have you seen the film were the robbers dig under the wrong bank

[Andy Beach]

Originally Posted by Bilge Rat

if its been stolen and they ask you "was there a wheel lock fitted" you're hardly likey to say no are you.

Ermm, like I said - a hard lesson learnt by some, so what more is there to say ....!!

On a serious note, some (maybe all?) insurance companies will expect you to produce some evidence of a suitable security device (eg keys, receipts, packaging, that sort of thing) so make sure you have something to hand would be my advice (or fit the real thing!!!).

Here's hoping we never have to find out for real.

Andy Beach

[Daniel TD5]

the dealer that supplyed the boat used a well know insurance and they would not
pay due to not having the receipt for the said wheel clamp that was ment to be fitted you must have all receipt for locks and clamps fitted

dan

[Wayne Rogers]

Hi Dan sorry to hear you have some thieving b------s down your way.Why don't you unbolt the tow hitch when you leave it,that would slow them down.Have you got a shotgun licence????.Leave your food onboard that way there going to need a serious tow vehicle to pull it.

[simmons0]

Mine now has 2 wheel locks, a hitch lock and is chained to one of the pillars holding up the building its in. added to that its impossible to tow the thing out of the drive without unhitching twice anyway it would take anyone about an hour to get it out of the drive.

[Hightower]

My Insurers incist on wheelclamp and connected to an immovable object, trouble is when the tape of Eastenders rewinds to start all over again the theives could strike rendering the policy useless .

But seriously, insurance is the only way to go. Meet the requirments, pay the money and DON'T get attached to your pride and joy, if you can!!

[roohairy]

Here's some ideas.

Trailer ground anchor. Think I might just make something similar but set it in concrete, then lock trailer to it with hitchlock or similar.
http://www.burtech-daj-trailers.co.uk/products.html

Another ground anchor. I'm getting a 4 wheel trailer, if I set this in a very large block of concrete under the axles it'll be a b****r for them to get to to cut! Again could be made easily. And if the block of concrete is big enough it'll lift the trailer off it's wheels if they manage to pull it out.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...482566624&rd=1

Budget tracking devices!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...906567903&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...706919028&rd=1

Do a search for security in the automotive section of ebay, lot's of ideas. Good luck!

[Mark Halliday]

Security ring from Screwfix
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/sea/...&cd=1&x=6&y=11

[Bilge Rat]

Mark...thats about what you want, fit a ground anchor and chain the boat to the ground and fit a wheel lock, both will only act as a deterant anyway becuase if they really want it they will come prepared, trick is to make it as hard as possible for them to remove or gain access to your storage site, dedicated thieves take a lot of stopping, a friend of mine had his DSC stolen from inside his consoul whilst his boat overnighted in a secure boat compound, he has not got space for the DSC on the consoul so mounted it inside and gains access through a circular hatch, so from the outside the only real give away that he has DSC is the second antena on the A frame, they tageted his boat only and just took the DSC unit !! obvious suggestion is that someone knew what they were looking for and where to get it !!

Gona go home tonight and review my security

[JagoHarry]

Hi,

I was contacted by someone from the forum regarding my security trackers, and I am here to offer any advice regarding them. You can see nearly all of the trackers that I have available for sale on eBay here:

http://cgi6.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....ort=3&since=-1

There are 4 basic types that I do, and 3 types are currently listed on eBay.

• Basic Tracker (Powered by 3AA Batteries)
• Tracker & Bug (Powered by 3AA Batteries, with listening device)
• Car Tracker (Powered by 12V DC via 2metre cable) (not currently on eBay)
• Car Tracker & Bug, (Powered by 12V DC via 2metre cable with listening device)

The trackers use the mobile phone network (they use old mobile phone parts) to complete a trace, and hence require a mobile network in the area to be successful. Accuracy is dependent on the mobile network transceiver proximity, surrounding topology, and the mobile network itself. More information is available here:

http://www.followus.co.uk/how_accurate_is_it.html provided by a tracing service provider called Followus (http://www.followus.co.uk).

If you have any questions, please let me know (via the forum or at dan@jagoharry.co.uk), and I will post answers on my website's FAQ section (http://www.jagoharry.co.uk) and here.

Thanks,
Dan.

[Pete7]

I invited Dan to reply to this thread. Although he has only just joined and not set as a Ribnet commerical member

http://www.rib.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4921

I thought his tracker device warranted further investigation. I am sure that if there is enough interest he may choose to register as a commerical member. In the meantime who fancies a sea trial of one of these things ?

Pete

[JagoHarry]

@Pete, Just to add to your point. I do not work for a company. I work for myself, making these units to help me fund my way through University... so I am not sure how this fits in with the forum rules. I do encourage any questions, as I don't pretend to answer all questions through my eBay listings.

As a further point to the discussion at hand, I suggest these devices as a way of determining if your boat has been stolen or not (by the use of automated location requests through the trace provider), rather than as a tracker. Having said that, you can help the Police with their enquiries by providing them with a rough location of where the boat has moved to.

Dan.

[Scary Des]

Pete7 thanks for flagging this up they look really interesting and yes I think a sea trial would be good.

Dan a couple of questions:-

what is the full cost ,(sorry I’m being a bit slow this morning) as far as I can work out, it is the cost of the unit(£18.99), sim card (£6), sim activation(£1.50), followus fee (£10) and that is it unless you use it then you pay for the use.
Can you pot the unit?
If it is located in a boat what will affect its range?
How long does the battery powered one last for? my boat is 24v so this would be my best option unless you do a 24v version?

Des

[JagoHarry]

Des,

Thanks for your questions, I will do the best I can to answer them.

Costs
Basic Tracker is £18.99
Add £10 for the listening device (bug) option
Add £10 for a 12V Power Supply option
Add £6 if you want me to supply a Vodafone Sim Card (This will need registering in a mobile phone capable of using the Vodafone network first).

Regarding the actual tracing, that's a tracing company. I suggest FollowUs (http://www.followus.co.uk), and reading their reference material will help you. You buy a set number of credits, which you use for location traces. Each trace costs 1 credit, with a zoom in on a location for 0.05 credits. Registering a sim card costs 5 credits (only needs doing once). They also charge 1 credit for checking consent (for tracing) every so often.

Here are their current offers (only visible to actual members, so I have pasted that info here)

June Offer: 50 LOCATION CREDITS £14.99 (about 30p a trace)
Top-Up 20 CREDITS £10.00
Top-Up 50 saving of 5.00 on your LOCATION CREDITS £20.00
Bulk Buy Saver - Top-Up 600 saving of 150.00 on your LOCATION CREDITS £175.00

Potting
I'm not sure what you mean by this. I am guessing that you are referring to a potting compound to ensure moisture resistance? I'm not sure how it would affect the reception of the tracker (think mobile phones here), but as long as you don't affect the electrical resistance of the tracker, and its not too thick, it should be fine. That said, even a plastic bag tightly sealed should do the trick.

Range
Regarding range, again, think mobile phones. It is basically a heavilly modified mobile phone, so if you have reception for a vodafone mobile in a given part of the boat, then the tracker will be fine. Things such as RF or microwave radiation will probably affect range.

Battery Life
I have not been able to test battery life properly, and it heavily depends on the batteries used. Normal current consumption is between 5mA and 50mA, 200mA at peak when first turned on. Obviously a higher current rating for the listening device. I have heard of anywhere between 1-3 weeks for them though.

Supply Voltage
The power supply for the trackers is a regulated 4.4V supply, which can accept an input voltage of 6V to 14V. I'm not sure if it can handle up to 24V without modification. I will need to do some calculations if you require it to handle 24V, as it will most likely need modification (due to heat disipation for the power regulator). Unless you already have a step down transformer to supply an input voltage of 6V to 14V. If there is a demand (2-3 people) for a 24V version, I will happily consider designing a 24V input supply, but it will probably be about £2-4 more expensive (compared to the 12V version) due to heat sinking and suitable casing. Eitherway, I will investigate it for you.

I hope that this helps! Any more questions, fire them my way. I'll put these questions up on my site too (eventually).

Dan.

[Scary Des]

Thanks Dan
I asked about potting (resin encapsulating) because the wet/salty environment on a boat is a killer for anything electric and even so-called waterproof housing can suffer from water ingress. Some of the marine electronics manufactures use waterproof housing filled with nitrogen to stop this problem. Potting would prevent access to the sim or other things on the unit would this be a problem?

Space is a problem on most boats and for me it might be better to have the box of tricks and power supply hidden in the bottom the boat and a separate aerial, is this possible?

With regard to batteries I think my best option would be a separate 12v battery because I tend to turn of the 24V system to stop quiescent drain. I can get a 2.2Ah sealed battery for £8 or would it be better to go for a 6v battery?
Des

[Mark Halliday]

Des
Is your 24V supplied from 2 x 12V batteries?
If it is you can take 12V from just 1 of them.

[roohairy]

I had a look at followus.co.uk yesterday, not quite sure if they send more text messaages to authorise tracking after the initial one, or just warnings? If so, I can see that this could be a problem, how would you know to reply to the text?
Anyone know the answer? Otherwise looks like a great idea.

[Scary Des]

Originally Posted by Mark Halliday

Des
Is your 24V supplied from 2 x 12V batteries?
If it is you can take 12V from just 1 of them.

Mark look at this.

http://www.rib.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3114

Des

[JagoHarry]

Originally Posted by roohairy

I had a look at followus.co.uk yesterday, not quite sure if they send more text messaages to authorise tracking after the initial one, or just warnings? If so, I can see that this could be a problem, how would you know to reply to the text?
Anyone know the answer? Otherwise looks like a great idea.

They send a single text message to check for authorisation, which requires a reply from the sim card being tracked with the tracker to say 'yes'.

The subsequent messages are messages saying that if you no longer wish to be traceable, then go to the website, and enter the specified pin number (which is in the text message itself). It does not require a reply. The tracker will not give an audible indication that a text message has been received too.

Hope this helps this query.
Dan.

[JagoHarry]

Des, no worries, here is some more info.

Originally Posted by Scary Des

I asked about potting (resin encapsulating) because the wet/salty environment on a boat is a killer for anything electric and even so-called waterproof housing can suffer from water ingress. Some of the marine electronics manufactures use waterproof housing filled with nitrogen to stop this problem. Potting would prevent access to the sim or other things on the unit would this be a problem?

If you want to 'lock' the sim into the phone, then fine. It should not be a problem as far as I can see. I understand about the salty/moist atmosphere, and would thus recommend it. The tracker is covered in foam, which just cushions the electronics.

Space is a problem on most boats and for me it might be better to have the box of tricks and power supply hidden in the bottom the boat and a separate aerial, is this possible?

A separate aerial is not possible, since the tracker requires a short aerial due to its high frequency of operation (900Mhz). A ceiling or hollow pipe, etc would be better, which is nearer the top of the boat.

With regard to batteries I think my best option would be a separate 12v battery because I tend to turn of the 24V system to stop quiescent drain. I can get a 2.2Ah sealed battery for £8 or would it be better to go for a 6v battery?

A 12V battery would be fine, a 6V battery would probably last longer, as there would be less wasted energy disipated as heat (due to the voltage drop performed by the power regulator). I will check it works with 6V later tonight.

Hope this helps,
Dan.

[JagoHarry]

I have now started a list of FAQ on my site (many are from this discussion) which should help answer most questions. If you are still unsure, ask away!

http://www.jagoharry.co.uk

Dan.