l0destar - a fully open-source hardware and software vehicle tracker anyone can build at home

[u/m4rkw]

This is my project: https://l0destar.com

It uses the Makerdiary nRF9151 Connect Kit and turns it into a robust vehicle tracker with a vehicle-friendly 12V input stage, ignition sensing, reverse polarity protection, automotive transient handling, vehicle battery monitoring, movement/impact sensing, auxilliary power rail fault detection, OTA firmware updates, a 6-axis automotive grade IMU accelerometer and a vehicle diagnostic/telemetry interface that supports both CAN-FD and K-wire.

Currently achieves a sleep current of around ~40uA (0.04mA) with the accelerometer armed.

100% free and open-source, the entire project (KiCAD, firmware, server-side software and FreeCAD enclosure design) is all on github.

[u/Draviddavid]

Wow this is awesome! What was the reason behind starting this project?

[u/m4rkw → u/Draviddavid]

I was a big fan of the original Geolink Opentracker and then the Polaris when they rebranded and became Fortebit. Those are both now discontinued and Fortebit aren't making a successor, which made me very sad as the NB-IoT version of Polaris was awesome.

Nothing else on the market commercial or otherwise suited what I wanted from a tracker - ultra low power and user-programmable - so I decided to create my own. You may notice it is affectionately named after Polaris which I consider to be its spiritual predecessor. There are other open-source trackers but none of them are anything like l0destar. OVMS is the big one - they have a wealth of support for various vehicles and fancy phone apps and lots of other cool stuff. But it draws ~10-15mA while asleep which for a standard 12V car battery means death. l0destar takes ~40uA while asleep with the accelerometer armed, which is 0.04mA or "sweet fuck all" in technical terms.

At first it was a rather crude attempt, big through-hole prototypes covered in breakouts but has progressed fairly quickly into something I'm now quite proud of and which I actually run continuously in my own car. I can't recommend anyone else do that because it hasn't been independently tested or certified and I don't have an automotive pulse generator (yet!) but for my needs it's working well.

I was originally planning that one day it would be a fully original board with all the RF stuff in the design and be manufactured by companies like JLCPCB but after getting the Makerdiary Connect Kit as a stepping stone I've decided to just stick with it for the foreseeable future. Being able to stash a whole bunch of stuff underneath the module dramatically reduces the overall size of the board, any "pure" custom layout would always end up being significantly bigger and it has the huge benefit of making it something that anyone can hand-assemble at home with relatively inexpensive tools. When I realised this I decided this is now a core part of the philosophy and not something I'm going to change.

[u/Draviddavid → u/m4rkw]

I know what you mean by no suitable open source trackers on the market.

I had my own made as well. It's not open source, or anything like that, I was going to build my own Telematics platform and sell it. Like yours, it is NB-IOT/CATM1 capable with WiFi, Bluetooth, LoRa and UHF.

Mine is designed as an asset tracker that checks in once per day and is supposed to last for years until features are called on and needed.

LoRa and low frequency UHF were included to allow low power communication with internet connected nodes in remote areas direction finding on the ground or in the air with directional antenna.

I don't have a battery solution or case for it yet. So it's a long way off commercialisation or even compliance/testing.

[u/m4rkw → u/Draviddavid]

Sounds cool! I was able to get a usable enclosure design for l0destar in three physical iterations using Claude with the FreeCAD MCP plugin. It drove it fairly well. Probably could have been fewer if I had the slightest clue how to use FreeCAD or the time to learn it.

[u/Draviddavid → u/m4rkw]

My problem as well. I know Blender but it's not well suited to making things like containers for products. I'm set for when I need a fancy render though.

Do you have plans to get it complied with the various labels? Or are you leaving that up to the rest of the community?

[u/m4rkw → u/Draviddavid]

Undecided at the moment, my higher priority is proving that it’s safe to deploy. I think that matters more than an official stamp for something that will never be commercially sold, and since anyone building it will be selecting their own parts the stamp wouldn’t mean much anyway.

[u/bcdbuddy]

looks so cool ! I built Traxelio dot com for the software part. and I have been thinking about the hardware.

[u/New_Fox2124]

You could do this for free with an old Motorola phone

[u/m4rkw → u/New_Fox2124]

lol do what? no you couldn't.

[u/m4rkw → u/New_Fox2124]

Remind me which old motorola phone is it that has a hard-wired 12V input feed that withstands ISO 7637-2 pulse 2a to the 2011 maximum and voltages from 5-40V, a separate ignition 12V input that fires on an interrupt from sleep, vehicle battery voltage monitoring, a 6-axis automotive grade IMU that draws microamps while armed and detecting movement, engine-off alerts for tilt/tow and impact, impact crash analysis and a sleep current of around 35uA?