33 replies to this topic

[Steam]

Might help you locate your quad when lost in long grass though.

[beardylondon]

More worried about pikeys nicking it to be honest, they have before!

[Steam]

I have in the past removed the battery on the quad, obviously no use if it kickstarts, or take the lead or plugs with you. Better to prevent theft than try to track.

[DeadSquare]

It’s actually for a quad bike!

 

 

"Farmers' Union of Wales" used to do trackers as part of their Insurance deal, but there was no where to really hide a tracker on a quad, and the robbing B***ards would find it, remove it, and hang it on a lorry going to Ireland.

[stuart bowes]

have now received these tags and can confirm they do work

 

https://little-dream...g-finder-device

 

no registration or annual cost etc required you just use bluetooth to initially pair them with a phone app, presumably each one has some sort of unique identifier which it transmits over to the phone on pairing

 

however, one or two limitations which are fine for the purpose I wanted them for (tracking my kids on busy days out)

 

they are battery operated (CR2032) which isn't expensive, it reckons it works for 'about half a year' anyway for actual live tracking you push and hold a button until it beeps (turn it on) then you can follow it via an app which puts a dot on google map for you to follow.   then you can turn it off again to save battery

 

if the battery runs out or while the device is off, the dot goes grey, stays still and just shows it as a last known location, which could be useful but isn't necessarily where it currently is, obviously

 

so as a cheap option it's ok.  and you can turn it off when you're not needing it, or just keep a stack of those batteries.  the app gives you a battery level indicator for each paired tag when you're close enough to connect via bluetooth, which is handy.  and if you loose it you can press a button on the app to make the tag beep so you can hunt it down again assuming you're close enough to bluetooth

 

so, may not be really what you want for a car, but it could be useable as long as you bear all of that in mind (and it's very cheap)

Edited by stuart bowes, 27 September 2023 - 02:41 PM.

[Designer]

Could be handy for tracking the missus so when I see she is in a shopping centre the credit card bill want come as such a big surprise.

[PoolGuy]

Aren’t they relatively low range? Not much use for tracking anything that’s more than a few meters away?

[stuart bowes]

on the bluetooth side, yes, that's the way you see the battery level and ping it to find it if it's in your house somewhere 

 

you can disconnect from that though and it transmits a GPS signal somehow ? I'm gonna leave it home tomorrow during the day and see if I can locate it from work a few miles away

[stuart bowes]

you know what you might actually be right on this one I've been looking up info about it and some of the reviews are saying what you said in which case they're pretty much no use at all, even for what I wanted..

 

Will double check tomorrow though but it looks like for the kids I might have to invest in the more expensive smart watch trackers type things 

 

apologies for the bum-steer on this one 

[68+86auto]

Years ago I had been given the idea and told I should design something like all these tag things. I didn't want to do it and I think found something similar had already been done. A few years later and everyone seems to be making one.

[PoolGuy]

My understanding of the tags (based on how Apple Airtag works) is that they need to be in reasonably close proximity to a device that can transmit their location. For instance, my phone is connected to Apple servers 99.9% of the time, but my Airpods are only findable when close to another Apple device that’s connected to the Apple servers. So if the tag is in a barn 1/2mile from anywhere, it’s unlikely to be findable.

[coopertaz]

have fitted gps one with giff gaff pay as you go sim on my car from rewire security, but they appear to be subscription based now. other car has tk102 again with giff gaff sim both work fine giving link to google maps, just need to install in car where it can 'see the sky' it states in instructions! experimenting and found good location in mine but ob.not stating where. dont use cheaper tk102 though these are naff but you can still get "genuine" ones and are better quality. no reduction in policy from a.flux but cheeky sods then add it as a clause year after that must have tracker fitted so didn't tell them on second car

[stuart bowes]

yeah scrap my suggestion it turns out they are close range only .  I thought I'd found a real bargain there but now I'm wondering what use they are at all, apart from having one on your keyring so you don't lose your keys in the house

 

and it buzzes when you go out of range so you don't leave them behind  but that's about it

 

now looking at smart watches instead for the kids

[pete l]

Have a look at "TILE PRO" 

[stuart bowes]

see yeah i think that's the same thing again - longer range, up to 120m apparently, but it's still not GPS 

 

working this out as I go along .. you have to be really careful to look for the right thing on these, a lot of them on amazon in particular list themselves as GPS tracking device but when you look at it actually it's just bluetooth

 

it needs to be specifically a GPS tracker, from what I can tell most of the right ones seem to include a sim card

 

 

https://www.weenect....t-cell-service/

Edited by stuart bowes, 28 September 2023 - 10:01 AM.