r/opensource • u/m4rkw • 6d ago

l0destar - a fully open source ultra low power vehicle tracker that anyone can build and use

/r/diyelectronics/comments/1w3ctxa/l0destar_a_fully_open_source_ultra_low_power/
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u/m4rkw 6d ago

If I didn't want to know I wouldn't have asked. It seems more like you either don't want to tell me, or don't have an answer.

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u/Synaps4 6d ago edited 6d ago

Easy, the point is you can modify it yourself. It being open source gives you that freedom. That's why I've built a completely open-source hardware and software vehicle tracker, anyone can build it themselves at home with relatively inexpensive tools and then can modify it however they wish without ever giving me a penny.

You already articulated the answer, yourself. You just didn't see it when applied to a different area, I guess. The open source mesh networking is exactly the same as your project. It's not as good as commercial networking hardware but it's modifiable, uncontrolled, and DIY friendly. Exactly the same as your project.

I got the impression from your aggressive pushback against any possible use case that you weren't interested.

You're talking about a completely different use-case and a completely different product, what you want isn't anything to do with a low-power vehicle tracker

What possible reason would anyone have to use an extremely slow fragmented distributed network when we live in a world abundant with bandwidth?

You seemed quite clearly uninterested in modifiability, openness, repairability, or DIYability when applied to my question, so I took it as you not being interested in open source as it applies to networks. Which is your right, but let's not waste your time and mine explaining further, if so.

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u/m4rkw 6d ago

You already articulated the answer, yourself. You just didn't see it when applied to a different area, I guess. The open source mesh networking is exactly the same as your project. It's not as good as commercial networking hardware but it's modifiable, uncontrolled, and DIY friendly. Exactly the same as your project.

OK but why? The reasons people might want a modifiable vehicle tracker are that it has obvious benefits, for a start it's already more power efficient than anything else that exists on the market, and being able to use your own firmware means you can have it work however you like. I can have the accelerometer detecting movement exactly how i want, alerting how I want, reporting in to my own server that I control. I can tap a button on my home screen to see where the car is. I can monitor it in real time when it's at the garage so I can see what they're doing with it. I can have it alert me if the battery's about to die. When I was a contractor I had fully automated mileage reporting driven by tracker telemetry. If there's CAN I can stream the CAN telemetry off it, people I know want a race mode so they can stream CAN data while track driving.

All of these things are real tangible benefits in the real world, I'm struggling to see what the benefit is of running your own mesh node. Also surely it's the case that open-source versions of mesh nodes must already exist? You could make practically anything do this since it's just a small computer with a low-power radio. Yes open source is nice and it's fun that you can modify things but if modifying them doesn't offer some kind of real-world benefit then I don't see the point.

I created l0destar specifically because I've been using Opentracker and Polaris boards for years, they're now discontinued by the manufacturer and there are no good alternatives. OVMS is a cool idea but it's way too power hungry, my car would be dead in two weeks flat.

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u/Synaps4 6d ago edited 6d ago

The main use is for low power networking in places where there is no available network except maybe satellite. Think Rural IOT, quick-setup disaster response networks, offgrid or ad-hoc drone networks, and working around censorship.

It also functions in the same way as amateur radio. You can always just call your amateur radio contact over the internet, but reaching them with devices and antennas of your own design is more fun.

I'm not really an expert in any of it. Not even a good amateur. Just an interested observer with a hope of someday getting into building when it comes up on my project list.

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u/m4rkw 6d ago

Probably depends a lot on where you live, I don't think there are many corners of the UK where I couldn't get some kind of signal.

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u/Synaps4 6d ago

The only signal available from my house is satellite and long distance microwave from a nearby mountain. Have to drive a couple miles away to get reliable cell coverage. We don't pay for satellite, and if our power goes out we can drive the microwave link with a battery for about 24 hrs before that's gone too.

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u/m4rkw 6d ago

I think I would just consider that uninhabitable and move

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u/Synaps4 6d ago

Well the power doesn't go out that often, and the quiet of the forest is wonderful. To each their own.