<div dir="ltr">Hi Jorieke,<div><br></div><div>My friend Ping (in CC) and I have been working on a very lightweight application for vehicle tracking, specifically intended to work with SMS only (no Internet required—it sends the positions with a formatted SMS message on a particular schedule). </div><div><br></div><div>Code here: <a href="https://github.com/zestyping/fleetreporter">https://github.com/zestyping/fleetreporter</a> and <a href="https://github.com/zestyping/fleetreceiver">https://github.com/zestyping/fleetreceiver</a>. No server needed; the system simply relies upon a central mobile device to receive all of the rover positions.</div><div><br></div><div>This is emphatically NOT for everyone, or intended to be a replacement for stuff like traccar or gpslogger; it's specifically targeted at a small, relatively remote project with a few cars that they want to track, where they don't have much Internet access but there's a bit of mobile phone (SMS) coverage.</div><div><br></div><div>We've piloted it in the Central African Republic, where we've had issues with the expense of SMS messages. In CAR, the mobile networks have terribly unreliable SMS packages (you can buy a "forfait" of 100 SMS messages for a small fee, but the "forfait" often doesn't work and depletes the main balance of the phone very rapidly). This may be less of a problem in other places.</div><div><br></div><div>Bottom line: if the project that needs a solution has the following characteristics:</div><div><br></div><div>- Poor mobile internet coverage but some SMS coverage (and SMS pricing is reasonable and functional)</div><div>- Doesn't want to set up a server, just receive positions on a local device,</div><div><br></div><div>They should have a look at what we've done. Otherwise definitely look at the GPSLogger, Traccar, or dedicated logger device options!</div><div><br></div><div>Onward,</div><div>Ivan</div><div><br></div><br class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Ivan Buendía Gayton<div>Country Manager, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (<a href="http://hotosm.org" target="_blank">hotosm.org</a>)</div><div>Tanzania</div><div><span style="font-size:small">+255 </span><span style="font-size:small">76 939 7811</span><span style="font-size:small"> (phone and WhatsApp)</span></div><div><span style="font-size:small"><br></span></div><div>Skype: sardo.numpsi<br></div><div>Twitter: @ivangayton</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Thu, Jan 10, 2019 at 3:47 AM Jorieke Vyncke <<a href="mailto:jorieke.vyncke@gmail.com">jorieke.vyncke@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Hi all, <div><br></div><div>@Ivan that sounds interesting! Could you tell me more?<br></div><div>The other suggestions are forwarded, thank you again. Last is looking at them and will feedback soon! </div><div>He was already impressed what you collected: "Wow... thanks @Jorieke! Let me look into the feedback" was his reaction this morning.<br></div><div><br></div><div>And to Donal his points: I'm not sure about the context in Zimbabwe, but from my point of view using a GPS tracking system is indeed on the one hand a system that serves as control mechanism for drivers, but on the other hand it also serves as planning and budgeting tool, and most importantly also for security purposes for our people in the car. This latest makes it also difficult to just share the GPS traces that our teams take. It is a way the security of our staff can be damaged, so not so straightforward. <br></div><div><br></div><div>All the best, </div><div><br></div><div>Jorieke</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">Op do 10 jan. 2019 om 10:10 schreef Donal Hunt <<a href="mailto:donal.hunt@gmail.com" target="_blank">donal.hunt@gmail.com</a>>:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">I would echo Laurent's words. Deploy the solution that you need and figure out the funding issues. Doing something like SMS-based reporting or emailing data around the place will just move the cost burden elsewhere, be more brittle and probably not get you what you want at the end of the day.<div><br></div><div>The initial problem statement seems to focus on how to verify the trust that is being put in the partner undertaking the work. There are many many ways to do that and technology is not always the answer. It would be interesting to understand what other options have been identified and why GPS-tracking has been decided on as the most effective means of delivering the end result. If the GPS data being collected is also making it's way back into the OSM ecosystem, that value should not be discounted.</div><div><br></div><div>Kind regards</div><div><br></div><div>Donal</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Wed, 9 Jan 2019 at 21:19, Laurent Savaete <<a href="mailto:laurent@where.tf" target="_blank">laurent@where.tf</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p>Hey Jorieke,</p>
<p>What your question describes sounds like fleet management. I just
found <a class="gmail-m_6170284246385110709gmail-m_4393090285507327903gmail-m_7717362483456235032moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.traccar.org/" target="_blank">https://www.traccar.org/</a> which looks pretty well maintained
(88 contributors on github, latest code update only a few hours
ago), is open-source and seems to provide exactly what you're
after, without having to reinvent the wheel.</p>
<p>Hope this helps,</p>
<p>Laurent</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="gmail-m_6170284246385110709gmail-m_4393090285507327903gmail-m_7717362483456235032moz-cite-prefix">On 09/01/2019 19:22, John Whelan wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana">In Windows
you can use a script to copy the files, compress them and send
them.<br>
<br>
Android should have something equivalent. If not Microsoft
Visual Studio 2017 can build something that will run on android.<br>
<br>
We seem to be forever seeing requests from students to write
software for OSM and HOT as a project.<br>
<br>
This one is a natural. <br>
<br>
Enabling GPS tracking is heavy on a battery life but you can buy
power packs quite cheaply to extend the life. I wouldn't
connect it to the car battery, the voltage fluctuates to much
and it will shorten the smartphone life down.<br>
<br>
So basically you want a program that will grab the GPS tracks
every x minutes and compress them. Technically zip is fine but
the problem with zips is they can carry malware so use something
else and gmail won't accept them anyway.<br>
<br>
Then it should just email these back to the server. There
should be an API to allow the software to write to something
like Gmail on the smartphone.<br>
<br>
When gmail finds a connection it will send the messages home.
No fingers needed other than to connect to Wifi for gmail. This
one is the simplest.<br>
<br>
<a class="gmail-m_6170284246385110709gmail-m_4393090285507327903gmail-m_7717362483456235032moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://developers.google.com/gmail/api/guides/sending" target="_blank">https://developers.google.com/gmail/api/guides/sending</a>
has got the basics.<br>
<br>
The other way is to use the signal that the phone uses to
connect to the mast. There are 140 / 160 characters at the end
of the packet which are unused. This is the basis of SMS text
messaging. In Europe, North America phone plans often come with
unlimited SMS text messaging, Africa maybe different. The
advantage is you can collect the data in real time. The
disadvantage is the store and forward method of email is a bit
more robust.<br>
<br>
There are SMS APIs that will run on a smartphone but my
impression is these vary according to the phone so an SMS based
solution that ran on any phone might be more difficult to build
but someone who knows more about SMS might be in a better
position to sort something out. <br>
<br>
Cheerio John<br>
<br>
<span>Jorieke Vyncke wrote on 2019-01-09 10:48 AM:</span><br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">Thanks a lot for all your suggestions!
<div>I suppose easy to use is core, so options with manually
copying traces is probably not the best solution. </div>
<div>However I will forward all your suggestions to Last,
and will leave it up to him to decide what is the best
option for them on the ground! </div>
<div><br>
If there are more ideas, they still welcome :) </div>
<div>Thanks a lot! </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Jorieke</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr">Op wo 9 jan. 2019 om 14:26 schreef Pierre
Béland <<a href="mailto:pierzenh@yahoo.fr" target="_blank">pierzenh@yahoo.fr</a>>:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<div class="gmail-m_6170284246385110709gmail-m_4393090285507327903gmail-m_7717362483456235032gmail-m_4072814357954807628ydp7c0020b2yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<div>
<div>Hi Jorieke<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>There are small vehicule gps logger, some very
precise reading various satellite networks. I
tried a Columbus. It did work very well but could
not replace the battery.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Search simply for vehicule gps logger. This
Ebay link show various models, some with an USB
connection and / or sim card.<br>
</div>
<div><span style="font-style:italic;color:rgb(0,0,191);font-weight:bold"><a href="https://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_nkw=vehicle+gps+data+logger" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_nkw=vehicle+gps+data+logger</a></span>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>regard<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<div><span style="font-style:italic;color:rgb(0,0,191);font-weight:bold"><span>
<div><br>
</div>
</span></span></div>
<div class="gmail-m_6170284246385110709gmail-m_4393090285507327903gmail-m_7717362483456235032gmail-m_4072814357954807628ydp7c0020b2signature">
<div><br>
</div>
<div><span style="font-style:italic;color:rgb(0,0,191);font-weight:bold"><font face="garamond, new york, times, serif">Pierre
</font></span></div>
<div><span style="font-style:italic;color:rgb(0,0,191);font-weight:bold"></span><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
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