The H02 protocol is the ASCII wire format used by Sinotrack, Cantrack, Secumore, and a long tail of OEM-clone GPS tracker brands. It evolved alongside Coban's GPS103/TK103 but went a different direction in packet structure: hash-delimited fields starting with *HQ, instead of semicolon-delimited. Same goal · cheap silicon, simple decode, fixed packet shape. Different OEM ecosystem.
Protocol-at-a-glance
- Transport · TCP (UDP variant exists for some Sinotrack firmware)
- Default port ·
5013(Traxelio's ingest port; matches the Traccar default) - Encoding · ASCII text, comma-separated, message bracketed by
*HQ,…# - Auth · login implied by the first packet carrying IMEI; no explicit ACK exchange
- Heartbeat · device-driven, every ~2-5 min (configurable via SMS)
Packet examples
A typical H02 position record:
*HQ,4109179276,V1,180000,A,2233.4567,N,11402.1234,E,0.00,0.00,310525,FFFFFBFF#
Fields (in order): start-marker (*HQ,) · IMEI · message type (V1=position, V0=keep-alive, BR00=blind-spot binary, etc.) · UTC time · validity flag (A=valid GPS lock, V=invalid) · latitude · N/S · longitude · E/W · speed · course · UTC date · status bits (hex bitmask, varies per model).
The trailing # is the end-of-message marker · everything between *HQ, and # is one record.
Why the Sinotrack/Cantrack ecosystem is its own thing
- Different OEM lineage · Sinotrack and Cantrack come out of separate Shenzhen design houses than Coban (GPS103) and Concox (GT06)
- Wider hardware family · Sinotrack alone has dozens of model numbers (ST-901, ST-902, ST-905, ST-906, ST-907, ST-909, GTR-100, LK206A, more) all speaking H02
- Pet / asset / motorcycle skew · much of the H02 catalog targets smaller form factors (pet trackers, motorcycle trackers, asset tags) not vehicle-class
- Self-install heavy · most H02 devices ship as plug-and-go, no professional install needed
Configuring an H02 device for Traxelio
H02 devices use SMS commands closely modeled on the GPS103 set but with slight syntax differences per OEM. The most common Sinotrack syntax:
server,0,traxelio.com,5013,0#
apn,internet# (replace with your carrier's APN)
center,A,YOUR_PHONE_NUMBER# (so SOS calls reach you)
timer,30# (position every 30 seconds)
The Cantrack and Secumore variants use the same SMS shape with vendor-specific opcodes · check the model's command sheet.
Supported devices in our catalog
91+ devices declare protocol: "h02" · the headline models: Sinotrack ST-901 / ST-905 / ST-907, Sinotrack GTR-100, Sinotrack LK206A, plus the Cantrack and Secumore lineups and many AliExpress / Alibaba no-name H02 rebrands.
H02 vs GPS103 vs GT06
Quick disambiguation · these three dominate the budget tier worldwide:
| Protocol | Packet style | Header | Vendor lineage | Port (Traxelio) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H02 | ASCII | *HQ, … # |
Sinotrack / Cantrack / Secumore | 5013 |
| GPS103 / TK103 | ASCII | imei:…,tracker,…; |
Coban / TK family | 5001 / 5002 |
| GT06 | Binary | 0x78 0x78 [LEN] [PROTO] … |
Concox / Jimi / OEM clones | 5023 |
Traxelio decodes all three. Mixed-vendor fleets are common · the dashboard treats them as the same kind of GPS event, the per-device protocol just changes how the wire is parsed.