Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Gping.io – Like TinyURL for your car

gping.io

51–60 of 78 posts

Re: Show HN: Gping.io – Like TinyURL for your car

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TinyURL is a short URL that takes you to some piece of information on the web. This is a short URL that takes you to information about your car. I found the name confusing at first, but I can see the logic behind it.

How about just "get a URL for your car"?

Why are people so hung up on the url? What's important is the information that you can access. Its like describing Facebook as a set of urls for people

Re: Show HN: Gping.io – Like TinyURL for your car

#55
Cool service, but I agree with comments below that state the analogy to TinyURL is not quite right.

This seems more like “Find My iPhone” or “Find My Friends” for your car. It’s true those services are most familiar to iOS users, but it’s overall a better analogy.

Re: Show HN: Gping.io – Like TinyURL for your car

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about just "get a URL for your car"?

Why are people so hung up on the url? What's important is the information that you can access. Its like describing Facebook as a set of urls for people

Perhaps because without nothing is useful if you don't know where to find it?

Re: Show HN: Gping.io – Like TinyURL for your car

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, my solution requires a $5 adapter. I did not know about this; really exciting to find a competitor with a solution 20 times as expensive. Thank you!

There is also https://dash.by which works with many cheap OBDII devices, including Bluetooth ones. I was actually about to get started with them, but your setup is actually a cool idea. That is to say, you are combining an OBDII dongle and a cheap phone into what is essentially a single "device" which is actually internet connected. My suggestion would be to research Automatic and Dash and see if you can improve on t…

There are devices like http://www.ebay.com/bhp/bluetooth-gps-receiver

I have one from 2008, which I don't use anymore. It speaks NMEA and it sends the data over GPRS. I guess there are 3G devices now. An advantage of GPRS is that it's everywhere (at least in Europe) because basically it's data over GSM. It's cheap. A data only SIM with 2 MB per month per year (yes MB) was 12 Euro per year. But you're not sending many positions and it's few bytes per position. I made a site like gping.io back then. Not enough customers but it could be different now.

A word of caution for any kind of GPS device, phone included. The GPS antenna needs to see the sky, best if a lot of sky. The roof of the car is enough to severely shield the GPS signal. You need assisted GPS then.

Re: Show HN: Gping.io – Like TinyURL for your car

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are people so hung up on the url? What's important is the information that you can access. Its like describing Facebook as a set of urls for people

Perhaps because without nothing is useful if you don't know where to find it?

I wish there was some search engines on the web

Re: Show HN: Gping.io – Like TinyURL for your car

#59
http://www.opengts.org build your own if you want. Works with android phones or IoT devices if you want to do some integration work. Also supports things like boundary areas (get alerts if a thing being tracked enters / leaves a defined area). Works with open street maps to around the GMaps ToS stuff about tracking mentioned elsewhere. I forget the name of the android app which sends the location pings to this but it's a thing.

Re: Automatic, it's slightly different. Automatic connects via Bluetooth to your phone to periodically upload batch data. This seems like it could be more useful for fleet management. Automatic is more tailored to consumers who are more concerned with e.g. Where did I park, maximizing gas mileage, tracking a teen driver, driving more smoothly, gas costs, etc. automatic can also read and reset DTC (diagnostic trouble codes) and e.g. Pop an iOS notification when you're low on gas. Yes it's $100 (or $70-80 on sale) but it does a lot more, doesn't require a dedicated phone, and tucks away out of sight under your dashboard. It's a pretty slick little gadget. I have them on 2 vehicles.

Re: Show HN: Gping.io – Like TinyURL for your car

#60
post #35

So, since this is asking for what boils down to a cheap/disposable android device, what is the cheapest one you can buy readily without resorting to sketchy ebay sellers, etc.? Used/refurb is fine.

I use a 1st gen Moto E for bluetooth OBDII monitoring. They were $99 new, and I think the latest 2nd gen is $69 new. Used ones are in the $20-$40 range. Torque Pro runs well on it, but the screen is kinda small.
Post reply on HN