@jeubanks,
I saw this as soon as you posted, but it is a difficult question to answer, . . . so I’ll just blather. I use the technology for recording &
analyzation, and vehicle tracking,
Recording & analyzation:
I’m not a gps nut, but I am a road/route/traffic/save time nut. Of course this means some form of GPS required. Being passionate about determining the fastest way to point B, I’ve archived years of gpx logs, starting in 2003 with Delorme Street Atlas with a USB gps dongle plugged in to a laptop. These days I just use my android phone, with an app that records locations in 1 second intervals. On longer trips, I combine that with the larger screen on an old iPad for the Google Maps traffic layer, and links to live traffic cameras while traveling. For non-realtime review, .gpx files are downloaded & overlaid in various Google Earth kml-kmz files.
Vehicle tracking: (where I guess your project is geared to)
I started with using various Garmin GPS units. If a Garmin gps is powered on in a vehicle, it is always recording gps points in .gpx format. Although useless for realtime tracking, the sd card could be removed for upload of gpx data to my computer for later review.
When my kids starting driving (pre-smart phone era), I wanted something that allowed me to monitor both location, and driving habits. Couldn’t find one. I started with a Verizon Wireless service called “Family Locator” $9.99 per month. It allowed setup of limited geofences with alerts. It provided realtime location pinpointing. The technology did not allow route analyzation or review. It was reliable roughly 70% of the time and not easy to setup or work with. When a new phone was purchased, it had to be compatible with the “Family Locator” service, and had to be “activated” with the service. Most of the VZW techs had no idea what the “FL” service even was, and thus couldn’t turn it on. Total pain.
I then purchased a Garmin GTU 10 ($199.00 maybe) which was a thumb-drive sized GPS tracking device with an AT&T cell radio built in. The price included one year of cell coverage with a course 2-5 minute pinpoint archiving. Realtime location, geofences, archiving of some data on their cloud. The unit had to be removed from a vehicle every 2 days approximately to charge the battery. (I never hard wired it to the car battery cause I needed it to be portable to different vehicles) A premium subscription for the second year was I think $12.95 per month paid a year in advance. Before the second year completed, Garmin announced their cell provider would no longer offer the service so the unit stopped working.
Currently I have (2) Automatic Pro ($129.00 each with advertised 5 yr. free 3G service) adapters that are plugged into my vehicle’s OBDII port. These are the most reliable to date, but still greatly lacking in trip details. They do allow geofencing, minimal IFTTT intergration, start/stop alerts, crash alerts, vehicle maintenance alerts. It also allowed me to reset a “check engine” light when I needed to use a vehicle for a drivers license test. I keep one in my vehicle also. It will also (non-realtime) allow me to analyze a route completed, but the only thing it records are a simple route overlay, hard brakes, hard accelerations, minutes driven over 70 mph, fuel efficiency, and some other things I have little interest in.
I also use Amg0’s iPhone Locator app as a poor man’s locator. Multiple geofences can be used as long as you add a new locator plugin for each geofence you want to monitor. Of course, this can only be used minimally due to battery issues, polling the iOS servers, & now the Google Maps API fees. Still, with the Vera/openLuup/ALTUI platform, amazing things can be imagined.
I REALLY wish there was an affordable option that allowed geofencing, realtime tracking (course resolution is ok). But when a trip is completed, have a high resolution (1 point per 1-4 second) available in .gpx format to download, review, & archive.
If your proposed project is along these lines, count me in for purchasing, testing, improving, etc.
Regards,
Chris