan, well done.

I work in IT bur am not geeky enough to do something like this so applaude you....you could probably sell them!

Very nice work there, I already have one ras pi, so I may just get me another to try this out 

You are a very bright guy Nuriyan, well done.

I work in IT bur am not geeky enough to do something like this so applaude you....you could probably sell them!

I'd be happy to stump up a modest sum for such a device, assuming it could be wired/plugged into a vehicle by an orangutan like myself.

Brisky Group buy anyone? 

Edited 22 April, 201511 yr by Gwilo

WOW....we are not worthy.

WOW....we are not worthy.

 

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