GPS car tracker / theft recovery

[TurboRA28]

Hi all, has anyone had experience with GPS tracking for a car, mainly for recovery if it happened to be stolen?

Seems plenty of stuff on the market, or the use of old phones and tracking apps etc.

Just interested to hear if anyone has got something up and running and how they have found it?

Ultimately I would like something that is tucked away, hard wired to the battery to keep it charged and can send out SMS alerts if the vehicle moves during a certain time frame I guess or after it is alarmed etc.

Thanks
Joel

[maj]

I am running one in my old daily, but it's a bit of a unique situation using off the shelf hardware and tech know-how.

The hardware itself is a TK-103 tracker but bought from a trusted source in HK; apparently there are a few variants out there and some don't work as well as others.
I have then used any old data sim. I used to be on Exetel but they stopped their low-volume data sims, so now on Amaysim. Used to cost me nothing in Exetel since they gave you 50MB a month free, and the tracker used less than that. Amaysim costs me around $10-15 every 3 months.

Where my tracker differs is that a friend of mine and myself wrote a tracking system that sits on a hosted solution. The GPS tracker is configured to send its co-ords and speed at certain intevals, usually 5-10 seconds but you can go all the way to 60 seconds if you want to reduce data usage.

Our system tracks the trackers IMEI and puts it into a database, which we wrote a Google Maps frontend for, so you can see live position/speed as well as download KML history files for particular days.

The tracker itself is great, the only issue we found is when you lose GPRS (mobile) signal, it drops out. You can insert a microSD card into the tracker though and it logs to file, then uploads once reception is restored. It was a little tricky getting this working at first.

I have mine well hidden in the car feeding off a constant 12v source, all black taped etc. So you can't tell what it is. The GPS and GPRS antennas are external though and you need to put them as close to the sky as you can not being blocked out by too much metal, so the inside of a firewall with foam backing is usually a good place for this, or perhaps the rear parcel shelf.

The tracker itself can be configured to "fence" your car in an area and SMS when it breaks the fence, but we disabled all that functionality for our purpose. The tracker also comes with a few relays so you can fuel/ignition cut etc. if you want. They also have a microphone so if you ring the tracker, it auto-answers and you can hear whats happening.

[TurboRA28]

Hey mate, I got a tk103 based tracker..
Having an issue though, not sure if you have any ideas as im out of them.

But I send the command being123456 and it replies, i can do a check123456 and it replies.

I've used the admin123456 phonenumber .. But if I call it, it rings a few times then hangs up as I expect. Though I then never get an sms sent with the location.

Any ideas?

[George]

Depends on what stealing scenario you find the most probable. If that's just some kids or occasional rotten sod in will for more drugs then just an old GSM brick hidden well would be fine. In my area, GSM companies offer tracking service subscription, which works nice if there's 3 or more base stations 'visible' by a mobile set. Combine that with a simple but thoroughly wired 2-way alarm system and very basic 'immobilizers' like fuel/ignition cut and your car is no more as sweet to steal as most of others around.

[maj]

Hey mate, I got a tk103 based tracker..
Having an issue though, not sure if you have any ideas as im out of them.

But I send the command being123456 and it replies, i can do a check123456 and it replies.

I've used the admin123456 phonenumber .. But if I call it, it rings a few times then hangs up as I expect. Though I then never get an sms sent with the location.

Any ideas?

So you've set it up to authorise your phone number with "admin123456 <phone number>"? Judging by what you said I'd say so.

Maybe the device in stuck in web mode? So it sends GPS co-ords to an IP address rather than SMS'ing (mine is set up as web because of the trickery mentioned before).

If you sms "telephone123456" it should switch it to phone mode and SMS you if you ring it and you're an authorised number.

If the above doesn't work, then I'd say it's either a hardware or GPS antenna issue.

[maj]

Depends on what stealing scenario you find the most probable. If that's just some kids or occasional rotten sod in will for more drugs then just an old GSM brick hidden well would be fine. In my area, GSM companies offer tracking service subscription, which works nice if there's 3 or more base stations 'visible' by a mobile set. Combine that with a simple but thoroughly wired 2-way alarm system and very basic 'immobilizers' like fuel/ignition cut and your car is no more as sweet to steal as most of others around.

In Aus we don't have many affordable tracking systems, you either pay a lot of money for a commercial system, or find an old fleet management system for sale second hand, so these cheap units work well for us, especially since low data SIM cards are relatively cheap. smartphones with web based tracking are still expensive and we don't have GSM based tracking (well the police do, but not available to the public).

I don't expect GPS tracking to be an extra deterrent to thieves. More so in an older car you have the standard alarm + immobiliser system (or not), so once they bypass those, the last thing they are going to expect is the car is GPS tracked.
In my daily I have the factory security system which doesn't have an alarm but needs the key + transponder to unlock the ECU in order to start the car, so aftermarket alarm systems are uncommon on my make/model. No one would bother adding extra security so a GPS system is piece of mind if the car does get stolen, I can at least track it for a while.

Insurance companies offer discounts if your car has a GPS tracking system, so they pay for themselves very quickly.

It was also very cool when my wife would drive the car a lot and pick me up from work in the afternoon. I knew she would arrive within around 10-15mins but with the GPS tracker I would know when to pack up for the afternoon, walk outside and within seconds she was there

[George]

Equipping wife with a tracker is nice from every point of view ) Regarding factory immobilizers, Chinese industry offers goodies that render most of them useless. However, if yours isn't say lexus lfa, your enemy isn't very skillful so factory security might be augmented with simple things that make thieves' job really tough. On post ~2000 toyotas, tweaking obd2 socket works very well.