GPS Trackers

[MrBags]

Hello fine folk of JC, anybody out there have experience with any GPS trackers?
One I looked at has a yearly subscription fee, you buy the unit for $XX and you are good to go. Uses Telstra network, battery operated and good for 3,6 or 12 months depending on which one you go for before requiring a charge.
Seriously considering a couple but hoping to hear from someone with first hand experience.

 

[vc commodore]

My work uses Tom Tom trackers....They are hard wired into the vehicles....

Not sure the network or cost, but do know it logs where the vehicles have travelled/travelling, the speeds it was/is doing at any given point, along with the speed limit along the route, having a different colour based on whether you were speeding and by how much if that was the case...

Not sure how long the log stays on the system for....

Hope that helps a bit

 

[NORTI]

my experience is at the fleet level, so not as helpful for single users. These are hardwired or some OBD plug in options, All are subscription models, with quite sophisticated monitoring & reporting portals.

I have looked at GPS trackers over the years for our cars, a lot of them fall into the pay a couple hundred bucks up front and get yourself a SIM, log into a portal as needed or SMS triggers.
Some offer a subscription option, often on selling the data carriage as well.
Most of these are dot on map solutions, and pretty basic, but if you just want a tracker to alert you when vehicle leaves a geozone, or to ping it if it goes missing these are fine.
If you want speed monitoring and other driver behaviours, and vehicle telematic information, then you are looking at subscription models or commercial offerings.

I have used old phones with tracking apps, and apple tags

 

[someguy360]

Air tags are a simple, affordable and reliable option.

 

[Skylarking]

Security and GPS trackers were discussed in the "VIC: STOLEN MY17 SSV Redline Sportwagon AMG156 - Monash University, Clayton, VIC" thread.

Within that thread @stooge lauded the benefit of the Gator GTKPro2 as a great tracker and immobiliser

But it's not just the initial hardware purchase costs to consider as they all have a subscription model which will cost you each month. A small price for piece of mind.

Supercheap has them as do all the other car parts outlets

GPS Vehicle Tracker and Sim Card GTKPRO2

GPS Vehicle Tracker and Sim Card GTKPRO2

www.supercheapauto.com.au

It's on my list of things to buy... one day... like doing computer backups, i'll probably buy the tracker the day after my car is pinched

PS: gotta add, a good tracker would be hidden in an inaccessible place somewhere within the vehicle as compared to those OBDII plug in dongle trackers which seem just too easy to toss out the window which i'd think makes then next to useless.

 

[stooge]

The ones i install on our fleet cost about $300 for the tracker device and a $180 subscription fee per year for the tracking server instance.
That is per vehicle.

The server saves 14 months worth of tracking data and it has ios/android apps to control it and get notifications.
Multiple trackers can be added to one account.

 

[chrisp]

Keep in mind that trackers won’t stop your car from being stolen, but they can help alert you to it being moved, and help find it. If they are wired up fully, they can also be used to remotely disable the vehicle. It’s sort of a second-line defence device. But every bit of security helps imho.

An AirTag is essentially a passive device (yes, it is sort of active as it does transmit a short range signal) and relies on being able to communicate with nearby Apple phones to report its location. But for it’s low cost, it’s definitely worthwhile considering.

Definitely consider some sort of tracking device, whether it be an AirTag or a proper GPS tracker. The cheaper devices (such as those sold by Jaycar) do work okay and are good value for money. They work well with a cheap SIM card (Aldi is usually recommended as they have a 12-month expiry between reloads). The web app provided with these cheap devices is a bit hit and miss but it does work. The redeeming feature is that these cheap GPS trackers work with SMS messages so you can simply send a SMS to the tracker and it‘ll respond accordingly. It’s a bit clunky but it does work. The trick is to do a practice send of the messages to the device so that your phone has a history of those messages. It’s easy to cut and paste (and resend) a message.

The GTKPro2 is a data-only device and it doesn’t work with SMS messages at all. However, it does seem to have excellent support, an excellent website and an app that works well.

In general, I do think it’s important to think about car security, and to implement unique solutions. For example, if we all secured our cars in an identical manner, then the thieves will also soon learn how to defeat our theft prevention measures. So definitively do your own unique approach and try and be as innovative and individual as possible - avoid cookie-cutter approaches . The deeper you can bury your security devices, the longer it will (hopefully) take the the thief to defeat it.

I’ll place this thought out there for your consideration using an example of a simple kill-switch… if the thief finds the kill switch, it is easily defeated - flick a switch and steal the vehicle as usual. But if that kill-switch was wired so that it shorts out something (and destroys something - such as a fuse or a module) then it complicates the process of defeating it as simply searching for (and finding) the switch won’t defeat the security measure. It might sound drastic, but I think it would it be better to have to buy a new part than totally lose a car to theft.

Also, make sure that your car is insured!

 

[MrBags]

The ones i install on our fleet cost about $300 for the tracker device and a $180 subscription fee per year for the tracking server instance.
That is per vehicle.

The server saves 14 months worth of tracking data and it has ios/android apps to control it and get notifications.
Multiple trackers can be added to one account.

Why can’t you be in Victoria so I could pester you to install a few lol

 

[stooge]

Why can’t you be in Victoria so I could pester you to install a few lol

i was born there but i bailed lol

they are easy to install and an auto sparky could install them fairly quickly.
if you do install the gtkpro ones take a picture of the writing on the outside of the device as you will need the imei number off it to add it to your account.

Keep in mind that trackers won’t stop your car from being stolen, but they can help alert you to it being moved, and help find it. If they are wired up fully, they can also be used to remotely disable the vehicle. It’s sort of a second-line defence device. But every bit of security helps imho.

they can stop it getting stolen if you disable it via the app while its parked but that can be a pita having to enable/disable all the time.

you can also setup geo fencing based on time/day etc.
so if your vehicle never leaves your home after say 1am to 6am then you could setup a geofence around your house for that time and send the "IMMOBILISE" command automatically if it leaves that geo fence.

if they tow it away the best it will do is give you a tow detection alert but there is not much else to stop that event.

The GTKPro2 is a data-only device and it doesn’t work with SMS messages at all.

it does have a sms gateway with bidirectional functionality but i have never gone into that part of it because i just use the app and also have it send emails to a specific account for overspeed alerts so i can track those and tell the guys off for hooning onsite lol



the kill switch idea is another one worth looking at especially one that is controlled wirelessly or a professional/custom immobilizer system installed.

 

[chrisp]

Some of the trackers accept commands directly via a SMS message, so no need for any on going subscription such as required for the latest Gator trackers.

One of the earlier Jaycar models I had simply accepted a SMS message sent direct to the phone number of the SIM card. So, for example, if the message ”URL#” was sent to the tracker, the tracker would respond with a SMS message with an URL that would directly open a mapping app on my phone and show the location of the tracker. There are similar commands to disable the vehicle (if the tracker is wired as such). There is no need for any server, website, or app to activate these commands. It’s pretty rudimentary but effective. The mapping/tracing does require the use of an app (but it is free).

As far as I can tell, the (latest 4G) Gator uses a (supplied) M2M SIM card which is the only card that can be used with the tracker. Gator does allow (a limited number of) SMS message notifications but it seems that these SMS messages are from the server rather than directly from the tracker (but I could be wrong?). I vaguely recall reading that the earlier Gator devices (3G devices?) can be used with other SIM cards so they may not be as restricted to server-only operation?

Anyway, my main point was that a basic tracker (such as one from Jaycar) could be a good option for someone who doesn’t want the $180/yr ongoing cost of a subscription device. All it needs is an Aldi SIM card and an annual $15 top up. It’s probably sits somewhere between a AirTag and a GTKPro2!

I’m definitely not arguing against the Gator device at all.