ultraflight
Pack Dog
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2017
- Messages
- 491
- Reaction score
- 218
- Location
- Cape Town northern suburbs.
- Bike
- BMW F800GS
Hi guys, some feedback on GPS/GSM bike trackers.
I have been doing some research on these, buying and testing various models.
I found the perfect product. R3800 locally but under R200 from Geek, plus postage.
The idea is that if your bike is stolen, that you can track it with your phone.
Also you can allow friends/family to track you on your outrides.
Also you can view your own rides on a map afterwards.
So basically it has a GPS receiver to get an accurate location from the GPS satellite constellation (once per second), and it has a slot for a cellphone SIM card to communicate via the mobile network.
Of course if you ride outside of network coverage area, then it is temporarily offline but will automatically reconnect any time it finds a mobile signal.
You want it small and easy to conceal. You want it easy to install on your bike.
You want it easy to setup, and easy to interrogate from a mobile phone or PC.
Next post will show the model I recommend.
I bought a Cell C prepaid SIM card from PnP for R1.99 plus 100 SMS bundle for R29.00 and 100MB mobile data for R29.00, total about R60.
You set it up via SMS.
Then once set up, you send a SMS to it from any phone. It replies via SMS with Lat/Lon position, speed and direction, plus a link to a Google map with the location marked. Very simple to use. But it costs you one SMS on the prepaid card every time you want an update (plus one SMS from your phone to request the updated position).
However, there is a much better, much cheaper way to track it, and it can be a live, continuously updated online map with tracklog record.
For this, you use GPRS, i.e. Mobile data. Every packet costs about 0.2 cents. You can set it to send a packet every 10 seconds to 600 seconds (10 minutes).
I set mine for an update every 3 minutes, or about 6 cents an hour or R1.44 per day, or R43 per month of continuous use.
You can reduce this by switching it off while the bike is locked in your garage or somewhere safe.
How this system works is to register the device with any of the many free GPS tracking servers.
I use www.traccar.org
Once set up on the server, and you send the server details to the tracker via SMS, then you can track the device (and your bike) via their website on a PC/Mac/laptop or via their free app for iPhone/iPad or Android.
It took a few hours to figure everything out, but they also have an online forum to assist you to get setup and started.
Its amazing that the tracking servers offer this for free.
I have been doing some research on these, buying and testing various models.
I found the perfect product. R3800 locally but under R200 from Geek, plus postage.
The idea is that if your bike is stolen, that you can track it with your phone.
Also you can allow friends/family to track you on your outrides.
Also you can view your own rides on a map afterwards.
So basically it has a GPS receiver to get an accurate location from the GPS satellite constellation (once per second), and it has a slot for a cellphone SIM card to communicate via the mobile network.
Of course if you ride outside of network coverage area, then it is temporarily offline but will automatically reconnect any time it finds a mobile signal.
You want it small and easy to conceal. You want it easy to install on your bike.
You want it easy to setup, and easy to interrogate from a mobile phone or PC.
Next post will show the model I recommend.
I bought a Cell C prepaid SIM card from PnP for R1.99 plus 100 SMS bundle for R29.00 and 100MB mobile data for R29.00, total about R60.
You set it up via SMS.
Then once set up, you send a SMS to it from any phone. It replies via SMS with Lat/Lon position, speed and direction, plus a link to a Google map with the location marked. Very simple to use. But it costs you one SMS on the prepaid card every time you want an update (plus one SMS from your phone to request the updated position).
However, there is a much better, much cheaper way to track it, and it can be a live, continuously updated online map with tracklog record.
For this, you use GPRS, i.e. Mobile data. Every packet costs about 0.2 cents. You can set it to send a packet every 10 seconds to 600 seconds (10 minutes).
I set mine for an update every 3 minutes, or about 6 cents an hour or R1.44 per day, or R43 per month of continuous use.
You can reduce this by switching it off while the bike is locked in your garage or somewhere safe.
How this system works is to register the device with any of the many free GPS tracking servers.
I use www.traccar.org
Once set up on the server, and you send the server details to the tracker via SMS, then you can track the device (and your bike) via their website on a PC/Mac/laptop or via their free app for iPhone/iPad or Android.
It took a few hours to figure everything out, but they also have an online forum to assist you to get setup and started.
Its amazing that the tracking servers offer this for free.
