This is a tutorial on how to create a gps tracker for yourself, and see the path youve gone over the course of a day or year, the software im going to use is called OpenTracks and is a open-source free tracking software. it is self-hosted, (COOL!) and has a good android app (a must IMO).

Requirements: you must know how to use docker

Install Owntracks server

owntracks/recorder - Docker Image | Docker Hub

Docker - OwnTracks Booklet

Note: using test.mosquitto.org means anyone on the net can access your gps data, if you dont really care or are just testing go ahead, but youve been warned.

i did this because i didnt want to have to setup tls with mqtt because tls is always somehow painful to setup....

ssh [email protected]
docker volume create recorder_store


docker run -it -p 8083:8083 -p 1883:1883   -v recorder_store:/store -e OTR_HOST=test.mosquitto.org  owntracks/recorder

How to run for production (IE run with reboot, and in background as a daemon)

docker run -d --restart=always -p 8083:8083 -p 1883:1883   -v recorder_store:/store -e OTR_HOST=test.mosquitto.org  owntracks/recorder

install mqtt (docker)

Docker Hub

mkdir -p /mosquitto/config
touch /mosquitto/config
touch /mosquitto/data
touch /mosquitto/log

docker run -it -p 1883:1883 -p 9001:9001  -v /mosquitto/data -v /mosquitto/log eclipse-mosquitto

now host it and point to your own mqtt server

# or use locally hosted version
docker run -d -p 8083:8083 -p 1883:1883  -v recorder_store:/store -e OTR_HOST=mqtt_broker owntracks/recorder

Note the above method i didnt end up using

Found something interesting!

turns out im not the only one who thought of this! and it looks like other people are also using this same mqtt server!

you can see where they are currently on the globe!

Wait what?

Oh wait theres more...

you can also see there exact location in realtime, and what their phone batteries level is!

Happy tracking!

Author

by oran collins
github.com/wisehackermonkey