Device for CAN Bus (OBD2), Live GPS Tracking, and GPIO Sensors

Hardware
1

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a project where I need a device to handle the following tasks:

CAN Bus / OBD2 Data: The device should be able to read vehicle diagnostics (RPM, error codes, fuel level, etc.)

Live GPS Tracking: It should support real-time GPS tracking (not after 5 minutes etc.,)

GPIO Sensor Inputs: At least 2 or 3 GPIO pins for reading sensor data (e.g., door contact sensors, for bus door) and send data to the cloud.

I own both the Boron and Tracker One, but I wanted to check if the Tracker One could handle everything on its own. Also, is there any working code available for sending CAN bus data?

Thank you

2

Yes, you can do that with the Tracker One. For CAN, see Tracker CAN for accessing OBD-II data. It's a low-level interface so you will need to do a little work to read the data, but it's possible.

There are 3 GPIO on the M8 connector on the Tracker One, however two are shared with I2C/UART serial. One option is to use I2C GPIO which makes it possible to expand to dozens of GPIO over I2C.

3

Thanks for the update and Is it possible to send all this information directly to Traccar etc., instead of using webhooks from the Particle console?

4

You make a custom version of Tracker Edge software that processes the GNSS, CAN and GPIO data locally in device firmware.

You can also upload the processed data to the cloud later, if you want, as well.

5

@rickkas7 Thanks for the information! I was able to make it work using the following blueprint.

One more question: What do I need to do in order to use my own SIM card and send data to my own server?

6

It is not possible to use your own SIM card with any device other than the Boron.

You can send data to your own server. The recommended method is using Webhooks or other integrations.

7

Got it. Is there a way to estimate how much data tracker one would use if running 24/7 and sending live data? The reason I ask is that I need to design it for a large fleet, so I want to ensure the monthly budget accounts for data usage beyond the 100K free limit, especially with 100+ devices.

8

If you're sending live data, you will probably need to use direct TCP or UDP to your own server, and almost certainly exceed the cellular data limit.

In the basic plan, it's 540 MB for 1 block, which is the lesser of 100 devices or 540 MB of data. In other words, you can have one device sending 540 MB of data, 10 devices sending 54 MB per month, or 100 devices sending 5.4 MB of data per month, for $299/month.

There are some devices like the B504e that have much higher data limits, but there isn't an "e" version of the Tracker.