Newbie question on devices with SMS: how the traccar server receives the SMS ?

y28trac3 years ago

Hello,

First off all, thanks for this project ! I have a properly functioning traccar server and the traccar android client works fine.

I would like to use a SMS Tracker. I've understood that you buy a GPS device, you buy a SMS subscription and put the SIM the device and the device send SMS with GPS coordinates.

My question (sorry if it's obvious):
When a GPS device sends a SMS, how does the transformation into a Http request to the traccar server take place? How the traccar server receives the SMS ?

I have searched in the documentation but maybe I didn't understood.

Thanks !

Anton Tananaev3 years ago

Traccar doesn't currently support receiving location data via SMS.

It is possible to receive SMS from devices with Traccar via SMPP, but location data is not extracted and text is just presented to the user as is.

y28trac3 years ago

Ok, So I understand that I need to have a SMPP gateway : thanks ! Any advice on good ones ?

( the documentation was clear that the text is just presented to the user as is and that you have to send it on the right port depending on device type and protocol).

It's obvious but I was blocking :-)

Anton Tananaev3 years ago

You don't send SMS to the right port. Ports are for network data, not for SMS data.

treblig3 years ago

One cumbersome way to do it (I did it a few years ago so it's all from memory) :

  • a GPS tracker sent SMS to a GSM module (SIM800 or equivalent) attached to an Arduino.
  • the Arduino decoded the received SMS and formatted them in osmand format (if I remember well).
  • the Arduino then sent the osmand messages via HTTP to an attached computer running our Traccar server.

I did that some 6 or 7 years ago and I don't recall all the details. I guess all was trashed when I retired because nobody in the company would maintain this setup. So if you want to do something like that, you'll have to reinvent the wheel.

Jack2 years ago

Docs says

SMS notifications are available since Traccar version 3.11. Originally Traccar required SMPP service for SMS, but since version 4.12 only HTTP SMS APIs are supported

https://www.traccar.org/documentation/notifications/#sms

Does it mean that "receiving SMS" is no more possible? But why the "Text message received" notification event still exist? How can I get feedback from my remote commands inside traccar?

Anton Tananaev2 years ago

Not possible anymore for now. It's on the roadmap to implement support and that's why we haven't removed the event.

Jack2 years ago

Thanks for the feedback. Is there a idea / direction about how that will happen?

Considering that at the moment I have full control of my sms gateway, is there a workaround to send message events to traccar by other means? (http curl, whatever?). Thanks

Anton Tananaev2 years ago

Many providers have an option to receive SMS messages. Usually via some kind of web hook.

Jack2 years ago

Yes, I know, I'm already sending/receiving SMS messages on my gateway, question was about how to cause "Text message received" event in traccar as a callback from that event.

Anton Tananaev2 years ago

As I said, it's not supported currently.