10 replies to this topic

[retromec]

Hello there. This is my first 'proper' posting so please be gentle with me. :blush:

Just been thinking about the number of Minis getting half-inched recently and had an idea. Apologies in advance if someone else has already come up with something similar to this suggestion before. I've searched the forum first but didn't turn up anything on these lines. This won't stop your Mini getting stolen, by the way, but may help get it back if the worst comes to the worst.

1. Take one cast-off or cheapo, bog-standard mobile 'phone, add a PAYGo SIM with a minimum of credit and a number known only to you, and secrete somewhere in your Mini's many nooks and crannies.

2. For convenience, and because the 'phone needs always to be powered-up, preferably add an in-car charger wired to a 12v feed.

3. Register this concealed 'phone with a website such as verilocation.com, mapamobile.com, childlocate.com or similar. These are inexpensive services which can be accessed from a PC, or a second mobile 'phone if on the move, and which use triangulation to identify and report the approximate geographical location of a registered 'phone.

4. If your pride and joy goes missing, simply access the service to which you subscribed in order to locate the concealed 'phone and therefore, it stands to reason, the hostage Mini.

5. Gather together some mates with baseball bats and go to the identified place. Dispense justice. Rescue Mini. Job done. Or call the Police if you're feeling lucky.

The location provided by triangulation is accurate to within about 100 metres. This isn't as precise as GPS but is masses cheaper than a proper 'Tracker' and the accuracy should be sufficient if your Mini is out in the open. However, a further refinement would be to link the mobile via its headphone socket to an amplified alarm/loud speaker arrangement which could then be activated, once you were in proximity, simply by calling the concealed 'phone.

Incidentally, Vodafone and O2 are, it seems, the best networks for tracking purposes. Both these networks return realtime locations whilst T-Mobile and Orange have varying degrees of update delay and Virgin Mobile and 3 do not currently permit tracking at all.

Just a thought.

[Bungle]

just hope you mini doesnt get stolen in cornwall as there are many places where mobile phones dont work :'(

[Woody]

You can buy one of these things ready made on ebay

[Pooky]

Sounds like an excellent idea!

[Jammy]

You can buy one of these things ready made on ebay

Got a link?




The problem from the original post is that you have to add £10 credit every month to keep the number registered?! I know £120 a year isn't bad for a tracking system but still.

[Pooky]

My nan doesn't add £10 a month she'll be lucky to use that in a year! Hers still works?

Just did a quick look on the Tesco Mobile site (probably pretty cheap) and you only have to top up every 6 months. You can even set up automatic topups online setting the amount you wish to top up and the frequency.

I think this is a great idea and it would double up as an emergency phone just in case!

[Jammy]

Oooo, fantastic, I've been looking for a cheap GPRS option!!

[Miniman]

Orange you have to make 1 call to the phone every 6 months and make 1 outgoing call. so orange would seem the best option

[Lt-SilverDragon]

I hate mobile companies if they do this, I've got an old BT sim I'd better still be able to use it if I plug it into a phone one of these days. And I've got one of those 3 phones that I haven't topped up in over a year I'd still better be able to recieve phone calls on that.

I was thinking of doing this just after christmas, carphonewarehouse or somebody was doing a mobile very simple nothing on it but it lasted 2 weeks without a recharge and was only £7 but you had to buy it with £5 credit so it was £12 in total which I thought was pretty damn cheap but they wouldn't accept visa electron and by the time I got another card the offer was over > and I wasn't paying £20 for it.

[pikey7]

but how well would it work in practice? What would the cops say if you told them you knew where your car was to within 1km (100m is in major cities with lots of masts!)?

I like your thinking, I'm just not sure how practical it really is. At worst though, you could always call them up and give them an earfull!

[Lt-SilverDragon]

Atleast you'd have a basic idea where it was, better then searching the entire country, even if it means you're the one that has to do the leg work atleast there would be some chance of finding it. You could even ask the help of a local mini club (if there is one) and I'm sure members on here would help if they were close by. You could even put fliers up everywhere around that area offering a reward for info. Then if you find it, steal it back or phone the cops.

Ofcourse thats if they haven't destroyed it .