GPS Car Tracker Using Arduino And SIM808 - ElectroPeak (2024)

Thousands of cars are being stolen every day around the globe. So it is really important to protect and secure your car. In this tutorial we will use the SIM808 module to build a GPS car tracker.

If you are not willing to use a GPS read this article to find out how to detect location by GSM modules: (Using GSM with Arduino as an alternative for GPS).

• Get to know with the concept of GPS
• Get to know with the sim808 module
• Build a GPS car tracker

GPS stands for Global Positioning System, which designed and built in 1973 by the United States Department of Defense. Today, the use of GPS has become so common that almost all of us use this system daily.

The GPS system includes 24 satellites. For the car tracker project (or any other project) you need a GPS receiver to receive information sent from this satellite. All your GPS receiver has to do is identify four satellites and read information from them to calculate your position with a series of geometric relationships.

GPS can provide your position with very high accuracy, but the satisfaction of this accuracy depends on your GPS receiver, typical GPS modules have an accuracy of between 2 and 5 meters.

The most important information we can get from the GPS system are: longitude, latitude, speed, height and time in Greenwich Mean Time.

Ublox is a leading company in the industry of manufacturing GPS modules, but to receive GPS information, we can also use the SIM808 module manufactured by SIMCOM.

We usually used a series of SIM modules for sending and receiving SMS, making calls, using GPRS, etc., but the SIM808 module has a special feature and that is GPS receiver. This feature makes this module very useful for making all kinds of trackers. In this tutorial, you will learn how to connect SIM808 module and Arduino and make a car tracker.

This module is provided in a package with GPS and GSM antennas as shown below.

SIM808 module uses serial communication protocol to interface with Arduino. This module has 10 pins. 4 are the main pins and the rest are connected to those 4 pins.

4 Main Pins on the Left Side:

• TX: Transmitting Data
• RX: Receiving Data
• VIN: Input voltage (this pin is connected to the jack plug, and if the adapter is connected, no power needs to be supplied here.)
• GND: Ground

You can see the pinout of this module in the image below.

After completing the previous steps, now we are ready to build a tracker. In this project, we have used AT commands to write the code for the car tracking system. We have also used theTinyGPS ++ libraryto analyze the GPS data received from the SIM808 module.

In this project, the car tracking system first waits to receive a message. After that, it matches the received text with the predefined password. Then, if the password is correct, the tracker system will be activated, and it will obtain the vehicle location data. Finally, the Google Maps link will be sent to you.

Upload the following code to Arduino.

/* Made on Jan 9, 2021 By MehranMaleki @ Electropeak 
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*/#include <SoftwareSerial.h>#include <TinyGPS++.h>boolean GetGPS_flag = false;boolean Location_isValid_flag = false;boolean Password_flag = false;String value;String phone_number;String message_text;String password = "Hello";String Message;#define PIN_TX 10#define PIN_RX 11SoftwareSerial mySerial(PIN_TX, PIN_RX);// The TinyGPS++ objectTinyGPSPlus gps;String SIM808(String value) { String Out; mySerial.println(value); delay(10); while (mySerial.available()) { Out = (mySerial.readString()); } Out.trim(); Out.remove(0, value.length() + 3); return Out;}String SIM808(String value, int count) { String Out; mySerial.println(value); delay(10); while (mySerial.available()) { Out = (mySerial.readString()); } Out.trim(); Out.remove(0, value.length() + 3 + count); return Out;}void setup() { mySerial.begin(9600); Serial.begin(9600);}void loop() { //******************* RECEIVING SMS ******************* Serial.println("Start\n"); Serial.println("Power Down The GPS"); SIM808("AT+CGPSPWR=0"); Serial.println("Check AT Connection"); value = SIM808("AT"); Serial.println(value); Serial.println(""); Serial.println("Put The Module in SMS Text Mode"); SIM808("AT+CMGF=1"); delay(1000); Serial.println("Delete All Previous Messages"); SIM808("AT+CMGD=1,4"); delay(2000); value = SIM808("AT+CMGL=\"REC UNREAD\""); value = SIM808("AT+CMGL=\"REC UNREAD\""); value = SIM808("AT+CMGL=\"REC UNREAD\""); do { delay(2000); Serial.println("No new Messages Received"); Serial.println("Check for New Messages!"); value = SIM808("AT+CMGL=\"REC UNREAD\""); //Serial.println("end"); } while (value == "OK"); SIM808("AT+CMGL=\"REC UNREAD\""); Serial.println("Message Recieved"); value = SIM808("AT+CMGL=\"ALL\""); Serial.println(value); phone_number = value; phone_number.remove(0, 20); phone_number.remove(15, phone_number.length()); message_text = value; message_text.remove(0, 63); message_text.remove(message_text.length() - 6, message_text.length()); Serial.println("Phone Number:"); Serial.println(phone_number); Serial.println("Message Text:"); Serial.println(message_text); if (message_text == password) { GetGPS_flag = true; Password_flag = true; Serial.println("password is correct!"); } //******************* RECEIVING SMS END ******************* //******************* GET GPS ******************* if (GetGPS_flag) { do { Serial.println("Power Down The GPS"); SIM808("AT+CGPSPWR=0"); //Serial.println("end"); Serial.println("Check The GPS Power"); value = SIM808("AT+CGPSPWR?"); value.remove(11, 17); Serial.println(value); //Serial.println("end"); Serial.println("Power Up The GPS"); SIM808("AT+CGPSPWR=1"); //Serial.println("end"); Serial.println("Disable The GPS Output"); SIM808("AT+CGPSOUT=0"); //Serial.println("end\n"); Serial.println("Wait For The GPS To Find Location"); while (!SIM808("AT+CGPSSTATUS?" , 13).startsWith("Location 3D Fix")) { Serial.println("Location Not Fixed Yet, Please Wait!"); delay(2000); } Serial.println("Location Found!"); Serial.println("end\n"); //Get and Analyse The GPS Output Serial.println("Get and Analyse The GPS Output"); String Out = ""; mySerial.println("AT+CGPSOUT=2"); delay(10); while (mySerial.available()) { mySerial.readStringUntil('\n'); mySerial.readStringUntil('\n'); Out = (mySerial.readStringUntil('\n')); Out += "\r\n"; } mySerial.println("AT+CGPSOUT=0"); delay(100); mySerial.println("AT+CGPSOUT=32"); delay(10); while (mySerial.available()) { mySerial.readStringUntil('\n'); mySerial.readStringUntil('\n'); Out += (mySerial.readStringUntil('\n')); Out += "\r\n"; } mySerial.println("AT+CGPSOUT=0"); Out.trim(); Serial.println(Out); Serial.println(""); //GPS Output Analized int buffint = Out.length(); char buff[buffint]; Out.toCharArray(buff, buffint); const char *gpsStream = buff; while (*gpsStream) if (gps.encode(*gpsStream++)) displayInfo(); Serial.println(""); Serial.println(""); delay(100); if (gps.location.isValid()) { Location_isValid_flag = true; Message = String(gps.location.lat(), 6); Message += ","; Message += String(gps.location.lng(), 6); Message += " "; Serial.println(Message); } } while (!Location_isValid_flag); } //******************* GET GPS END ******************* //******************* SENDING SMS ******************* Serial.println("Start Sending The SMS\n"); Serial.println("Sending The SMS to"); Serial.println(phone_number); SIM808("AT+CMGS=" + phone_number ); delay(200); if (Password_flag == true) { mySerial.println("Open This Link:"); mySerial.print("https://www.google.com/maps/place/"); SIM808(Message); } else { mySerial.println("Password Incorrect! "); } Serial.println("Message Sent!"); Serial.println("Delete All Previous Messages"); SIM808("AT+CMGD=1,4"); delay(2000); //******************* SENDING SMS END******************* //reinitializing flags GetGPS_flag = false; Location_isValid_flag = false; Password_flag = false;}void displayInfo(){ Serial.print(F("Location: ")); if (gps.location.isValid()) { Serial.print(gps.location.lat(), 6); Serial.print(F(",")); Serial.print(gps.location.lng(), 6); } else { Serial.print(F("INVALID")); } Serial.println();}char * floatToString(char * outstr, double val, byte precision, byte widthp) { char temp[16]; byte i; // compute the rounding factor and fractional multiplier double roundingFactor = 0.5; unsigned long mult = 1; for (i = 0; i < precision; i++) { roundingFactor /= 10.0; mult *= 10; } temp[0] = '\0'; outstr[0] = '\0'; if (val < 0.0) { strcpy(outstr, "-\0"); val = -val; } val += roundingFactor; strcat(outstr, itoa(int(val), temp, 10)); //prints the int part if ( precision > 0) { strcat(outstr, ".\0"); // print the decimal point unsigned long frac; unsigned long mult = 1; byte padding = precision - 1; while (precision--) mult *= 10; if (val >= 0) frac = (val - int(val)) * mult; else frac = (int(val) - val ) * mult; unsigned long frac1 = frac; while (frac1 /= 10) padding--; while (padding--) strcat(outstr, "0\0"); strcat(outstr, itoa(frac, temp, 10)); } // generate space padding if ((widthp != 0) && (widthp >= strlen(outstr))) { byte J = 0; J = widthp - strlen(outstr); for (i = 0; i < J; i++) { temp[i] = ' '; } temp[i++] = '\0'; strcat(temp, outstr); strcpy(outstr, temp); } return outstr;}

At the beginning of this code, the password is specified. By sending the correct password to the car tracking system, a text message will be sent to you including the car Google Maps link.

The Google Maps link is similar to this:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/35.705936,51.391628

Click on the link, then you can see the car location in the Google Maps website.

If the password is incorrect, a text message will be sent to you including: “The password is incorrect.”

• Upload the received information to the server.