GPS Tracker Reccomendations – Rewire?

[J@mes]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for tracker recommendations as I want to fit one to my new rib.

I see on ebay you can get cheap ones such as this and my research on here shows some people have used a ‘Xexun TK102’ which I think is another cheap Chinese/ebay option, but with limited success in the long term.

I want something that is reliable long term, and that is set and forget!

My research has found 3 companies who all seem very similar, Tru Trak, Global Tracker and Rewire.

Rewire seems to be the most popular and I see won Auto Express and Honest John awards last year. In particular I am looking at their DB2 Tracker which is £60 to buy and then £5 a month subscription, which seems very good value to me assuming that it actually is a quality product and works!

From my research on here I see "Limecc" (not sure how to tag him) has a Rewire tracker. Have you got any advice please?

Does anyone else know what Rewire’s software/app is like? Is it easy to geo fence your boat? What do you do when you use your boat and take it out of the geo fence, do you turn the tracker off or ignore the notifications?

Any advice and recommendations on trackers is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
James

[Metz Antenna Man]

James these things are like anything in life, you get what you pay for. I have used tracking devices professionally for 30 years, the last 14 years in a civil capacity. What you need, certainly in the marine environment it’s a tracker that is totally sealed otherwise it’s going to corrode. Pretty much every Private Investigator I know who specialises in surveillance uses https://www.gotek7.comWeb result with site linksGoTEK7.
Have a look on their website and see what they have. Personally I don’t have a hard wired one because I prefer to have a fully sealed unit (you recharge them wirelessly every four to six weeks or so). The other problem with hard wired units is that they are findable because they have to have a wire going to the battery or fuse board whereas sealed units can be put anywhere (as long as they are away from your compass).
Most trackers whatever make, are accurate down to 15sqm but it’s the fast wake up speed that you want. When a thief jumps in the boat or starts to tow it away, the tracker, which will have been sleeping, will spark up and notify your phone, which is why Gotek7 are the preferred choice for surveillance people. You can arm them and set geo fences with them from a smart phone.

[J@mes]

Originally Posted by Phil and Jane

James these things are like anything in life, you get what you pay for. I have used tracking devices professionally for 30 years, the last 14 years in a civil capacity. What you need, certainly in the marine environment it’s a tracker that is totally sealed otherwise it’s going to corrode. Pretty much every Private Investigator I know who specialises in surveillance uses https://www.gotek7.comWeb result with site linksGoTEK7.
Have a look on their website and see what they have. Personally I don’t have a hard wired one because I prefer to have a fully sealed unit (you recharge them wirelessly every four to six weeks or so). The other problem with hard wired units is that they are findable because they have to have a wire going to the battery or fuse board whereas sealed units can be put anywhere (as long as they are away from your compass).
Most trackers whatever make, are accurate down to 15sqm but it’s the fast wake up speed that you want. When a thief jumps in the boat or starts to tow it away, the tracker, which will have been sleeping, will spark up and notify your phone, which is why Gotek7 are the preferred choice for surveillance people. You can arm them and set geo fences with them from a smart phone.

Hi Phil/Jane, thanks for your response. I have look at the GoTEK7 and they seem very similar to the Rewire! In fact some of the products are identical!! (eg. this one and Rewire DB1)

I realise I will need to hide whatever tracker I go for very well, but I do prefer the hardwired route as I will often be away from my boat weeks on end! Also being waterproof is obviously a must, more so for the salt air environment, because I will mount it in a place that wont get wet! The Rewire DB2 is waterproof (IP65 rating).

As for alerts/geo fencing etc, Rewire does all that and I have only heard good things so far, in fact since making this thread I spoke to a friend who has installed a Rewire tracker in his Audi R8 and he is very happy with it. I also see they do insurance approved trackers too!

Depending on the response I get in this thread, at the moment it looks like I will go for one of the Rewire trackers, either the DB2 or a DB1 Advanced Waterproof model.

[neil.mccrirrick]

Mini GSM GPRS GPS Anti-Theft Tracker Vehicle Real Time Locator Device TK103A UK

I do agree with all the above however fwiw I am using the above. Under £30 from eBay. Phone contract with 1p mobile. It will be under £40 a year. It will geo fence you can set s movement alarm. Ring it up and you get a text back with location. My batteries are unde the console and can only be got at by unbolting the console so it’s effective invisible. Hardwired to the battery

[J@mes]

Hi Neil, thanks for that, I assume this is what you have? Looks similar in it's connections etc to the Rewire 104 model. Unfortunately I can imagine a lot of the hardware is very similar and from China etc, but I am liking the waterproof Rewire at the moment due to the good feedback, awards, and customer service. Yes it's slightly more but it is still cheap at £60 and £60 for unlimited 12 month usage. Also I would much rather deal with a decent company that I can pick up the phone to if I have a problem, than an ebay seller for this item I think. I want reliability and set and forget!

[neil.mccrirrick]

No worries I see your reasoning. One point I wasn’t sure how power hungry a gps connection would be that is always on. The one I have does have this facility but you can disable it and just use the SIM card

[lanberman]

I pickup a DB2 from Rewire Security last year. Easy to connect having only two wires and easy to setup using the app. Mine is permanently wired onto the battery and topped up by a solar panel.

[J@mes]

Originally Posted by neil.mccrirrick

No worries I see your reasoning. One point I wasn’t sure how power hungry a gps connection would be that is always on. The one I have does have this facility but you can disable it and just use the SIM card

The Rewires go into sleep mode apparently, to save on power, but I am not worried about this because my new rib will have 2 big batteries, and when in storage I will connect them to a solar trickle charger or a modern maintenance charger.

Actually that is one thing I need to look into, and contact Rewire on; the DB2 model which just has 2 wire connections to the battery terminals, assumes ignition is turned on when there is a voltage spike, so if you are connected to a charger of sort you may get false ignition alerts. I need to ask Rewire if a 1.5w or 2.4w solar charger would cause enough of a spike in voltage to cause this issue, or indeed whether a modern battery charger, once in maintenance mode would cause the same problem. I think the latter may, but maybe not a 1.5w/2.4w solar panel?! Either way, surely you can just turn ignition detection alerts off! If its a no go, then I know their 'DB1 advanced waterproof' model has a separate ignition wire and that you just do not wire it up to the ignition, thus you wont have a problem with false alerts from voltage spikes from chargers. However I prefer the DB2 model because it is much easier to wire up with just 2 wires, the DB1 has a lot more wires, 10 connections I think!

[J@mes]

Originally Posted by lanberman

I pickup a DB2 from Rewire Security last year. Easy to connect having only two wires and easy to setup using the app. Mine is permanently wired onto the battery and topped up by a solar panel.

Great to hear from someone with a Rewire DB2! wished I had read your response before typing the essay in my previous post above!

Do you get false active ignition alerts from your solar charger being connected? Also what power is your solar panel? Thanks.

[Limecc]

I've had several TK102's including the c variant and gave up on them in the end.

I switched to a DB2 Rewire which has proved to be amazing. Although I purchased it for the RIB, I've only used it on a car so far and the GPS worked perfectly through the steel of the bonnet no problem. It is the perfect model for my needs, I'm not bothered about ignition cutout features available with other Rewire models and it can be geofenced or have a speed alert applied to it. The build quality is wonderful.

I have turned off ignition alerts. When the car drives off I simply ignore the movement alerts, it proves the unit is working and proves what minor reaction time is in the system. I'm impressed it supports GLONASS and can use several mobile carriers. It is fully sealed and seems quite waterproof. Easily managed from a trustworthy smartphone app. Can't say I was willing to install no-name Chinese CCTV apps in the past. There's a website where you can test drive the software using dummy data.

When it goes on the boat while on holiday I will hide it away deep in the console.

[Limecc]

Originally Posted by neil.mccrirrick

Mini GSM GPRS GPS Anti-Theft Tracker Vehicle Real Time Locator Device TK103A UK

I do agree with all the above however fwiw I am using the above. Under £30 from eBay. Phone contract with 1p mobile. It will be under £40 a year. It will geo fence you can set s movement alarm. Ring it up and you get a text back with location. My batteries are unde the console and can only be got at by unbolting the console so it’s effective invisible. Hardwired to the battery

My 2p'worth, single carrier SIM so patchy coverage and no GLONASS so any cost saving is false economy. Even if you can reach the unit it keeps reporting the last known position. Hope it's better than the TK102 but I wouldn't touch these with a barge pole, even the genuine Xexun. There are many clones which fare even worse.

[Last Tango]

I've had the same TK103 in the boat for four years now. Apart from me forgetting to disable it before towing the boat and making the mistake of using an O2/Tesco SIM ....no issues what-so-ever.
It's a nightmare to get at where it's installed and I haven't seen it since I fitted it so I just live with O2 "expiring" my credit every three or four months.

[J@mes]

Originally Posted by Limecc

I've had several TK102's including the c variant and gave up on them in the end.

I switched to a DB2 Rewire which has proved to be amazing. Although I purchased it for the RIB, I've only used it on a car so far and the GPS worked perfectly through the steel of the bonnet no problem. It is the perfect model for my needs, I'm not bothered about ignition cutout features available with other Rewire models and it can be geofenced or have a speed alert applied to it. The build quality is wonderful.

I have turned off ignition alerts. When the car drives off I simply ignore the movement alerts, it proves the unit is working and proves what minor reaction time is in the system. I'm impressed it supports GLONASS and can use several mobile carriers. It is fully sealed and seems quite waterproof. Easily managed from a trustworthy smartphone app. Can't say I was willing to install no-name Chinese CCTV apps in the past. There's a website where you can test drive the software using dummy data.

When it goes on the boat while on holiday I will hide it away deep in the console.

Thanks for the reply, exactly what I was hoping to hear! 😌😊👍

Thanks for confirming you can turn off ignition alerts, this would solve potential solar/battery charger spikes in voltage issues! Out of interest though, have you tried charging your car battery with the tracker fitted, did it cause false ignition alerts?

[J@mes]

Originally Posted by Last Tango

I've had the same TK103 in the boat for four years now. Apart from me forgetting to disable it before towing the boat and making the mistake of using an O2/Tesco SIM ....no issues what-so-ever.
It's a nightmare to get at where it's installed and I haven't seen it since I fitted it so I just live with O2 "expiring" my credit every three or four months.

Sounds like you're one of the lucky ones then, that said I don't envy you contacting o2 every so often! 🙈😌😂

[Limecc]

Originally Posted by J@mes

Thanks for the reply, exactly what I was hoping to hear! ������

Thanks for confirming you can turn off ignition alerts, this would solve potential solar/battery charger spikes in voltage issues! Out of interest though, have you tried charging your car battery with the tracker fitted, did it cause false ignition alerts?

I never tried charging it but this is only the same as starting the car and charging from the alternator. I had ignition alerts turned off so I didn't get any.

A non-proactive 'feature' is the ability to only activate Rewire devices when you need to use them. If my currently inactive unit was fitted in a caravan or boat and I then noticed it had been stolen off my garden, I could resubscribe online and locate it in minutes.

I should really buy more of them as insurance. Although the boat is insured I no longer insure the caravan, however it has a lifetime subscription Tracker UK device fitted so a DB2 would be additional.

[J@mes]

Sounds like its best to have ignition alert off, otherwise you would get alerts all the time whilst using the boat! although you could turn it back on when it is in storage!


Talking of annoying alerts, what happens with geo fencing when you drive out of your set position every time you use your boat? Does your alarm ring loud and you push a button on your phone to say its OK it's me?! Whilst that is annoying having to do that every time, it's the whole point of this feature!

[Limecc]

Originally Posted by J@mes

Talking of annoying alerts, what happens with geo fencing when you drive out of your set position every time you use your boat? Does your alarm ring loud and you push a button on your phone to say its OK it's me?! Whilst that is annoying having to do that every time, it's the whole point of this feature!

I don't use geofencing which is unnecessary because I like the movement alerts. Everywhere it stops is effectively geofenced. I can't remember how many minutes (it's less than a hour in one place) before the alert is automatically reset or if it's configurable but it works well 'straight-out-of-the-box' for me.

[J@mes]

Ok thanks

[Limecc]

I'm still extremely happy with the Rewire DB2.
Just the power wire to connect, IPX65 waterproof, has a backup battery, also works with GLONASS, all networks SIM free for £5/month. It texts me and/or alerts me via the app if any of the alerts I set are triggered (geofence, vibration, movement or speed).