I am just about to buy a GPS tracker

[Pikey Dave]

For the record, this is where I got mine from & it IS genuine. Though the price has shot up in the last 12 months. I paid £57.99 inc postage in May last year.

[HUMBER P4VWL]

Sim cards (pay as you go) are disconnected by the provider if unused for 3-6 months (providers vary) so over winter they often expire. They're then hard to reset both with the provider and tracker.

Sim needs voicemail switched off or they don't work.

Some units only work with some providers.

Garmin unit has no sim, can be hard wired and also importantly not only texts but emails any number of addresses. MOST importantly it texts and emails when turned off or disconnected from power source!

Plus it's a retail unit that is far superior to all the others in useability terms!!!!

[MarkM]

@HUMBER P4VWL: sounds nice. Had a look at the device and the app. The credits are very good, but..........
Costs € 200, minus € 50 subscription for the first year and after that € 50/year.
That's quite a lot more than the TK102 with a prepaid SIM.

[HUMBER P4VWL]

Originally Posted by MarkM

@HUMBER P4VWL: sounds nice. Had a look at the device and the app. The credits are very good, but..........
Costs € 200, minus € 50 subscription for the first year and after that € 50/year.
That's quite a lot more than the TK102 with a prepaid SIM.

£170 on line

Agreed slightly more. But for between £50-100 more, its not even a tank of fuel on a 6m rib. Most ribs on here are worth £5k-£45k. They're worth looking after!!!!

Get something tested to retail production standards, by a global marine electronics beand that is well respected.

Plus get a device that tells you when it's turned off, power cut etc and doesn't run out of credit or get disconnected.

All IMHO!!

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by HUMBER P4VWL

Sim cards (pay as you go) are disconnected by the provider if unused for 3-6 months (providers vary) so over winter they often expire. They're then hard to reset both with the provider and tracker.

Sim needs voicemail switched off or they don't work.

Some units only work with some providers.

Garmin unit has no sim, can be hard wired and also importantly not only texts but emails any number of addresses. MOST importantly it texts and emails when turned off or disconnected from power source!

Plus it's a retail unit that is far superior to all the others in useability terms!!!!

Paul...I've seriously looked at the Garmin device and I'm sure it's brilliant but, in the end, like with most things, price has to be a consideration. I'd like a Redbay, but...

I've had my Xenun tracker now four years: total cost £40 for the tracker, £5 the hard wire lead, £5 postage, £2.49 iPhone App, O2 SIM top up £20...total cost £72.49. Sweet.

Just to clarify a couple of things from my own experience:

* If I didn't plan on asking my boat where it was anytime in 3-6 months then I'd have been thinking I didn't need a tracker or it'd been a waste of money.
* My (O2) tracker SIM has voicemail switched on. If it's a problem, I've not noticed it.
* From reading the forums the real deal Xenun tracker works with any UK mobile provider (why shouldn't it - it's a industry standard protocol). I've read that some clones don't but that's just hearsay.
* The Xenun tracker - and the clones for that matter - can all be hard wired.
* The Xenun TK102 doesn't have a disconnect/turn off warning. The Xenun TK103-2 at $103 does however as well as notification for engine start, low oil level and other stuff.

Not sure what you mean by the Garmin being a "retail unit" and "it's far superior to all the others in usability terms".

[HUMBER P4VWL]

You don't need to ask the Garmin where it is. That's the beauty. It's on perm and tells me what I want it to tell me when it occurs. No news is great news. (though I can ask, and also track history).

Plus on a 15 min sleep setting it lasted 4wks on a battery sat in a geofence!

Agreed re price. Re retail comp, Garmin is massive and the app on the phone illustrates their £ investment. You can draw the geo fences on it, turn each one on and off. You can draw ten, each with up to 6 corners. You can have different phone numbers and email for each geofence, all done with simple sliders etc

The £ spent on the app creation and web site shows in its usability. This only possible from a large company selling enough units.

Agreed the actual internals may not be far different, but that's just like a redbay and a valiant.

Horses for courses. Great all options get a good review by real users on here for readers to decide.

[Leapy]

Paul...

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by HUMBER P4VWL

Xexun does the same, it can be set up to ring fence or alarm on set speed. It can also report to a tracking website so you can see it in real time on google maps. Mine is set on "ring fence" it just sits there & does nowt unless it moves 250m from its current position.

The xexun lasts about 4 days on its own internal battery. Mine is hardwired into the Optima house battery, so will last yonks. The Xexun also sends a warning text when it's internal battery starts to drop to around 50% charge.

Xexun not quite as comprehensive here, it will report to 5 different phone numbers, drawing geofences is a doddle with the £2.49 iphone app, you literally drag the map boundaries to where you want em. Setting speed alarms is as easy, using the app.

The xexun doesn't email though. I'm not sure that this is an issue, as you are relying on another link in the chain(email server) if your baby goes AWOL, I'm more than happy to have a text message which is more immediate & gets my attention. Also if abroad, i'd have data roaming switched off so email would be useless anyway.

No doubt, the Garmin unit will probably be better built & have the backup of Garmin, I have had Garmin gear for years & can't fault either the kit or the service, I've just had a Montana swapped under warranty, no questions or quibbles. That said, the xexun does what it says on the tin & does it very well for the money, I dare say that had the Garmin unit been out when I bought the xexun, I'd have given it a good looking at.

[MarkM]

Thank you all for the input. I'm off to find the best deal.

[HUMBER P4VWL]

Last point. How big is the unit?

Relevant for hiding purposes.

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by HUMBER P4VWL

Last point. How big is the unit?

Relevant for hiding purposes.

Tiny, about 1/2 the size of a pack of cards

[HUMBER P4VWL]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

Tiny, about 1/2 the size of a pack of cards

Similar sizes then. Garmin perhaps a little smaller.

[MarkM]

The TK102 arrived and is working fine after set up.
But the mode "Movement Alert" doesn't function.
Have send "move123456" to the unit and get the answer "move ok!"
When moved for more than 200 meters it should give an alert by SMS. Even when moved for several kilometers it doesn't do anything.
And that is where I bought it for. When the RIB is moved for more than 200 meters I should get an alarm SMS.

Anyone have the answer? I'm now 2 days at it, visited forums, downloaded several manuals but nothing.
Help is very much appreciated.

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by MarkM

The TK102 arrived and is working fine after set up.
But the mode "Movement Alert" doesn't function.
Have send "move123456" to the unit and get the answer "move ok!"
When moved for more than 200 meters it should give an alert by SMS. Even when moved for several kilometers it doesn't do anything.
And that is where I bought it for. When the RIB is moved for more than 200 meters I should get an alarm SMS.

Anyone have the answer? I'm now 2 days at it, visited forums, downloaded several manuals but nothing.
Help is very much appreciated.

Can't help much here. I've purposely not used movement alert as my experience of 'movement' as observed by any GPS device is that there always is some, even when it's stationary. Might not be much, but there's always some.

I only ask mine "where are you" or I geo-fence it via an iPhone.

[HUMBER P4VWL]

Originally Posted by Leapy

Can't help much here. I've purposely not used movement alert as my experience of 'movement' as observed by any GPS device is that there always is some, even when it's stationary. Might not be much, but there's always some.

I only ask mine "where are you" or I geo-fence it via an iPhone.

Hate to say it, but this is the advantage of the Garmin. V user friendly.

Presume you have a geofence set up of 200m

Try re setting unit, also ensure voicemail is off on the sim being usef. we had similar issues with our previous one.

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by HUMBER P4VWL

Hate to say it, but this is the advantage of the Garmin. V user friendly.

Presume you have a geofence set up of 200m

Try re setting unit, also ensure voicemail is off on the sim being usef. we had similar issues with our previous one.

Mark - are you setting up a Movement Alert or a Geo-Fence?

Paul - do you know what the voicemail issue is? I keep hearing about it but have never heard it explained.

[Leapy]

Mark...you'd talked earlier in the thread about getting the iPhone App. Did you do this? Setting a geo-fence is easy-peasey that way.

[MarkM]

@Leapy: I'm not using Geo-fensing. I have the iPhone app from Starburst and that works fine. My RIB is on a trailer, so very stationary.

Up to now I didn't try it in the boat just in my car driving around to test things out.
Park the car, wait for 3 minutes, use the app to give the signal, receive the answer and start driving. And nothing happens.

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by MarkM

@Leapy: I'm not using Geo-fensing. I have the iPhone app from Starburst and that works fine. My RIB is on a trailer, so very stationary.

Up to now I didn't try it in the boat just in my car driving around to test things out.
Park the car, wait for 3 minutes, use the app to give the signal, receive the answer and start driving. And nothing happens.

Mark

Help me here...I also use the Starburst TK102 App. From the App Store description - and the App itself - it has the following features available through the iPhone:
* Arm/disarm (turn the tracker on and off)
* Locate (send me a text to tell me where you are)
* Map (show me where you are on a map)
* Auto Track (tell me where you are every x minutes)
* Speed Alert (tell me if the tracker speed exceeds x mph)
* Geo-Fence (tell me if the tracker goes outside pre-determined area)
* Monitor (listen in to what the tracker can hear)
* Configure (set up the tracker - new passwords etc)

So when you say "Park the car, wait for 3 minutes, use the app to give the signal, receive the answer and start driving. And nothing happens" what do you mean by "use the app" & "give the signal"? Because (bad grammar...yuk!), there's no option through the Starburst App to set a movement alert.

For the reasons I stated before I still think you need a geo-fence Like what I do

[MarkM]

@Leapy: In the App there is Arm/Disarm. Clicking on the picture of the key (the spot where the lock is closed) brings you automatic to a message to send to the tracker. And the message reads: move123456, when send you get the reply: move ok!

In the mean time still reading on a forum GpsPasSion Forums - [TOPIC] Xexun "TK102" Tracker - User Experiences
and found out that move alert doesn't work well, speed alert works fine.
Going to try that tomorrow.