Tracker?

[VanMan48]

Found a good thread somewhere about the best trackers but typically I can't find it again!

As I (like all of us) have spent a kings ransom on our pride and joys, I wanted to get a tracker installed for peace of mind. So ideally want one that can be easily fitted and then left, ie no worrying having to charge it up or anything. Happy to pay a subscription for the right one. The only one I came across were these : Asset Tracking and Theft Recovery Anyone have this one?

Any recommendations appreciated thanks.

 

[Loz]

https://www.t6forum.com/threads/tracker.2124/

 

[Wongo]

Cantrack Asset, integral battery fit & forget ( except the subs)!

 

[Phil_G]

For an unrelated hobby interest I've been playing with GPS modules lately, just the raw modules that stream NMEA.
Then the other day, purely for interests sake I bought a cheap (£12 delivered) TK102B "GPS Tracker" to play with
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251135383548
and a Gifgaff PAYG SIM 2G Sim Card for GPS Tracking Device Tracker GSM Car Pet Child Personal on PAYG | eBay.
The tracker arrived yesterday, and the SIM today, so I registered the SIM and plugged it all together, not expecting
anything much from such a cheap Chinese trinket - I'd been reading a few reviews, some saying its not actually GPS but AGPS
(cell mast triangulation rather than sats). Well, tosh. It is GPS, it actually uses the ublox module that I've been playing
with all along! Although indoors, it got a fix within a couple of minutes and responded to a text request straight away with
an absolutely bang-on google maps reference. For £12 I'm gobsmacked, it just works superbly well.
I've since seen TK102's for as little as £7.50 delivered. How do they do it? my bare ublox GPS modules are £12 minimum!
The point of all this rattle is that this is a cheap way of trying out the tech before spending a lot, if you're not sure - what does £12 buy you these days? Its small enough to try on your bike, in a kids pocket, or dogs collar, and it comes with two batteries - 1000mAh lithiums which should be good for a few days, and an external power/charge lead which you can use to keep it permanently powered up. Using SMS, with free texts, the SIM top-up should last forever so there are no ongoing costs or contracts. If the tracker breaks you still have the full balance on the SIM to use in a PAYG phone.

Obviously your insurance people wont be at all impressed by any of this, but so far it seems to work as well as anything. You can set it to respond only to your own phone, set up GPRS for real-time tracking (which uses some of your your top-up allowance), or SMS-on-request (which doesnt use any allowance as GiffGaff texts are free). You can set up a vibration alarm, 200-metre ringfence, voice monitoring, it calls you to say the battery is going...

I realise these aren't new, and a lot of you will already be familiar with them, probably old hat by now. But for £12 I'm astonished!

Cheers
Phil

 

[Dannyb6467]

Quartix trackers. I use 4 and have done for 8 years. Not a single problem and the information you can get is spot on.

 

[Phil_G]

Re the TK102B from ebay.
I've done some digging on the topic of GiffGaff SIMs, and this is what I've found:
It seems that texts are only free for a month, after that its 5p each from your remaining credit.
To keep the SIM alive the network needs to see some activity, otherwise it will assume the sim is unused or lost and it will be deactivated.
To avoid this, sending at least one text every 186 days will keep it active. There is no need (as initially feared) to remove the sim, mount it in a phone, make a call, and put it all back again!
Your credit currently lasts forever, these are their current terms which could of course change in future, so if the tracker is only sending the occasional 5p text, the initial top-up could last years.
The GiffGaff SIM comes with £5 of free top-up, but only if you initially choose (at least) the £10 'Goody-Bag' (I wish they'd treat us as grown-ups and use proper terms). This 'Goody Bag' offers free texts but only for a month, when it expires. Thereafter, you are into your remaining £5, at 5p per SMS text. I'd suggest theres no point in going higher than £10 as the 5p texts wont touch it, it will hit its expiry date long before the £10 is spent.

Activation of the SIM is done on the GiggGaff website, and takes "up to 24 hours" - mine took about 4. This process also gives you your tracker's number which you can store in your own phone.

I think thats it in a nutshell, all good news for cheapskate experimenters like me

Cheers
Phil

 

[Loz]

I think that is the same chipset in my back2you tracker so it may also support the geofencing etc.
I have a manul somewhere with all the txt commands.

 

[travelvolts]

We have similar on our bikes hard wired to battery so no charging needed. Perfect everytime. Just go to show, with the big name brands you are paying for the admin, not the kit.

 

[Blitz]

Keep the info coming @Phil_G its very interesting. Obviously you know things so how are these rated against the cheap eBay jammers you can buy. Is the tech the same as the big boys use ? Or are more expensive trackers actually different in that respect?
At that price you could hide a couple in the van for extra protection.

 

[Phil_G]

Yes the tech is identical, bear in mind that the satellites are 14,000 miles away and the signals your GPS picks up are weak in the extreme, so the receivers can be susceptible to any local interference - that said, the ublox is a very good receiver, almost an industry standard, very probably used in more expensive trackers too. Ublox have a (free) application called 'Ucenter' for familiarising, testing & configuring their modules, been playing with that quite a bit lately.
As with most things these days there are some 'copy' ublox modules which have less flash memory and no battery back-up, but even the copies seem to perform equally well and most devices configure the GPS module every time they are switched on, so lack of memory isnt generally a problem.
If it cant get a fix due to poor reception or interference, the tracker will send the last known location, which is better than nothing, depending on when they use the jammer of course
Cheers
Phil

 

[Blitz]

Well if it’s industry standard tech then it’s as good as it gets then. Once you have finished playing around can you post details of the best unit available from eBay and anything else required to fit please. I think I’ll throw a couple in the van whilst I’m having some work done on it anyway. Many thanks @Phil_G

 

[Phil_G]

Sorry Blitz I can only go on the one I've bought, trying several to find which one is 'the best' could get a bit expensive
Theres far more experience of these trackers out there amongst forum members, I can only share what I've found
I'm really happy with this one, I'd buy the same one again as it works perfectly and its such good value, and as a bonus its a familiar chipset.
One thing to note in a permanent installation is that these are 5v charged & powered, so you would need a 5v regulator, a common cig-lighter USB is probably the easiest to do but not the easiest to hide! Alternatively ebay has loads of small inline 5v regulator modules. I'd make sure its either a switching USB regulator or if its a linear that it at least has a decent heatsink, although once the battery is charged it then takes only a few milliamps.
Cheers
Phil

 

[Phil_G]

Just an update, 8 months on from buying the TK102B cheapy ebay £12 tracker - its still working perfectly, does the job. I do have to remember to get a fix from it about once a month to keep the PAYG sim card alive, but a couple of times I've forgotten and GiffGaff didnt disable it. I run it from a 5v USB adapter rather than its internal battery so its permanently on - it uses next to nothing, a few mA when idle. I'm still on the same giffgaff card, I've never topped it up. I think it expires next January. The tracker is set to SMS-on-request which doesnt use any allowance as GiffGaff texts are free - I call the number, wait for it to ring, then hang up. A few seconds later theres a 'beep' and I've a text from the tracker with a Google Maps link. Tap the link and theres your van. If you prefer it can do live positioning, ringfencing, movement detection etc but these all use your sim allowance so SMS-on-request mode suits me.
Twelve quid well spent

 

[Grim Reaper]

I have the Xexun XT009 in my van, Asda mobile sim, same sort of functionality, it also has a cut off circuit so you can wire it to cut an electrical circuit, or using the other contacts on the relay, make an electrical circuit (say an electrically activated smoke grenade for example)

 

[NicolasH]

Just an update, 8 months on from buying the TK102B cheapy ebay £12 tracker - its still working perfectly, does the job. I do have to remember to get a fix from it about once a month to keep the PAYG sim card alive, but a couple of times I've forgotten and GiffGaff didnt disable it. I run it from a 5v USB adapter rather than its internal battery so its permanently

Just an update, 8 months on from buying the TK102B cheapy ebay £12 tracker - its still working perfectly, does the job. I do have to remember to get a fix from it about once a month to keep the PAYG sim card alive, but a couple of times I've forgotten and GiffGaff didnt disable it. I run it from a 5v USB adapter rather than its internal battery so its permanently on - it uses next to nothing, a few mA when idle. I'm still on the same giffgaff card, I've never topped it up. I think it expires next January. The tracker is set to SMS-on-request which doesnt use any allowance as GiffGaff texts are free - I call the number, wait for it to ring, then hang up. A few seconds later theres a 'beep' and I've a text from the tracker with a Google Maps link. Tap the link and theres your van. If you prefer it can do live positioning, ringfencing, movement detection etc but these all use your sim allowance so SMS-on-request mode suits me.
Twelve quid well spent

View attachment 53156

on - it uses next to nothing, a few mA when idle. I'm still on the same giffgaff card, I've never topped it up. I think it expires next January. The tracker is set to SMS-on-request which doesnt use any allowance as GiffGaff texts are free - I call the number, wait for it to ring, then hang up. A few seconds later theres a 'beep' and I've a text from the tracker with a Google Maps link. Tap the link and theres your van. If you prefer it can do live positioning, ringfencing, movement detection etc but these all use your sim allowance so SMS-on-request mode suits me.
Twelve quid well spent

View attachment 53156

Hi Phil,
Thanks for all the info - it’s really useful. I’ve bought one of these and I’m going to hard wire one of these into our T6 camper - can you advise how you did it and what you used? Thanks.
Nick

 

[Phil_G]

I just removed the tracker battery & soldered a power lead to the battery contacts, then on to a 5v USB supply, easy peasy!

 

[NicolasH]

I just removed the tracker battery & soldered a power lead to the battery contacts, then on to a 5v USB supply, easy peasy!

Thanks Phil, sounds pretty straight forward. Can you remember which 5v USB supply you used and where you picked up the 12v from?

 

[Phil_G]

Mines a camper conversion so a 12v feed wasnt a problem. I used a common-or-garden 5v USB regulator board from my stash, about an inch square.
The reg will fit inside the tracker if you prefer, making it a 12v unit

 

[NicolasH]

Mines a camper conversion so a 12v feed wasnt a problem. I used a common-or-garden 5v USB regulator board from my stash, about an inch square.
The reg will fit inside the tracker if you prefer, making it a 12v unit

Thanks Phil, ours is a camper conversion too. Would something like this work for the 5v power supply:

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[Phil_G]

Its overkill but yes, that will be fine