DIY LoRa Based Low Power GPS Tracker | Live Location Tracking in Google Maps

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𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:
In this project, we will build a LoRa Based Low Power GPS Tracker using Arduino & ESP8266. This is a special kind of GPS tracker. It’s special because it uses something called LoRa, and it’s built with Arduino and ESP8266. LoRa is a technology that lets devices talk to each other over really long distances without using a lot of power.

The transmitter part of our GPS tracker is a small device made of several SMD components parts. The main parts are a microcontroller called Atmega328, a LoRa Chip named SX1276 and an L80 GPS Module. The microcontroller is like the tracker’s brain, the LoRa Chip lets it send GPS location, and the GPS module shows the location with Latitude & Longitude. To save power, the device can go to sleep mode when it’s not being used, and it can be charged through a USB cable.

We also made the receiver for this project using ESP8266 & SX1276 LoRa Module. The tracker sends the location information to a receiver that parses GPS data and the ESP8266 chip to connect to WiFi. This receiver then sends the location information to the Blynk app, which can show you where the tracker is on a Google map.

This kind of tracker could be really useful for things like finding lost pets, keeping track of valuable items, or even in scientific research to track wildlife movements.

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[Delali]

As a fellow electronics content creator i can relate to the amount of effort you've put into this video. Well done.
This video is simple and straight forward. Great job.

[diyprojectslab]

Fantastic tutorial! Clear instructions, thorough explanations, and easy-to-follow steps. The combination of LoRa and GPS technology for live location tracking with extended battery life is impressive.

[raymondmichael]

Awesome, please create a mesh network with auto-discover and automatic healing 😊

[MicheIIePucca]

Just a note to anyone who is contemplating building this project (or the near identical project with geofencing), I'd suggest you wait or at least review the schematic before ordering any PCBs or parts. The PC board has a short (VCC to GND) right next to the USB port (you can see it on the schematic). The USB is primary used for charging the 3.7v battery (via the charging controller), but this short could potentially damage the USB port on a PC or Laptop (I discovered this short after ordering, receiving the boards and partial assembly).

Within the last week or so, I've contacted the project creators and I hope that we can get the schematic and gerber files corrected so that hobbyists could be successful and enjoy building this project

[firdoshdiakus]

Awesome tutorial, may you please do a tutorial on indoor asset tracking on google maps without GPS as GPS does not work indoors. This will be a big hit as I do not see anyone else doing this.

[mlit]

Thanks 🇳🇴 Im want to put a LoRaWAN 8ch repeater on the tallest mountain and heights e/solar just to have at least a start of a network. There's a few around, so hopefully we will mesh. This project is so cool! Very nicely done! I'm new to electronics. I build drones and stuff, but this is more advanced. The coding. But you have open-sourced your tracker which is really cool! 😊 This would work perfectly for a 🐕 dog tracker.

Improvement would be to use the WiFi to turn on if the dog runs away. Maybe geo-lock with the wi-fi connect to the phone app. So if dog moves 25m away and stays away for more than minutes the WiFi module starts logging WiFi networks to better track the dog and when lora repeater picks up the dog it'll draw the dogs trail using the dbi from the wifi networks to more accurately trace the dog 😊 Thanks again! I will make this

[pierpa_pierpaolo]

I would need something very small (size like a crown cap), which works the same way to be able to hide and easy to apply on cars, motorcycles, etc. If it was powered by a rechargeable battery with a mini solar panel that would be great. Waiting for info. Thank you very much.

[ursmii_]

using LoRaWan and TTN-Mapper then the receiver would be obsolete and tracking could be seen from any of your browser

[laynemccormic]

Wow very impressive. Thank you for demonstrating

[dempseydoodles]

This may be a dumb question, but I have to ask it.

Is it possible to use this build/project to keep track of my assets (trailers, vehicles, etc…)?

[gougakos]

Hi Awesome, how much the battery will last lets say with one gps + lora packet per day

[alejandronovillo]

wow this is very good! i want to track cows in farm

[MicheIIePucca]

This project really interests me as something that could help track people who have dementia/Alzheimers and live at home with family. The ability to track them if they leave the home and wander, looks to be very good. I will try to order the boards and parts (digikey or mouser). One thing I noticed, is some of the parts can be a challenge to find, but will give it a go. Did you purchase them all from one place or use aliexpress partially?

[ankit_aniket]

I love watching your videos
Excellent work 👌🏻

Does it also tell about battery percentage of transmitter board under device info option?

[ABISHEKKUMARMA]

Hey,
I am doing the project on Bus Tracking System. And your design and video inspired me to do the project,

Instead of wifi - antenna module
Can I make it wifi - wifi module

For longer distance tracking, maybe this is possible on the project?

[djsolstice]

Great project. However, I do want to question something in the design. It only has 1 km range? LORA is not so good at going through buildings on flat ground. It's great for long line of sight projects, like RC planes (See the ExpressLRS project, 100km+ range). Isn't the point of a GPS tracker ....to track... over distance. Like when someone steals your bike/car/anything and moves it >1km away. I think a GSM module would be better sevrved here. That's how all other GPS trackers work.

[ecsyntric]

10:50 data doesn't specify anything like transmitter ID. what if we have multiple transmitters?

[abdelmajidbejjaji]

Great project, I was able to create the GPS transmitter and able to upload the code and display the lat and long but I don't have a lot of luck with the GPS receiver. I kept getting fatal error message when uploading the code to ESP8266. I tried to use both drivers CH 342 and CP2102 and still not working, any suggestions is appreciated.

[markneiltanap]

Can i buy the board i dont have background on doing this but i will use it for our capstone

[Chintanned]

Hey, Thank you for wonderful tutorial, We want to make something similar, Can you help us - It's for a noble cause under a NGO