GPS tracking

[slickncghia]

After some lowlife carnts tried to nick my bike last night from work (thankfully scared off by an onlooking co-worker)

I want to look into GPS trackers.

I work at multiple workplaces so carrying around anything more than a disklock is a PITA and i dont particularly want to be buggering around with alarm systems and their false alarms.

Also my home lacks a garage and due to it being a rental and its design forces the bike to be parked under the carport in full view of the street.

I use a bike cover and disk lock most nights though.

Anyway long story short lets talk GPS tracking.

Nothing would make me happier than rounding up a possie and fucking up some bike theives.

I want something:
small.
long battery life
with online tracking and no monthly fees
not too expensive upfront.


Has anyone had any experience with these things? Do they work? Are they a hassle? Will the cops act on the information? anyone seen any good ones out there?

something allong these lines

http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/covert-small-gps-tracking-device.html

http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/trackstick-mini.html

ect

cheers

[Anakist]

I have heard of guys that use a GPS enabled mobile set up to send an SMS every minute attached to a camera and a weather balloon to take pictures of the curvature of the earth and the blackness of space.

Could do something similar in that it will reply to an SMS with the coordinates of where it is. Nokia phones can use Nokia Sports Tracker which has live online sharing of its position and will log where it has been. But that uses mobile data and is limited to places you can get both mobile data and GPS coverage.

Otherwise something like the links is about it AFAIK.

James

[Jup]

A mercury switch hooked up to your horn is cheaper and more reliable.

It's definately time to start beating some respect into people again... fear is a great motivator.

[JackTar]

There are plenty around like this one

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Mini-Real-Time-Spy-GPRS-GSM-GPS-Tracker-Vehicle-Tracker_W0QQitemZ260492049514QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU _Electronics_GPS?hash=item3ca6893c6a

Only pain is you need a dedicated simcard but I envisage you will need that regardless unless you have a monthly fee one.

[Jup]

Dedicated simcard: There are plenty of dual-sim phones out there now so that has potential IMO, cheapest one I've found is the i9 for $65.00.

[watkins]

new bike alarms aren't bad if you get a decent one

[hotmilk]

maybe the old wire mesh under the seat and second coil trick we used to do to our cars ought to do the trick... wouldnt be entirely comfy on a bike i'd say, but would make some cunt think twice about knocking it off!

[sukit]

Slickncghia,

Woot first post, totally understand your angst, I did alot of research a couple of months back for my excavator and settled on these guys www.precisiontracking.com.au

They have the simplest and coolest web interface i have seen for live tracking. Also their units can be configured to activate on movement only, so it starts tracking whenever your Excavator/bike starts moving (regardless of whether the ignition is switched on, which saves battery).

Unit price is around $700 and you can save yourself a couple of hungie if you want to install the units yourself (which i did as i know my way around my Diggers pretty well).

They do have a monthly fee but its only $20 a small price to pay when you consider their taking care of all the shit such as dedicated Sim cards, storage and transmission of the data, this also gives you access to the web interface.

Anyway hope that helps!