Hello!
I hope nobody minds me posting this here, I've built my own open-source vehicle tracker and would love to know what OVMS users and creators make of it: https://l0destar.com
It's fully open-source hardware and software, I'm not selling anything at all and don't plan to. It's a very very different entity from OVMS, nowhere near as mature with nowhere near the kind of features OVMS has, no mobile apps, none of the advanced car integration stuff and only a single CAN-FD interface to the three on OVMS. It's also not certified or independently tested, probably won't be anytime soon, if ever, and so I can't make any claims about it being safe or suitable for vehicles. Still very much in the prototyping phase but I've had it running in my car for several weeks and it's working very well (obviously I realise a sample of one doesn't mean much).
It's two core design principles are:
- *extreme* power efficiency - currently 120uA sleep current (0.12mA) with the accelerometer armed
- it can be hand-built at home by anyone with relatively inexpensive tooling (soldering iron, hot air, multimeter, cheap magnifier etc) and I have a youtube video showing the entire process
It's designed around the Makerdiary nRF9151 Connect Kit where it gets a modern super power-efficient MCU, LTE-M/NB-IoT modem and GPS, and the l0destar board adds the vehicle-friendly 12V power stage, ignition sensing, battery voltage monitoring, a 6-axis automotive IMU/accelerometer and support for CAN-FD and ISO-9151.
Like OVMS it's very much a hobby project but even less like a "product" than OVMS, it's really designed for hackers, hobbyists, nerds and the generally crazy.
Any thoughts or feedback on it would be greatly appreciated, however negative they may be, I'm really just interested to know what people think of it. It's obviously targeting a very very tight niche of an audience and I don't have any plans to build it up to be the kind of thing OVMS is but I am curious to know what people who are into vehicle tracking make of it.
I guess I mostly just want it to exist as a reference project - the best DIY vehicle tracker anyone can build and use without paying the author a penny. Certainly not saying it is that yet, but I'm hoping it will be one day.
If this post is unwelcome on this forum please accept my sincere apologies and I'll accept deletion of it with no offence taken :)
OVMS is Open Source
OVMS includes GPS capabilities
OVMS includes APPS for both iOS and Android
OVMS includes a host of already deployed features
So, while OVMS is not free or very low cost, it is affordable, already includes GPS capability to allow finding or tracking your car AND is fully integrated with free phone Apps.
Just in case you didn't know.