Last updated 2024-09-27
The only cost in this setup is the GPS tracker itself and the monthly SIM card subscription. The trackers are available for as little as $15 and seem to work quite well. Most come linked to Chinese servers, but you can change that to a different IP address and different reporting frequency. I use the minimum of 10 seconds for higher accuracy, and data usage is still extremely low. Around 100KB/hour for a 2G tracker. 4G trackers probably consume more. In the US, Redpocket sells one year subscriptions with 500MB data per month for about $5/mo. I can get 4GB for $3.50/mo where I live.
Basic outline is as follows:
Sign up for a free VPS (Oracle) or use your home internet if you have a public IP
Install traccar and configure
Install Mosquitto and configure
Install Node Red and configure
Install ntfy.sh and configure
Buy as cheap a SIM card as possible
Adjust settings of the GPS tracker to point to your own server
Set up geofences in traccar
Optional steps:
Get a domain name and use Caddy to reverse proxy so you can use https for traccar
Set up notifications in Node Red
Install grafana so you can have beautiful maps like this:
