Overview

Owntrack-rs is a self-hosted GPS tracking solution that allows you to record and manage your location data from mobile phones or IoT devices. It provides OwnTracks compatible HTTP and MQTT endpoints, Meshtastic MQTT integration and a built-in viewer application.

Features:
- [x] Owntracks compatible HTTP endpoint
- [x] Owntracks compatible MQTT interface
- [x] Meshtastic compatible MQTT interface
- [x] SQLite local file storage
- [x] PostgreSQL database storage
- [x] GeoJSON and GPX track exports
- [x] Built-In Viewer
- [ ] Password protected and public views
- [x] Mobile friendly vector tile maps

Installation

Pre-built binaries

We provide several options to access pre-built binaries for a variety of platforms. If you would like to manually download a pre-built binary, checkout the latest release on GitHub.

Installer scripts

macOS and Linux:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/pka/owntrack-rs/releases/latest/download/owntrack-rs-installer.sh | sh

Docker

There is a Docker image available on Docker Hub.

Usage:

docker run -d --name owntrack-rs --rm -p 8083:8083 --user $(id -u):$(id -g) -v $PWD:/db -e DB_CONNECTION=sqlite://db/owntracks.sqlite sourcepole/owntrack-rs

Docker Compose

There is a sample docker-compose.yml file that can be used to run owntrack-rs with a SQLite database and a Caddy reverse proxy.

Copy docker-compose.yml and Caddyfile into an empty directory.

Setup your DNS pointing to the public IP address of your server.

Create an .env file with the following content:

#HTTP_ADDRESS=owntracks.example.org
OTRS_USERNAME=owntracks
OTRS_PASSWORD='private'
# docker compose exec caddy caddy hash-password --plaintext 'private'
OTRS_PASSWORD_HASH='$2a$14$CkbCQwO7/duJ/kCObNwEPeiZlmgXrWZ0PXah1DlfkCF70.BIwzZVC'
OTRS_DEVICE_ID=mobile
OTRS_TID=me

#MQTT_URL=mqtts://owntracks.example.org:8883
#MQTT_USER=otrecorder
#MQTT_PASSWORD='mypassword'

Make it readable for the current user only:

chmod 600 .env

Start the containers:

docker-compose up -d

Using the default values, owntrack-rs will be available at https://localhost with login user owntracks and password private.

Build From Source

For users who need to install owntrack-rs on platforms that we do not yet provide pre-built binaries for, you will need to build from source. owntrack-rs is written in Rust and uses cargo to build. Once you've installed the Rust toolchain (rustup), run:

cargo install --path .

Setup & run

Run with default configuration:

owntrack-rs

Configuration options are passed as environment variables or read from a .env configuration file.

Configuration options:

• HTTP_LISTEN: IP address and port to listen on. Default: 0.0.0.0:8083

MQTT

For getting location data via MQTT, an MQTT broker like Mosquitto is required.

Configuration options:

• MQTT_URL: MQTT broker URL. Example: mqtts://owntracks.example:8883
• MQTT_USER: MQTT user name.
• MQTT_PASSWORD: MQTT password.

SQLite database

Configuration options:

• DB_CONNECTION: Database connection URL. Default: sqlite://owntracks.sqlite

PostgreSQL database

Create database:

psql postgres -c "CREATE DATABASE owntracks"

Configuration options:

• DB_CONNECTION: libpq connection string or PostgreSQL URI. Example: postgres://user:pass@localhost:5432/owntracks

Setup tracking devices

OwnTracks apps

The OwnTracks apps can be used in MQTT or HTTP mode.

iOS	Android

For configuring the app, open the setup page of your hosted domain e.g. at https://owntracks.example.org/setup.

• Configure the Android app

Meshtastic devices

Meshtastic devices can be integrated via MQTT.

Setup channel on nodes:

• Setup a primary channel with a private PSK
• Activate uplink_enabled and downlink_enabled (optional)
• Set position_precision to 32 (full precision)

Configure position on nodes:

• Example values for a tracking node:
  • position.gps_update_interval: 10 seconds
  • position.position_broadcast_smart_enabled: true
  • position.broadcast_smart_minimum_distance: 10 metres
  • position.broadcast_smart_minimum_interval_secs: 10 seconds
  • position.position_broadcast_secs: 120 seconds

Configure LoRa on nodes:

• lora.ignore_mqtt: false
• lora.config_ok_to_mqtt: true

Setup an MQTT gateway node:

• Connect your gateway node to wifi, by setting the network.wifi_ssid, network.wifi_psk and network.wifi_enabled preferences.
• Configure your MQTT settings: mqtt.address, mqtt.username, and mqtt.password.
  • mqtt.encryption_enabled: false
  • mqtt.json_enabled: false
  • mqtt.tls_enabled: according to your MQTT server setup
  • mqtt.root: according to your MQTT server setup. For an OnwTracks compatible setup use e.g. owntracks/<user>/msh.

Tested with Firmware 2.6.4.

Use your own devices

Send a POST request to the owntracks endpoint:

curl --data '{"_type":"location","lat":48.856826,"lon":2.292713,"tid":"me","tst":'$(date +%s)'}' -H "Content-Type: application/json" "http://127.0.0.1:8083/owntracks?u=me&d=mydevice"

cargo run

cd frontend

npm install

just ui