You’re just 3 steps away from creating your own GPS-tracking application, without writing any code!
GPSLogger Android App
GPSLogger is an Android application that uses the phone's GPS to gather positioning data but, unlike other GPS apps, it offers several approaches on what to do with the data, such as sending the data through custom HTTP requests, enabling a straight-forward integration with Ubidots.
Why build GPS tracking solutions?
Just as for most electronic products, the prices of GPS trackers have been dropping, making them suitable for a growing set of asset monitoring applications that were impossible before. As the price (and size) of GPS trackers continue to drop, more types of assets are being possible to track in real-time, uncovering new business opportunities for IoT entrepreneurs and systems integrators alike.
We hope this guide serves as an entry point to uncover asset-tracking opportunities in your domain.
Requirements
An Android phone supporting GPS.
An active Ubidots account.
1. Download the GPSLogger app
Download the GPSLogger app. This app is not available on the Google Play Store. Instead, you have to download it from the official project's GitHub.
Launch your preferred web browser on your Android phone, head to the link provided above, download the application's APK file and install it. Make sure to download the latest stable version.
You'll be prompted for permission requirements, tap the "OK" button and proceed to grant the requested permissions.
Enable the location permission only while using the app in order to optimize battery consumption.
2. Configure the GPSLogger app settings
Once finished granting the required permissions, tap on the upper left button as shown below:
Tap on the "Custom URL" option:
Configure the following settings:
Enable the "Log to custom URL" and "Allow auto sending" options.
Paste the following line in the URL field
https://industrial.api.ubidots.com/api/v1.6/devices/%AID
Note that "%AID" is a variable that stores a unique identifier for your phone, which will be used as the device label according to: How to send data to an Ubidots device.
Tap the HTTP Body option and paste:
{"position":{"lat":%LAT, "lng":%LON}, "speed":%SPD, "altitude":%ALT, "satellites":%SAT, "accuracy":%ACC, "battery": %BATT, "travelled":%DIST, "direction":%DIR}Tap the HTTP Header option and paste the following, taking into account that you have to change "<your-account-token>" for your Ubidots token:
Content-Type: application/json
x-auth-token: <your-account-token>Tap the HTTP Method option and write POST
At last, it should look like this:
Head back to the main menu, press the hamburger button and tap the "Performance" option:
Enable both Log GPS/GNSS locations and Log network locations.
By default, the app takes the position data every 60 seconds; if you want to change that value, you can do so by changing the Logging interval setting
Head back to the main menu and tap the "START LOGGING" button. This will start the position data capturing and its corresponding delivery to your Ubidots account.
3. Visualizing data on Ubidots
Go to your Ubidots account → Devices → Devices. There, you'll be able to see a newly created device with data from different variables, as shown below:
