With the amount of classic fords going walkies recently iv been thinking of fitting a tracker to my cossie. Any advice on what one to get or whats the best options? i have seen cheap ones for about £40 are these worth taking a chance on?

 

Must good installers will tell you smartrack

 

see my other thread - im looking into something like this as well.

Other option is to hard wire an old gps phone and track that

 

You want a system that you can allow the police to Track...not your own phone as I doubt you would get the Police interest in time.

The smart track is really....smart. These can be passively Tracked i.e. the ANPR would ping a stolen vehicle in the cop car without them even looking for it and the top version uses other peoples trackers to spot your car so all the other owners all over the country are looking for your car without them even knowing it. Plus it would be properly installed, hidden and back up battery etc.

There are also back up GPRS etc if the signal drops out, the theif would need to use both types of jammer (which is the downside to all these systems...anything built by a man can be beaten by a man)

Down side is that you could spend well over £500 plus an annual sub BUT if you pride and joy went missing I bet you would be willing to pay much more than that to have a hope of catching them.

 

Police tracking might be nice...if you can be sure they'll bother to do it

I'd be more than happy enough being able to track it online myself, as I know I would be bothered.

 

I use this on my motorbike but cant see why you couldnt use it in a car


http://autocom.co.uk/motorbike-gps-tracker.html


It wires up to the battery and can also be wired to the ignition live. It takes a pay as you go simcard.


You can set several different alarms, if ignition is turned on, if it moves, if it feels a vibration and will text you every 2 or 3 minutes with the location and how fast its moving. It also takes a micro sd which stores the location if it were to loose signal and then when signal is regained will text you the saved data.


All the alarms are armed and disarmed by sending the device a text with your pin and you can also drop call it at any time and it will text you back with the location, so far been very happy

 

You say it texts location ? In what format ?

Can you track it online on google maps etc ?

 

Its texts something like this;


lat:00.000000
lon:00.00000
speed:0.00
T:16/04/22 17:00
http://maps.coogle.com..........
Pwr:ON ACC:OFF


It sends the latitude and longitude coordinates, speed its moving, time and date, a link to google maps which will show the position and the status. The pwr:ON shows its still running off the bike battery, it also has an internal back up battery. Cant fault it for the money it costs

 

that does look like a good bit of kit

 

I believe you can still track them yourself but the point is that the police don't really have any choice other than to respond to the anpr alarm in their car or not and I am pretty sure most traffic cops would respond to a noise in their car telling them that a stolen car has just driven past?

I don't know how tough you are but I don't fancy knocking on the door of some organised car thieves unless the SAS are standing behind me.

 

I've made my own alarm system for my electronics FYP this year for my Saff and indeed ANY vehicle.

It is a standalone alarm system incorporating GPS, GSM (mobile phone communications) and motion sensors.

You can track the car in real-time on Google maps.

A text message is sent to the owner's phone when any of the motion sensors are triggered with which sensor has been triggered and also the GPS co-ordinates. More data can be sent if needed...

It is run off of the car battery but the GPS and GSM modules have a backup battery in case the battery wires are cut by dirty rotten thieving crooks!

It is fully functioning at this stage as the FYP deadlines are finished as of this week although I am planning on adding more functionality to it such as remote start and remote shutoff (in case of a theft). There are legal implications regarding the latter as in the owner is responsible if the crooks have a sudden stop and cause an accident! Maybe not in the UK but in Ireland yes.

Any interest PM me.

Philip.

 

Thanks guys some good info here a few of the above sound good the bike one is the one thats catching my eye, i want to be able to track it myself as stated above cant see police wanting to help much from my past experiences.

 

Sounds good what sort of price are we looking at?

 

Couldn't say right now as all functionality hasn't been programmed in yet...

I'm hoping before the end of the Summer to have it completed. Programming is generally a ballache

Philip.

 

You can with smartrack you can log on and see the cars location on Google maps, it even tells you the battery voltage which is handy

Si

 

You're talking about totally different things.

Specific vehicle tracking and their automated ANPR flagging up a stolen car are not the same thing. Tracking is them pro-actively hunting the car down.

Flagging up on ANPR may happen if the cars number plate is seen by their camera........and lets face it, it isnt hard to remove or stick a false plate on them

 

im might be interested mate

 

Ok Ran sounds good.

What extras exactly are you looking for?

This Summer I'm planning on adding remote start and remote shutoff, by text message or phone call, undecided yet.

Possibly trying to integrate an engine monitor and app also but that would be a lot of extra work and too much for a 3 month timeline I would say.

Anything else?

I'm obviously going to have to develop and test the system for at least 3 months to gain confidence in the system but if you'd like to be a part of that process as a demo model, that could be possible.

Philip.

 

Would be interested too Phillip.

 

That's good to hear Lee.

I'll be starting back at it mid May.

I'll start a thread on here with progress and updates.

If you have any ideas for extras to be added in, please ask and I'll see if they are feasible.

I'm working on remote cutoff first and then remote start.

Regards,

Philip.

 

Anyone used this ?

https://www.rewiresecurity.co.uk/103...-sms-car-alarm

Even Vodafone getting in on the action, no pricing though

http://automotive.vodafone.co.uk/

 

that actually looks quite good and i like the idea of remote shut off too

 

Looks like an awful lot of gear for £60

Tracking software doesnt sound too bad either at only £10 per year.

 

Like the look of that something like this is what im looking for just be interesting to find out if anyones tried it and if their any good?

 

I have just received my TrackR devices - see my other thread but going to keep looking for a more suitable item.

The one above for 60 quid sounds good but i dont want the alarm function as that will b seperate anyway

 

This seems alright

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-GP...-/111201679112

 

This one has remote engine shut off too

https://www.amazon.co.uk/XCSOURCE-Tr.../dp/B003XDN58K

 

So many on the market watching this to see what is best