Spy Review

Location trackers are getting frighteningly common now, and even I’m getting overwhelmed with how many different variations there are. The most useful type of tracker is one that allows you to remotely find out the location of the GPS device. For example, if you have a car with a GPS tracker fitted into it, and the car is stolen, you can find out where its located by sending it a text message. The pricing for such a bit of kit can vary, but often starts at the £200 ($400) mark for the entry-level kit.

If you fancied making your own remote GPS tracker for around £150, have a read of this Interfacing an AVR controller to a GPS Mobile Phone article on Tickerlog.

The design is based on using a GM862-GPS module that integrates GSM and a GPS receiver together. The GSM part of the device gives you all the functionality of a mobile phone, i.e. SMS, recieving calls and making calls. The module is just electronics side of things, but you just need an aerial, a sim card and the electronics to control it. If you want audio, then you need to add a microphone and speaker too.

The GM862-GPS module is controlled by a ATmega8 microcontroller, which I think was chosen due to having UART serial interfaces that allows it to operate with a PC. I have no experience of AVR microcontrollers, but I do see them being used a lot for projects on MAKE: Magazine. I get the impression that they are really simple to program and operate.

Once the GPS tracker is operational, the microcontroller is programmed to send an SMS with its location. Showing this location on Google Maps involves sending an SMS via an SMS-to-email service, so that you get an email with a Google Maps compatible link to click on.

I do like the style of this article because it focuses on simplicity. I briefly checked to see if you can get the parts in the UK and EU (as the article focuses on US stockists), and its not difficult to find the parts whatsoever. So if you fancy making your own GPS tracker, give it a go!