Not very traditional but no one needs to know it's even there! After reading the RASH amount of Hot Rods and Customs, Projects being pilfered recently, I decided to go looking for a deterrent. After reading about GPS trackers, some have an annual fee, some have a monthly fee, and some like this one have no fee other than the initial purchase of the unit. I have no vested interest in any of the mentioned tracking devices just trying to open your mind to a way of possibly saving your precious vehicles and or equipment. This one from brickhouse security is the unit I am seriously considering. I am thinking for my use this is my best bang for the buck. You track it yourself on your smart phone tablet or computer. No annual fee or monthly fee. You purchase the unit install it yourself (professional installation is available) and track it your self. Not sure as of yet about needing to update or if you do need to update if there are any fees. But it does seem to be something affordable to most Hot Rodder's and looks pretty simple to install and track in the event you need to do so. Check out the link below. Or if you have experience with other devices that will do the job please let us all know. This thieving thing is getting outta hand! Joe http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/product/brickhouse+hct+pro+plus.do?sortby=bestSellers
You may want to read the fine print a bit closer Joe. "$29.99 per month for unlimited GPS tracking, billed every 30 days. Billing will start 7 days after your purchase. No contract! You can cancel at any time. Discounted service available for multiple devices and customers who pay ahead. Call in for more details. Note: If service is inactive for 60 days or more, the device may need to be returned for reactivation."
All of those systems will have some sort of fee associated with them. I've read several articles about putting together your own system with a cheap burn phone and pay as you go cell phone plan.
You might want to read a little closer. Looks like it is $30/month for activation and tracking. Good idea though.
I put these in a customers rental fleet. http://www.passtimeusa.com/products/products. He uses the Trax-4. He tells me they are less than $200 no fee for 2 years. They are about the size of a zippo lighter. He just uses 2 wires for the locator, but you can wire in the ignition cut off. It gives real time GPS. You can look up location online. He had me put one in his wife's vehicle, they are getting divorced now! I know nothing more about them, but I would put one in my hot rod if I was going overnight somewhere. With 2 wire hook up you could move it from car to car easily enough.
Oldsjoe, if that black wedge thingymabobber in your picture is a GPS antenna, it has to be in sight of a satellite as someone posted on another thread. If the car is in a trailer or a storage unit it won't work so good. Most thieves don't use open car haulers and park the hot wheels out in the open. If they were stupid enough to do so this would catch them though.
We have a guy here at work who had his bike stolen. On his next bike, he installed a device from http://www.arrowtrackfromeclipse.com/ It is pretty cool. The device is a combination of a motion sensor and a GPS. When someone open the car door, jacks up the car, or sits on the bike, the sensor detects the motion and sends a text to your phone or an email or both. You can go online and view a satellite map of where the device is at any time. You can ping the device to see where it is. It runs off of 12 volts and has a small internal battery in case the thief disconnects the car battery. When the battery is disconnected, it sends you a message that the disconnect happened. Has the typical geofences and a speed limit monitor. I know several people that have these and all have very favorable reviews. AND, it is much cheaper than $30 a month but it does have a higher initial cost
Yes it is 29.95 a month I guess what I was trying to communicate was there is no 1yr, 2yr, 3yr, contract to sign up for. What I'm trying to find out, haven't had time to get on the phone is if you can turn it on for a couple months say and then deactivate it for the time the car or cars are in your garage under your control if you want too. Joe
Directed DSM350. $249. $100/year or $200 for three years of service ($0.19/day or less than $6/mo). No contract. You track it yourself through smartphone. You can control electronics like lock/unlock, fuel pump kill, etc. if you wire those in as well. Hotspot notification, Geo fence, over speed notification that you set up and control. You can also add a backup battery.
I did find this one very quickly taking a look on google. Going to talk to an IT fellow I know to see if it's feasible enough to tackle and reliable. Joe http://www.instructables.com/id/Athena-The-Global-Car-Tracking-System/
I've looked at building my own based on a Raspberry Pi controller plus some other bits and pieces, similar to that Arduino based one. For the price, a Tk103 or one of its many clones looks like a better deal. No monitoring service to pay for, just need a phone that can receive text messages. Has a bunch of useful features like remote electric fuel pump kill, door open sensor, car started sensor, battery disconnect alert, geo fencing, speed reporting, too, all for about $30. Small enough to hide in anything bigger than a T bucket.
Like satellite radio, most GPS trackers are useless in a garage or enclosed trailer. The phone gigs are likely the most reliable since you can use most phones while inside about anything but a bank vault. That said, anything is probably better than nothing and worth contacting your insurance carryer to see if they get you any policy savings (you're lowering risk). Carry on...
Here's my theory - theory only at this point. DX.com has the GPS to cell phone hardware - many choices - direct from Hong Kong. No tech support to speak of. About $60. US Mobile - $9 a month for unlimited texts. You would have to figure out wiring, backup battery etc based on documentation provided by GPS. Also need to figure out if US Mobile works with the device.
My friend Aurthur using a device from brickhousesecurity.....Its good. I never used that device. I am using this GPS tracking device from gofleet for my eleven mitsubishi l200 and they are working smoothly. I heard about tomtom and some other tracking devices...
I just watched a show last night wheeler dealer and they installed door poppers on a 63 corvair and those poppers also had a gps tracking system built in them that you can track thru your phone and also a phone app so you can just use your phone to pop the doors open.
The big problem with any of these is the cellular connection prices. Charges every month plus initial hardware purchase. There might be a cheaper way of getting this tracking service but I'm damned if I know what it would be. You know that GM and BMW (& others) pay a lot less per month than we would. They have the same cellular connection.
It's really not much. Hardware is like $40. Check Amazon for options, there are a bunch, all basically clones of the Tk102 / Tk103 design. Some offer more options than others. Cell service is $10 (prepaid H2Owireless SIM card), which gets you 1000 SMS messages in six months. You'll need a smart phone, but many people have those now. You want to know where your car is, it'll cost you 10 cents for the message. You want your car to let you know that somebody just opened the door, or pulled it on to a flatbed, or started it? 10 cents a message. Active tracking is a bunch of messages, but if you're actively tracking your car on the move, do you care if you burn $10 or $20? How much is your car, truck, or trailer worth? We see how many "car stolen" threads here. For $50, it's cheap insurance, easily available. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Yeah but at $250 and $189/yr, people may want to roll their own. And it looks like if the main car battery cable is pulled, unit does not work. Edit- internal battery is in your post, missed that part, it's a good thing.