Track my location ?

[timconsidine]

Apologies in advance, can't think clearly at present.
I thought I saw something on this but I can't find it in searching forum.

Is there a FOSS app in AppStore or something can be packaged which would track my location (well my phone's) ?
Visible only to me, not sharing with anyone, and certainly not <expletive> BigTech.
Doesn't even have to be pretty, just a log of date time and GPS would be minimal solution.

Interested in how others may be handling this.
Prove where you were at hh:mm on dd/mm/yyyy
Short of surgically embedding a chip, it has to be phone (AirTag?).

Context : I just got a penalty notice for overstaying parking.
It's totally wrong, 30 mins allowed, I left in 10 mins.
The way the world is going, I think defensive use of tech will be an increasing need.

As a law-abiding (well, mostly ) citizen, I don't fear tracking providing it's only me that can see/access it.

[edit] : OwnTracks !!! found it (brain not functioning currently)
but still interested in how other FOSS warriors are handling this

[RoundHouse1924]

Traccar
https://docs.cloudron.io/packages/traccar/

[luckow]

https://www.cloudron.io/store/com.gitlab.nulide.findmydeviceserver.cloudronapp.html
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.nulide.findmydevice/

[timconsidine]

@RoundHouse1924 thank you
I did not know Traccar supported a phone or something, but will check it out in case it does.
I had it on a car but there was some concern about battery drain, so I removed it

[timconsidine]

@luckow thank you
I scanned past FindMyDevice because I don't use Android much and thought it was android specific. Will check

[RoundHouse1924]

@timconsidine
Traccar has clients for Android & iPhone
https://www.traccar.org/client/

Also, Traccar Manager for mobile
https://www.traccar.org/manager/

[imc67]

https://forum.cloudron.io/post/108131 Not here yet but seems much better! ️

[timconsidine]

@RoundHouse1924 Thank you ! again !

I had only known of and thought about Traccar for devices to go in vehicles.

I learned that Traccar does have an app for iOS (and Android) to act as a client, which can be configured to register the phone as a device for Traccar server.

It's kind of a fat solution but it's there ! and it's on Cloudron

[nebulon]

For the personal use-case dawarich (which is not yet packaged) would probably be the way to go. I keep watching their releases, eventually we will package it.

Traccar is more like fleet management.

[luckow]

Fun fact: there is an integration for Traccar in Home Assistant
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/traccar/
The moment your smart home knows your location, it can react to this fact.

[timconsidine]

@imc67 yes, it looks a lot nicer (richer), more for a user than an admin of vehicles (Traccar).
But with that niceness / richness comes a lot of code, or maybe it's just the mapping overload.
I'm testing it as a deployment on a VPS.

[timconsidine]

I have a self-hosted Seq to log data submitted to it.
I love its simplicity but power.
If only I could find a phone app to write data out to it.
Might be a case of writing my own !

[timconsidine]

I can be a stubborn cuss at times
I made a simple iPhone app to record GPS location every XX minutes and submit it to my Seq server.
Yep, it's just a log, no fancy graphics, that's Traccar or Dawarich job

Need to test it, but will release it on iOS AppStore if the Apple gods decide it is compliant.

[timconsidine]

My app is now released

No intention to promote it here, but thought I would 'close the loop' on this discussion.
And I have some promo codes for Cloudron users
(for those unfamiliar with promo codes, don't try to buy the app expecting a code box to be shown - needs to be done from your AppStore profile screen, enter code, app downloads after verification)

https://pinme.appx.uk

Key feature is SmartPlaces (geofence) for automatic logging, but ad-hoc and scheduled interval polling also implemented.

GPX and CSV export of logs is available but best use (IMO) is with an instance of Seq (self host using docker compose)

[Kubernetes]

@timconsidine Sounds very interesting as I am looking for something pretty lightweight - without any maps or so. I did send you a private message.

Thanks for your efforts with PinMe!

[timconsidine]

@Kubernetes will check for a message

I initially intended no maps at all, but when implementing geofence, it did make sense to display a map to pick the location.

Log view has a simple map to show what point was logged.

But it’s pretty lightweight I think.

[joseph]

I guess <removed> (was incorrect link) ? Any hope for an android version ?

[timconsidine]

@Joseph ha no
I researched the app name before registering it, and for some reason my research failed to show similar names (couple of them sadly)

The App Store entry is https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/pinme/id6748239224 and the name is PinMe! (with an explanation mark).

As a new app, even with correct name, it doesn't show first.

The app is written in Swift.
My primary phone is iPhone.
I do have Android but use it less.
I will look into Android version, but when time permits.

[joseph]

@timconsidine thanks for the link . btw, your screenshots in appstore have PinMe without exclamation

[timconsidine]

@Joseph ooops thanks for letting me know! will fix