GPS/GSM Tracker

Leapy · 18 May 2009, 07:04

The one thing that we've found disturbing on RIBnet is reading about stolen boats. When our boat is at home, it's in an alarmed, locked, brick garage. When we're in transit or on the water, of course, we're as vunerable as the next guy. So, ... we've recently bought one of THESE GPS/GSM trackers (albeit from different eBay reseller).

We'd researched the market...there are a huge number of these devices now and the price range is considerable. UK sourced, subscription devices are the most expensive - many £hundreds plus a monthly fee - but there are a number of non-subscription devices that are around £70 if you're happy buying out of China or HK, or, the same device can be UK sourced for about £110, all through eBay. (JK - there maybe a RIBnet marketing opportunity???)

We paid £64 for ours plus £12 for a 12v charge lead. It arrived within a week and out of the box it looks a well made device. It's the size of a large box of matches, finished in soft touch paint and has a good air of solidity. It comes with a 240v charger, two Li-ion batteries, a magnetic cover, a non-magnetic cover and a waterproof pouch (zip-lock Codders style) that is too small for the device! The device itself is clearly not waterproof. There are no external aerials.

It also comes with instructions that are written in pigeon English: the website for the device is no better, but they're both clear enough to enable use.

And, it's not difficult to set up. You need a GSM SIM (£0.01 off eBay!) and away you go. Within 5 mintues it was powered up, initialised and set up (which phones are authorised to access it, which time zone are you in...) and it then sent us a text to say the boat was in our garage, not moving and it was 15:20 on the 17/05/09. It gives you lat, long, speed and date/time and you can get this everytime you call it from an authorised phone (it hangs up on un-authorised phones). It can also be programmed to text if it starts to move or moves out of a pre-determined area (a Geo-Fence); it has an overspeed alert, an SOS button, a low battery alert, etc etc. and, of course, it doesn't have to be on a boat. It would be just as happy in a car, in a kids backpack or whatever.

Is it robust and reliable? Don't know yet. Watch this space

chewy · 18 May 2009, 08:27

Looks like a decent bit of kit.
Have you tried moving the boat to see if it does text you?

I like the ebay ad you posted. Can be used to check "spouse fidelity"

Leapy · 18 May 2009, 08:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by chewy

Looks like a decent bit of kit.
Have you tried moving the boat to see if it does text you?

I like the ebay ad you posted. Can be used to check "spouse fidelity"

Haven't tried moving the boat yet. Will be trying it this weekend...

Spouse fidelity

How does it know the detail?

I'm at 52 36.234, -1 24.525 and therefore must be...Wow. Real clever

chewy · 18 May 2009, 08:54

Without lowering the tone to that of a certain Mr Singleton I think the one in ad also did sound!

willk · 18 May 2009, 09:40

It sounds like a primo bit of kit - keep us posted.

On a less serious note, I have visions of a Mr Big in HK (gloating of an ever growing number of red dots on a wall sized map) dispaching black van loads of Triads 'round your gaff armed with Shuriken and boltcutters!

PeterM · 18 May 2009, 10:07

Does indeed sound like a good , simple , decent priced effort that does what most of us want without all the bells & whistles that aren't really needed.

When you ordered did you have to order the 12v lead seperately or was it included ?. Am very seriously looking at one of these as with the boat on a mooring ( while its locked to it )I know its relatively easy to cur the lockas off and away it goes.

for £80 ish I dont think you can go far wrong & but not sure about the wife - she would use it to see where I am on the boat ! Any 'over nighters' in the cosy cabin would have to stop !

chewy · 18 May 2009, 10:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackroady

For £80 ish I dont think you can go far wrong & but not sure about the wife - she would use it to see where I am on the boat ! Any 'over nighters' in the cosy cabin would have to stop !

Thats maybe why you can decide what numbers can access it!

Leapy · 18 May 2009, 11:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackroady

When you ordered did you have to order the 12v lead seperately or was it included?

The 12v lead was listed seperately

mark-f · 18 May 2009, 15:57

yep, I've had one of those working for over a year now, and so far no problems at all with reliability, all i need to do is find someone with the programming cradle for it as mine is set to GMT+7

.

and from a covert point of view all i can say is it works well even through lots of fibreglass .

Mark

PeterM · 18 May 2009, 16:07

There is a bundle of 6 on ebay for what would be about £67.50 each - any takers for a job lot ?

I cant however see the power lead listed for it - mentioned in the listing but cant find it for sale - anyone find it & send me the link ? I think this will be my latest ' toy' for the boat - but I can really & honestly say to the Mrs is it worth it for security & the insurance is due soon so it cant hurt !

Leapy · 18 May 2009, 16:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark-f

all i need to do is find someone with the programming cradle for it as mine is set to GMT+7

And so was mine...but...

You don't need a 'programming cable' ... simply text it:

time zone[yourpassword] 1

Using the default password this would be ... time zone123456 1

Note where the spaces are. This is very important.

123456 should be changed to your own password if you have changed the default.

1 (at the end of the string) means GMT+1, ie BST

Leapy · 18 May 2009, 16:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackroady

I cant however see the power lead listed for it

HERE is where I got mine...you could email them and ask?

Failing that, it's merely a 12v to 5v device, max current 1000mA

mark-f · 18 May 2009, 16:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leapy

And so was mine...but...

You don't need a 'programming cable' ... simply text it:

time zone[yourpassword] 1

Using the default password this would be ... time zone123456 1

Note where the spaces are. This is very important.

123456 should be changed to your own password if you have changed the default.

1 (at the end of the string) means GMT+1, ie BST

HI leapy,

Think you must have a newer firmware as mine does not respond to that command.

Thanks for trying

mark

Chris · 24 May 2009, 10:10

Leapy, based on your recomendation I have ordered one and the car charger.

Bigmuz7 · 25 May 2009, 23:17

The tech aint new.. Ive got several installed that you can poll from the internet and monitor on a live basis.. I think I'll get humped if the wife finds the one I installed in her spanx though

PeterM · 04 June 2009, 10:30

Also ordered one today and for some reason ebay gave me 10% off . Cant hurt to keep an extra set of eyes on the boat .

Chris · 05 June 2009, 23:02

Mine is up and running and doing fine. I just have the move function turned on which texts me if the boat moves more than 200 meters away from the location its in when I sent the "move" command.

I like the fact you can text monitor to the unit and then when you dial it up you can hear what is going on as the built in MIC kicks in

One word of warning....

You get a piece of software with the device that allows you to set up a proper monitoring suite on your PC. You have to use a GPRS enabled SIM and then open up a port on your PC that will allow you to communicate with the device.

Sounds nice but I can honestly say that after about 5 hours of fecking about with my PC and sending texts every 5 mins I actually think it has given me a brain tumour.

My advice.. don't even think about trying the GPS Software suite.

Bigmuz7 · 05 June 2009, 23:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

Sounds nice but I can honestly say that after about 5 hours of fecking about with my PC and sending texts every 5 mins I actually think it has given me a brain tumour.

My advice.. don't even think about trying the GPS Software suite.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leapy

Do you know why they're so coy? When looking around for a system I couldn't really determine from them what I was going to get for all the extra outlay.

(from the other GPS unit thread)

Now where was I......

Chris · 05 June 2009, 23:47

To be honest unless you were using it for fleet managment the s/w is not needed anyway.

The texts the device send you have a link to a google map of where your boat is anyway.

On my blackberry it works really well

Leapy · 06 June 2009, 08:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigmuz7

Now where was I......

Paying a lot of money?