Vehicle Tracking Systems In South Africa

[Kanisha Dezarn]

Thereason behind this project is because of the older vehicles that are still being used by transport companies in South Africa. The original odometers are old mechanical instruments that are prone to failure and extremely expensive to repair.

Newer vehicles have got electronic systems but they are not able to be viewed by the owner when the vehicle is on the road etc.

I have looked around at various options. (I have also worked for most of the major tracking / fleet management companies in SA) Currently I own a fleet management company that has various systems but has not developed anything that can be used as "replacement clocks" for older vehicles. There are products out there that do offer GPS speed, but seeing as we already monitor RPM, fuel levels, ignition status, driver id, speed, etc just to name a few, it would be a good idea to offer the extra bit which is the display that allows the driver to see what the "Controller" is already seeing on a computer back in the office...

Protection for a "load dump" event where the alternator goes uncontrolled and gives a spike of 40V into your equipment.

A> Currently bench testing a power supply that can handle 6 to 36 volts (Will also investigate voltages higher than that.

The display needs to withstand driver's feet and drinks getting spilled on it.

A> Ah... The display... Yes, it must be rugged enough to handle almost anything that can be thrown at or over it. I am "playing with the 16x2 LCD, but this might change. Also will be housed behind clear glass or perspex.

Is the driver expected to look at the display while in motion? Then there's a lot of user-interface design to be worked out.

A> I do not want anything to hold the drivers attention. He/she should be driving, not playing with clocks. The use of buzzers / flashing LED's to alert to a issue/problem is probably the route to be taken.

That is not a 1-week job.

I 100% agree with you on this one. So far it has taken about a month to get info from existing clients as to what their requirements (wish lists) are. I think that was the hardest part.

As has been suggested, the electronics for this is not that difficult, by far the main issue is making it rugged enough for a harsh environment.

A> As above, I have a toll and die make that already has a few ideas. He is just waiting for all the "bits" so he can wrap it all up into a tough little package.

If you are going to remotely disable the engine by SMS, how are you going to be sure its safe for the vehicle to stop suddenly if its moving ?

A> Yes. This is an extremely emotional question. A lot of current companies have done away with remote immobilization due to the chance of accidents being caused. Understandably, this is a dangerous situation that can be caused if the engine cuts unexpectedly.

Idea 1. If the command to cut the vehicle is recieved by the system, it should:

a. Alert the driver that the engine is going to cut by sounding the buzzer for a period before the engine is actually cut.

b. Switch the relay on and off, with each "off" being gradually longer than the previous.

I like just killing the starter. If the truck is in motion then this doesn't stop the engine but it prevents it from moving again after it's parked. If the driver knows it has been killed then he will know not to turn off the engine, so this isn't a highly secure system. But it will stop most thieves.

It sounds like you are well on the way to solving all the problems. Once you've prototyped it on an Arduino then you will want to put the AVR chip onto your own PCB. The Arduino headers aren't designed for longevity. Or order Arduinos without headers and solder them directly to your carrier board.

The SAE standard on electrical protection for automotive devices is extremely long and technical. You also have to pay to download it. Google around a bit - there's lots of people that have solutions to the adverse events described in that standard. There are a lot of devices built for this - their datasheets give you the information on what they protect. I like TVS diodes a lot - they can handle a lot of different kinds of problems.

OTOH it can stop stealing because thieves know it's not worth it: I've heard mobile phone thefts have gone down very much since most phones now are locked with what's often a rather simple code (but three wrong guesses and you're out), and many have an option to be disabled completely remotely.

wvmarle:

I've heard mobile phone thefts have gone down very much since most phones now are locked with what's often a rather simple code (but three wrong guesses and you're out), and many have an option to be disabled completely remotely.

I have the GPS working with the LCD screen which shows current GPS speed and number of sats. The speed buzzer/Speed LED is working. Trying to work out odometer.... (possibly above my grasp of Arduino coding.....)

I would like to suggest using a different software serial library. Here is a description of the various alternatives to SoftwareSerial. SoftwareSerial is NOT RECOMMENDED, because it disables interrupts for long periods of time. This can interfere with other parts of your sketch, or with other libraries. AltSoftSerial is the best, but it requires using pins 8 & 9 instead of 2 & 3. NeoSWSerial is next best -- it would work on pins 2 & 3. Both of these alternatives are available from the Arduino IDE Library Manager, under the menu Sketch -> Include Library -> Manage Libraries.

I would also like to suggest a smaller, faster, more accurate and more reliable GPS parsing library, NeoGPS (also available from the Library Manager). Even if you don't use it, there is lots of information on the Installation and Troubleshooting pages. Here is your original sketch, modified to use NeoGPS and NeoSWSerial:

Notice how the loop structure has changed a little. Everything is triggered by the receipt of a new GPS "fix", which usually happens once per second. You can use these fixes as a 1-second "clock". If you only want to show the GPS information once every 12 seconds, you can just count the fixes.

NeoGPS provides an integral distance function that you can use for an odometer. Be aware that "jitter" in the GPS location makes it look like you are moving, even if the device is stationary. You might want to ignore locations until your speed gets above 5kph or so.

Also notice how it checks the validity flags for every field. Sometimes the GPS device does not know something, and you should verify that a field is valid before using it. NeoGPS provides validity flags for every field.

Hello there,

you said you did a project on alarming whenever speed exceeds the preset value. Can you please share the program for that? Actually, I started learning Arduino last week please go easy with the explanation.

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