Tracking location of my mobile devices

[demokedes]

Dear all,
I would like to save/track location of my mobile devices. Till this september I was doing this with "Apple Find My" node. In September Apple changed something on their end and it is not working anymore.
Now I would like to find a bypass. I was thinking of using Google Maps location
Does anyone have an experience with it?
I was checking this: How to get Google Maps location attributes? - Third party integrations / Node-RED - Home Assistant Community (home-assistant.io), but I don't understand it 100%. I need some guidance here.
Thank you in advance!

[E1cid]

Take a look at Owntracks

[demokedes]

I've just taken a look. It looks nice. I am a bit worried about battery usage, but I will give it a try. Just wanted to configure Webhook relay, but the service is not working. Anyone else experiencing that?

[mudwalker]

Used to use it, but no longer have it installed, so can't check the settings. But one of the Features is:

Automatic publishes at configurable maximum intervals under the condition that the devices moved the specified number of meters. Publishes may occur earlier if a new location is avaiable.

So battery could be conserved.

[lu4t]

I use Owntracks for a very similar use-case. It works fantastic, there's a bunch of things you can do on top of it...

By the time I set up the whole thing, I posted this explaining how to expose a local node-red instance free and secure. The use case was allowing owntracks app to report back where the mobile is:

Free and SSL secured access to your node-red instance running on a Raspberry Pi

Some months back, I published a video showing how to use cloudflare tunnels to access node-red running on a Synology NAS. I told @cymplecy on this post I would grab my old RPi and record a video showing how to get the same result if node-red was running on a RPi as a host. Well, this is the result of the "promise" I did. Hoping the community can take advantage of it also: [HOW TO: Remote access a Raspberry Pi using a Cloudflare tunnel (node-red and ssh).] Take care! …

[Giamma]

@lu4t

I use Owntracks for a very similar use-case. It works fantastic

My experience with Owntracks is incorrect positions, request position don't work...
reported bugs but after 2 months no update came out, basically a very bad software ....

[lu4t]

@Giamma

reported bugs but after 2 months no update came out,

Interesting comment. Just curious: How much time takes you (on average) correcting a bug that someone using your open source code reports?

[demokedes]

I've decided to test owntrack. I was following this tutorial: Fast & simple location tracking with Node-RED and OwnTracks - DEV Community
I successfully see location received to webhook relay:

But I don't get any message on output of Webhook relax in nodered, although it is stating, it is connected:

Any idea, what am I doing wrong?

[demokedes]

I found an error. Name of the webhook relay needs to be 100% the same as bucket. After I corrected it, I immediately started receiving messages.

[demokedes]

I configured owntracks in a way, they are fulfilling my expectations. But now I have some questions regarding applications itself is anyone has some more experience about it:

1. Application is sending location to server only when it is running in the background.
2. Does that mean I have to turn it on after each restart of the phone? Is there any way, to start it automatically in the background?
3. As I understand "Significant" mode is ok, because it is not sending location, if locations is not changed. Is it possible to configure the parameters of the the modes?

[lu4t]

I guess you're using http mode; I use mqtt which is less verbose and consumes less battery. I'd recommend you give it a try.

Anyhow, your questions depend on the phone you're using (Android vs iPhone) and are answered on their docs:
https://owntracks.org/booklet/guide/scenarios/