GPS trackers through the eyes of a system administrator

Having looked through Habr, I found not many articles on the subject of GPS trackers. One article tells about the types of protocols, someone describes the tracker device from an “electronic” point of view, while others simply promote a specific manufacturer. In this article I want to talk about some of the models with which I happened to work.

I will express my point of view exclusively, and judge trackers by the following criteria:
- availability of manuals and firmware;
- the adequacy of technical support;
- simplicity and flexibility of settings;
-% of marriage and overall reliability;

I can not say anything about the price and representation in different countries, only the bare technical facts. Vision through the eyes of a system administrator who is responsible for flashing, configuring, monitoring, and correcting errors.

WONDE PROUD
As far as I remember, this is the very first producer I encountered with the trackers, and I still consider them one of the most reliable. Company from Taiwan. I know offices that sell trackers from Wonde Proud under their own labels, which again speaks of the high quality of the products.
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For two years of work, only a couple of times I came across the fact that the device failed. Reconfiguration and flashing did not help. At the level of iron (which component is out of order), we do not provide repairs, a specialist of this level does not exist, and the arms themselves are not growing from that place.

No own configurator, configured in two ways:

• using SMS commands;
• using telnet'a (hyperterminal, pytty);

Manual is clear and very detailed. For the minimum configuration, just send two commands:

$WP+COMMTYPE+FREE=0000,4,+71234567899,0,apn.url.com,@login.apn,pass,myserver.domain.com,80600,60,168.95.1.1 $WP+UNCFG+FREE=0000,0123456789 

Very pleased with the two models: the VT-10, and the tracker for the hidden installation of the M7.



VT-10 tracker sometimes freezes. This happens very rarely, but still. It is treated with a banal reboot:

 $WP+REBOOT=0000 

Because of what is happening, it was not possible to find out. It's not about the firmware, and not in the settings. Obviously, some external factors. M7 is also a very worthy piece of hardware, according to the type of installation and battery capacity (a very powerful magnet with a force of 12 kg, capacity 5200 mAh, protection IP67), I do not know any analogues.

ARUSNAVI
And these guys are from Russia. Have their own production, are engaged in the release of the GPS trackers, components for them, as well as the LLS (Fuel Level Sensor).

All the necessary information is on the website: device driver, user manual and configurator.
You can configure the device in two ways:

• Set the settings in your account and send a confirmation SMS to the tracker;
• Connect the device to the computer and configure through the configurator;

The device is also flashed through USB, or remotely through a personal account and SMS confirmation.



Pretty reliable trackers with external antennas. In a lot of 100 pieces came across defective antennas.
Technical support works well, quickly respond to requests.

RUPTELA
Lithuanian company with very good support service. Respond quickly, deployed respond. They have one of the best information resources with documentation, firmware, configurators and other material.

Very user friendly, intuitive configurator. Everything is simple, everything is near, nothing superfluous.




TELTONIKA
Lithuanian company. Produces a wide range of models.



There are separate programs for firmware and configuration.



Galileosky
Russian company. Only 2-3 times set up trackers from this manufacturer. Pleased with a convenient and intuitive configurator.


OTHER
In rare cases, I came across manufacturers: Meitrack, Queclink, etc. Unfortunately, I didn’t work closely with them, I can’t say anything.

I hope the information will be useful. I can write in more detail about the firmware and configuration of individual models.

Thank you for attention.