GPS Trackers... some things I've found researching.

[Loz]

Personally I'm not convinced about fitting kill switches and relay deactivation. I reckon car thieves nowadays will be pretty clued up and capable of bypassing things direct from the battery.
As for remote stopping the engine, just plain dangerous and as Matt has said most likley illegal for that reason. Certainly remote start is a nono so I guess remote stopping is as well.

Nothing to say it can't be remotely "blown up"

 

[briwy]

Mm, exactly how would you fill in the claim form?
"Well I blew up my vehicle to prevent it being stolen"
Could lose the no claims bonus on that one.

 

[T6 CFO]

I went to a village in Leicestershire on Friday to Saturday and parked the Cali on someone's drive. I set the Back2You Geofencing feature and waited for the confirmation text back, which didn't come. The owner of the drive is an IT wizard and said there was very limited GifGaf signal there.
I assumed that should it be stolen it would get to a place with a signal fairly soon and then arm itself. I moved it the following morning and cancelled the Geofencing command.
I've had a number of texts today from it giving it's position where I had parked it.

Does anyone know what is the best procedure in an area with limited signal.
Is it best to set the Geofencing whilst you have a signal and if you are parking in a location without a signal at least it is already armed? It will then, I assume, send texts with it's location as soon as it gets a signal again.

Had a play around with mine today. GSM signal returned without antenna was 14. Range is 1-31. With antenna I'm getting 19 so I'll leave it on.


Mike

 

[MattBW]

I have been using this site http://gps-trace.com/en/index.html in conjunction with a few Tk 104 devices, the battery in one of our vans has lasted a couple of months and is now at 25%. I have just recharged it for the first time.

I have also found a free tracking website service and have set this up too. http://gps-trace.com/en/index.html
I don't use the gprs mode very often but it would be handy to enable for live tracking if the worst happened.

 

[MattBW]

Oh and I configured my TK104 as this for it to work with live tracking etc
http://gps-trace.com/en/hardware/vehicle/GPS103-B

 

[DM]

I think those work with a network of users, like crowd sourcing the Bluetooth data. If your van is in Grimsby then it will only show up if someone with the app is nearby.

They are pretty cheap but they are reliant on being nearby or a big user base to be effective for things that have travelled. I suspect for things like vans they will be hit and miss. For your keys lost in the house they are no doubt brilliant.

Yes - these are crowdsourcing based. I'm not convinced there are enough users out there to really make this effective. I use 'tile' to find my keys and wallet which I misplace regularly. I've done a few tests to see how long it takes for the 'crowd' to find a tile. It can often be many days and 'tile' supposedly has one of the largest communities. I'll try a test now on my daughter's car keys (at 14:05 on 28 Feb). I'll let you know how long it takes to find them with crowdsourcing.

 

[DM]

pay as you go sim

its important to bear in mind that PAYG SIMs need to be used regularly. The mobile carriers will disconnect unused SIMs - typically after about 3 months of non-use. So its important to make sure you test them at least monthly.

 

[MattBW]

I have a tesco mobile sim which they recommended to me because it doesnt expire. I think its a "triple" sim. Whatever you put on the sim triples but only for 30 days when the remaining bonus amount is removed.

My t25 has a £5 a month sim in it but its probably overkill.

 

[DM]

they recommended to me because it doesnt expire

I work in the telecoms industry and I'm afraid I've learnt never to believe a word that anyone tells me. The Ts and Cs are what count. we're all guilty - we never read them.

I just took a look at Tesco's PAYG Ts and Cs. They will disconnect after 6 months. But all you should need to do is send it a single text within that period. Its also important to check whether it is also necessary to maintain a positive credit balance. So best to find a contract where the credit never expires.

"5.4 If you do not use your Mobile Phone for six months we will disconnect you and you will lose your Credits and Mobile Phone number. If your Mobile Phone is disconnected and you would like to reconnect it, you must call Customer Care."

You should be OK if you are paying monthly.

 

[MattBW]

The battery won't last more than 2 months, so I will get a text when it needs charging, hopefully will be ok.

 

[Jez]

Hi here in Ireland I use a SIGFOX uhf tracker which is quite good. I think for some reason there is not great coverage in the UK but most of Europe is fine. It's the same technology used by submarines to talk apparently. The gps data is brilliant but shows you where you were/are on google maps.

 

[MattBW]

Looks very interesting, where did you get yours from?

 

[Jez]

Munster gps website and look under personal gps!

 

[Jez]

Sorry look under sim free gps. Little box that lives ** **** ** *** *******!

 

[Taff7996]

Has anyone fitted a plug and play GPS tracker

Looking to have somethin that is hard wired

http://www.back2you.com/plug-and-play-gps-tracker.html

 

[MattBW]

They seem a good idea but I think the obd port on a t5/6 is very easy to find and easy to remove. My own preference is to get one I can hide very well so they can't disable it. If there is another way to hide them away they may prove good.
Does the T5/6 have any other obd ports?

 

[Taff7996]

They seem a good idea but I think the obd port on a t5/6 is very easy to find and easy to remove. My own preference is to get one I can hide very well so they can't disable it. If there is another way to hide them away they may prove good.
Does the T5/6 have any other obd ports?

Not that I know of, how do others hard wire the standard back2you in

 

[MattBW]

From what I can see the back2you is based upon a tk104 base hardware but with their own data service included in the price, support and I assume some form of map tracking.

My tk104 will run off a battery for a couple of months quite happily so you can opt to not wire it in at all, or a simple battery connection is the hard wire option. I assume the back2you would be the same.

 

[MattBW]

Munster gps website and look under personal gps!

http://www.ticatag.com/product/tifiz/?lang=en

http://www.munstergps.ie/tifiz.htm

Very tempted but notice the UK tracking is very patchy. However the long battery life is very tempting.

 

[Erbster]

Not that I know of, how do others hard wire the standard back2you in

I have the back to you and have not bothered hard wiring it because battery lasts 3 months. A cable is provided with a plug, so could be hard wired if needed. Support from the firm is good.


Charles

 

[Taff7996]

I paid for the live tracking, it states on their website that this could make the battery drain in about a week
I have had to recharge it twice in 11 days
So I've hard wired in to the leisure circuit, Before I plug the hard wire kit in, the unit was showing 5% battery left,
Control pannel is showing leisure battery at 100%, with 0.6 amp usage

 

[MattBW]

You can switch the data tracking on and off too if you want to save power a bit or you find the drain too much. I do this on my tk104, I use it in SMS mode until I want to track it live on the site. This gives me 2 or 3 months battery life

The command to send I think is as below where 123456 is replaced with your password.

sms123456

Back to data tracking mode is:
gprs123456

 

[Jason wallace]

I paid for the live tracking, it states on their website that this could make the battery drain in about a week
I have had to recharge it twice in 11 days
So I've hard wired in to the leisure circuit, Before I plug the hard wire kit in, the unit was showing 5% battery left,
Control pannel is showing leisure battery at 100%, with 0.6 amp usage

Out of interest which model did you go with? Any issues so far?

Looking to put something on my Ocean shopping list.

 

[SimonB]

Back2You Trackers - I bought one of these in a Black Friday sale and with the Forum discount I got it for around a £100. I was very happy with it for the first year and then the battery life began to slowly decrease. I noticed other people on the Forum having the same problem. I had a couple of calls with the company over the 18 months I'd had it, for resetting it and they were always very helpful, so on Tuesday 27th I rang and asked if they did exchange batteries. "Yes we do," was the reply "£25" so I posted it off to them mid morning. It arrived back this morning with a new battery in it. 3 days including postage both ways.
The advice to make the battery last longer is to fit both the aerials onto it, even if they are coiled around the unit even if they don't appear to need it. Just like a mobile, if it can't get a good signal it ups the power to boost the signal & runs the battery down.

 

[SimonB]

I have a 'back2you' tracker in mine, despite what they say about battery life I have found it to be a week at most. They replaced my unit when I complained but the replacement is just the same. Other than that works well, can be set to tell you if your van has been moved, it sends text messages with link to Google maps to identify vans location.

I know this is an old post, but maybe you still have the tracker. If you look at the end of this thread I rang the company and they do exchange batteries. He also said if you park in an area with a poor phone signal and just use the internal aerial the tracker will up the power to try to find a signal. I've now had the battery replaced and am using the 2 aerials to improve the signal.
Simon