Geolocation/Positioning through GSM - Any Hint on how to start?

General
1

Hi,

I just recently got my Electron and I would like to invest into Geolocation/Positioning through sole GSM Data (by Triangulation). As I am a Newbie to this topic I am open for any kind of best practices, code snippets, arcticles, suggestions and recommendations on how I can achieve this.

Thanks upfront for sharing your experience,

Br,
Rainer

1 Like
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4 Likes
3

Thanks for the update, this is definitively a good starter. Though this is doing the calculation on an ‘unknown’ server side. Aren’t the mobile phone providers offering a similar service we could use? What about calculating the position on the device avoiding costly message traffic over the network? Any hint on those topics?

4

Where do you see the calculation done on an unknown server?

5

There is a problem with Celllocate see the link above. Will post there when we are able to fix it.

6

There is an alternate solution using Wifi BSSID locating. The hardware cost is $3. GPS is the best solution if you are outside. Celllocate is the best if your accuracy requirements are relaxed.

7

Even though I understand all the feedback about “Cellocate” and accoring features I would like to implement my own Positioning Endevor through Triangulation.

I found some very good background material here: http://www.neilson.co.za/mobile-network-geolocation-obtaining-the-cell-ids-the-signal-strength-of-surrounding-towers-from-a-gsm-modem/

For that reason I wrote a very simple program that takes AT commands from serial port, executes the AT command and writes the output to serial port:

——————————————————————————————————————————
int callbackAT(int type, const char* buf, int len, char* param){
Serial.println("AT Respone: ");
Serial.write((const uint8_t*)buf, len);
return RESP_OK;
}

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.flush();
}

void loop() {
int i=0;
char commandbuffer[100];
char myResponse[5000];

// GET DATA FROM SERIAL
if(Serial.available()){
   delay(100);
   while( Serial.available() && i< 99) {
      commandbuffer[i++] = Serial.read();
   }
   commandbuffer[i-1]='\r';
   commandbuffer[i]= '\n';
}
// EXECUTE "AT COMMAND"
if(i>0)
{
   Serial.println("AT Command: ");
   Serial.println(commandbuffer);
   Serial.println("------------");
   Cellular.command(callbackAT, myResponse, 5000, (char*)commandbuffer);
}

}
——————————————————————————————————————————

For getting the signal strength of the various cells (serving cell and network cell) I am using AT+CGED

And here starts the problem:

AT+CGED=? - Returns (0-6) - means that I can get information using the following modes:

  • 0 (default value): one shot dump
  • 1: periodic refreshed dump; the information for up to 32 neighbour cells is available
  • 2: stop periodic dump
  • 3: one shot serving cell dump
  • 4: periodic serving cell refreshed dump
    *5: one shot serving cell and neighbour cells dump
  • 6: periodic serving cell and neighbour cells refreshed dump

Whenever I execute „AT+CGED=3“ I am getting Feedback about the serving cell
Whenever I execute „AT+CGED=5“ in order to get information about the neighbor cells the AT command hangs and I cannot execute any follow up AT commands anymore

Any Idea on why that is???

9

There is an alternate solution using Wifi BSSID locating

@sbright33 Do you have any details on this? Is this technique using a separate WiFi module (e.g. ESP8266 ~$3) to listen for BSSID broadcasts, and comparing to a map of networks?

10

@sbright33, would you mind sharing this alternate solution using Wifi BSSID locating?