Introduction

Many RouterOS devices have GPS support. It allows RouterOS to determine the precise location of its GPS receiver. GPS coordinates will indicate the latitude and the longitude values (among other parameters) of the current position.

Let's say, you have LTAP (or any other RouterOS device with GPS support) and you wish to track its location. You want the router to send this data to a server, where the data will be stored and integrated into a map, as it is more convenient to monitor. In this guide, we will showcase how you can do that. This scenario will utilize MQTT protocol communication with a platform called ThingsBoard.

Please check our MQTT and ThingsBoard guide as it will have additional useful information. ThingsBoard has a cloud solution and different local installation options (on different OS).

Since we've added a container feature, it became possible to also run the platform within the RouterOS. Meaning, you can build this scenario, solely on RouterOS units → devices with GPS support that you wish to track (for example, cars equipped with LTAPs - RouterOS devices that act as MQTT publishers), and a ThingsBoard server run within a more powerful RouterOS device (for example, a CHR machine or CCR2004-16G-2S+ - RouterOS device that acts as an MQTT broker).

Please check the guide on how to run thingsboard-postgres instance using the container feature by following the link. If you want to choose this route, make sure to pick the devices that you plan on using as a "server" carefully, because this implementation can be heavy on RAM usage (it is suggested to have a device that has at least 2 GB RAM and is either ARM64 or AMD64 architecture).

Configuration

###Configuration###
#Enter pre-configured broker's name within "":
:local broker "pc"
#Enter the topic name within "", per the broker's configuration:
:local topic "v1/devices/me/telemetry"

###Variables####
:global lat
:global lon

###GPS####
:put ("[*] Capturing GPS coordinates...")
/system gps monitor once do={
:set $lat $("latitude");
:set $lon $("longitude");}

:local message \
"{\"latitude\":$lat,\
\"longitude\":$lon}"

###MQTT###
:if ($lat != "none") do={\
:put ("[*] Sending message to MQTT broker...");
/iot mqtt publish broker=$broker topic=$topic message=$message} else={:put ("[*] Lattitude=none, not posting anything!");:log info "Latitude=none, not posting anything!"}