I’ve had a trawl of the forums and couldn’t find any other threads regarding this.
I live just outside Melbourne CBD and bike theft is huge. I’m looking for a small GPS tracker that I could mount under the seat or hide in the frame, it’s a push bike.
I’ve had a look online and a lot of the ‘tracking tiles’ only have a 100-200ft range.
Does anybody know of anything? Preferably sub $100,
Telstra have a new service called Telstra locator that you get bluetooth, wifi and cat-m1 tags. I'm not affiliated with Telstra but i'm thinking of doing the same thing with my new bike.
Wifi tag: Use the Telstra Locator Bluetooth Community and compatible parts of the Telstra Air Network for location updates. The Telstra Locator Bluetooth Community relies in part on a crowd-sourced community of users whose devices help locate items. The existence, size and extent of the Telstra Bluetooth Locator Community will vary from location to location, will not be the same at all times and will not be present in all locations.
CAT-m1 tag: Ring your tag, from your compatible device, when you are nearby (within approx.. 15 – 20 metres). Provides a history view. Shock and water resistant (IP67 rated). Create a geozone and receive an alert if your tag is detected outside of it. Rechargeable battery (see specification for battery life).
https://www.telstra.com.au/location-of-things/telstra-locato…
At $10 a month, I'd just add it to my household insurance (one that covers item you take out with you - mine insurer allows for this).
The Cat-m1 tag looks like it will do the job
https://exchange.telstra.com.au/meet-our-newest-telstra-loca…
But it needs a SIM and plan to be effective.
Unless you are after a bluetooth/wifi based tile (which would only be useful in case your neighbour decides to steal the bike and keep in their garage) they all need a long range network connection to be effective.
If you are after 4G model the price would most likely be over $100. Otherwise you can also look for a basic model which reports back via text message (i.e. sends current lat:long as a text message when requested). Regardless of the model you need to keep these charged every couple of days/weeks for them to be of any use.
Unless you want to pay for a SIM and plan, then I don't think it'll be very reliable or effective.
It's all technically simple. The cost of having it on a network is the issue.
Most tracking "tiles" don't use GPS - they can only connect via bluetooth.
The way they work is by continuously connecting to the phones of other Tile users that pass by using BT, and then that user's phone submits the GPS coordinates to the tile server of where it passed by the tile.
In theory it kinda works in populated areas but it requires other Tile users to have the app installed and be in the right area (ie near your bike)
A cheap phone could work and there are cheapish GPS trackers for cars on ebay/aliexpress that could work - but you'd probably still need to charge it weekly and they require a sim card
Monimoto is what you want, pop a 365 day $10 sim in and no monthly charges ever!
Check if it will fit in the frame, but thats my best solution :)
Make sure to get the latest version from the website direct
100-200ft ? this is australia mate, we dont use feet.
Feet are for double pluggers.
Get a cheap bike for when you want to lock it up outside.
Great question, I've wondered about the same thing. I really love riding my bike but I find I don't ride it as much as I would like as bike theft is terrible in my area.
How do we know you won't use this to track your ex-wife?