mobile phone tracker?

[iceman]

i was looking about a cheap way to track my boat and caravan, i was looking at the gps trackers on ebay which you can use there sim card with there site to track at a cost or use your own payg sim and this sends a text with coordinates to use on google earth.

i was told today to just buy a cheap gps phone which do the same as well but i presume software is needed to be involved so has anyone done this method or have any ideas on this as i do not want to be into a monthly contract.

btw i will be putting a cheap phone hidden on the boat for emergency's if it breaks down in the middle of the lake so a tracker using a mobile will kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

 

[kitchenman]

Good place to start

http://www.followus.co.uk/

 

[rustic]

Good place to start

http://www.followus.co.uk/

Seems a good idea, but at £20 fee plus 50p extra for each track, the down side is that the tracking credits only last 6 months. So may prove expensive for the odd check.

I like the idea for my boat.

So far I tend to find my boat where I left it......
But who knows.......

 

[rustic]

btw i will be putting a cheap phone hidden on the boat for emergency's if it breaks down in the middle of the lake so a tracker using a mobile will kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

You will need to provide a power source to maintain the battery of the phone, simple enough, also some provision to maintain the boat battery. eg solar power.

Or buy a solar charger for the phone direct, see Maplin.

 

[kitchenman]

Why register in advance, seems to me if you are sure the phone has a charge then register when it is missing

An idea I read about a while ago used the autodial feature, if the phone was disturbed it rang a predetermined number & kept the line open. The idea being the police do the tracking, you report the theft, boys in blue leap into action....................................

Sorry about that I tend to drift off now & again, leap...........................:doh

 

[rustic]

Why register in advance, seems to me if you are sure the phone has a charge then register when it is missing.

Excellent idea, phones are always transmitting a signal to let the phone system know where you are, so that if a call comes in for that phone, they only activate the transmitters in that area.

By triangulation, ie signal strength to each transmitter the system can find an approximate position of the phone. Not that accurate, but it can find people lost in the mountains. :thumbs

I have a spare phone too, just need to sort out a charger. :thumb2 :thumb2
Best to put the phone into silent mode just in case it rings when thieves are on board. :doh

Work with cars too.

 

[kitchenman]

I read a fix a while ago, I will see if I can find it

 

[iceman]

thx for replys, never thought of solar power device even for trickle charging the battery at times, i have a good electrician and mechanic who are into my keen modding ideas lol.

i like the suggestion of register when it's missing as long as you dont need to use the original phone in first place as this defeat the object plus i bet followus.co.uk have that covered.

i heard buy cheap phone put into silent mode have it linked upto a power source and if you want to test it phone the mobile it text back with cordinates then use google, this is great but there must be a app that you install to make this work as long as you have credit on your sim.

thx for the replys as more brains better then my peanut.

 

[kitchenman]

found it

http://www.instructables.com/id/Motorbike-Phone-Alarm/

 

[rustic]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Motorbike-Phone-Alarm/

Wow simple idea, but you would also need an output to end the call after say 10 seconds, otherwise there would be an open line costing money until the credit runs out. :doh

The secret is to provide volt free contacts (relays) to link across the contacts on the phone keypad at the right time. Hence the NE 555 timer.
But also to resend somehow if the call failed ????? so may need the dual timer NE 556.

But you would have a missed call or evidence that the "Phone" had called you.
Now you need to set up a code or tone that can signal the fault.

I might try this on the boat.

1 Boat moved.
2 Water in Bilge
3 Boat frozen in !
4
.
.
.
.


A nice winter project.....:thumbs

 

[kitchenman]

Please keep me informed with your progress, I belong to a hang gliding club, we need a low cost security system for our quad, electrickery is past me,

 

[rustic]

Please keep me informed with your progress, I belong to a hang gliding club, we need a low cost security system for our quad, electrickery is past me,

I will look into this .....
There are plenty of old phones about. :thumb2

 

[iceman]

seen google latitude but probably missing something here i presume that because it's not activated by text that is continuously sending gps data which costs money? the other thing do you have to accept permission from tracker phone hidden on boat from say my main phone every time i wanted to see tracker phone which will not be possible unless the criminals are stupid lol

http://www.google.com/mobile/latitude/index.html

EDIT: looks like there is a a automatic location updater in Privacy settings, could not see any costs involved.