Cheap tracker - anti theft

[Mark]

Now that I actually have a car worth owning I have come to the conclusion that were it ever stolen I would want to increase the odds of finding it again. With that in mind I came across a way of making a tracker for an outlay of about 20 quid at the most.

What you need.

1) an old mobile phone - I have an old Nokia 3310 but anything would do so long as it still works.

2) a SIM card. Vodaphone are supposed to offer the greatest accuracy when it comes to tracking although T-mobile and Orange are pretty close behind.

3) you need to register with a tracking company but £11.99 buys you a 20-track bundle with www.followus.co.uk so you can even test it out a couple of times and still have enough tracks to actually find your car if the worst ever happens.

4) an old 12 volt phone charger. Remove the cigarette lighter adaptor and hard wire it into your cars electrics. Even if your car battery is disconnected the phone will still work for a few days. Long enough to find the car anyway.

5) make sure you turn off all the alerts, tones, ringers etc. Then hide the phone somewhere under the dash or trim. Just make sure it still picks up a signal.

Thats it - job done - simple!

In the UK the tracker will be able to pinpoint your car to within 50 metres in cities of 250 metres in the countryside.

[Ray Singh]

Thats a very good idea. I like it and will investigate it.

[Mark]

The actual article I read is in PPC magazine should you want more info?

[will]

Well done hoobs top idea

I believe that trackers work on mobile signals (could be wrong but know some do). A few mates tested one of the big brand (read expensive) trackers and found out there are ways in which the vehicle can vanish from the system. Won't state how they done it for security reasons but the ones that rely on mobile phone technology ain't failsafe

Of course the thieving scrotes have to suspect the vehicle is tracked to do anything about it, so don't let um know with tracker brand name stickers and so forth, or use above method for peanuts.

[stealthstylz]

Most thieves now leave cars parked for a few days after taking them to make sure a tracker isn't fitted.

Matt

[herald948]

2) a SIM card. Vodaphone are supposed to offer the greatest accuracy when it comes to tracking although T-mobile and Orange are pretty close behind.

Does the SIM have to be active? Making a call every month from a phone buried under the dash could be inconvenient

[jettadeluxe]

I posted this in the 'Stolen' section a looooong time ago! lol

Jun 4, 2008 14:22:37 GMT @jettadeluxe said:

Cheap Tracker = Hidden Mobile phone+hardwired charger.

Register the phone on www.traceamobile.com or similar, then should the unfortunate occur, track the phone via the website.

[whitbytom]

I read the article in PPC mag yesterday, and it seems that the results vary depending on the network coverage in the area. They did a test out in the sticks with one of their cars and found that the tracker website showed the car to be 6 miles away from where it actually was. Admittedly in town the results were much better, but if a traveller tows your car off to a shed in the middle of nowhere then I guess your chances of finding it are somewhat diminished.

[snoopy]

I was chatting to a family that had their 11 month old caravan stolen, that had a tracker on it + mechanical security devices and an alarm.
it was a top range twin axle job already to go to france.
never heard of or seen even the tracker which was supposed to be triggered by the motion alarm was useless.
suppose as they were fitted by approved installers/ manufacturers so the theives know exactly where to go and isolate it.
anything home made and unusual must stand a better chance and it would make the owner feel happier knowing there was a chance no matter how small of locating it.

[Nathan]

Works in the same was Googlemaps does on an Iphone, triangulates (sp) between masts local to the phone.

I know quite a few people who use this system, myself included and when we tested it thye were pretty bang on.

[akku]

the problem is what good does this do you?

1. you find the smouldering shell which used to be your car before the kids burnt it out...

2. you turn up at a yard with snapping dogs and burly blokes in hi-viz jackets and then what, turn into Bruce Lee? or say "please mister, can I 'ave my car back pwease?"

You can bet your V5C the cops won't turn out.

If its in units even a decent triangulated signal won't always tell you which one anyway.

The money you pay for a tracker is all about the monitoring and the fact the cops will take certain brands seriously and go follow them up. Thats what you are paying for.

As most car thefts are still "opportunist" and a high proportion end up quickly stripped and dumped or burnt out within literally minutes of being taken you are far better (IMO) spending your time and effort on stuff to stop the car getting nicked in the first place

Unless you have muscle and are happy to break the law and / or use violence I don't see a DIY tracker being any more than a nice party trick to show your mates (or a way of keeping tabs on your employees if you run a small fleet)

[datman]

GPS trackers are quite cheap now, I've got one , so far I've only attached it to my dog to see where she disappears to but I plan on installing it in one of my cars at some point. Its kind of crude, you just text it, and it texts back the coordinates. You then type them into google earth, or your tomtom. Battery life is terrible, about 8 hours, so it would need constant power from the car electrics. Theres supposed to be a 'geofence' function on the tracker whereby it knows if its been taken out of a predefined area and sends you the alert, but I had trouble getting this to work properly.

[Hitch]

Oct 6, 2009 12:19:17 GMT akku said:

the problem is what good does this do you?

1. you find the smouldering shell which used to be your car before the kids burnt it out...

2. you turn up at a yard with snapping dogs and burly blokes in hi-viz jackets and then what, turn into Bruce Lee? or say "please mister, can I 'ave my car back pwease?"

You can bet your V5C the cops won't turn out.

If its in units even a decent triangulated signal won't always tell you which one anyway.

The money you pay for a tracker is all about the monitoring and the fact the cops will take certain brands seriously and go follow them up. Thats what you are paying for.

As most car thefts are still "opportunist" and a high proportion end up quickly stripped and dumped or burnt out within literally minutes of being taken you are far better (IMO) spending your time and effort on stuff to stop the car getting nicked in the first place

Unless you have muscle and are happy to break the law and / or use violence I don't see a DIY tracker being any more than a nice party trick to show your mates (or a way of keeping tabs on your employees if you run a small fleet)

Surely though if you ring the police up and say "My car was stolen last week and I know exactly where it is" then they'll do something about it? Probably even more likely if you add on the end "if you don't do anything about it I will".

[datman]

Reminds me of an old joke: Bloke rings cops and says 'someone breaking into my garage, cops say sorry, nobody available to come out at the moment.
Bloke hangs up and rings back, 'I just shot some guy breaking into my garage'
cops arrive immediatly, catch the burglar and say to the man ; 'i thought you said you shot the burglar?'.
man says ' I thought you said you had noone available'

[lae]

^ you'd probably get done for wasting police time

[akku]

Oct 6, 2009 15:15:11 GMT Hitch said:

Oct 6, 2009 12:19:17 GMT akku said:

the problem is what good does this do you?

1. you find the smouldering shell which used to be your car before the kids burnt it out...

2. you turn up at a yard with snapping dogs and burly blokes in hi-viz jackets and then what, turn into Bruce Lee? or say "please mister, can I 'ave my car back pwease?"

You can bet your V5C the cops won't turn out.

If its in units even a decent triangulated signal won't always tell you which one anyway.

The money you pay for a tracker is all about the monitoring and the fact the cops will take certain brands seriously and go follow them up. Thats what you are paying for.

As most car thefts are still "opportunist" and a high proportion end up quickly stripped and dumped or burnt out within literally minutes of being taken you are far better (IMO) spending your time and effort on stuff to stop the car getting nicked in the first place

Unless you have muscle and are happy to break the law and / or use violence I don't see a DIY tracker being any more than a nice party trick to show your mates (or a way of keeping tabs on your employees if you run a small fleet)

Surely though if you ring the police up and say "My car was stolen last week and I know exactly where it is" then they'll do something about it? Probably even more likely if you add on the end "if you don't do anything about it I will".

PC magazine's stolen Granada - they found the car, knew the yard it was stored in, told the police and the police would not come.

That Datsun Bluebird - the car was found in a public place (it was at a banger track) and the police were called but either did not turn up or by the time they had the car was long gone.

Police are only interested if they can make an arrest and make it stick. This means that all the evidence is going to stand up in court and there are strict rules on how evidence can be collected which means even CCTV footage often is not admissible.

[Nathan]

Using muscle it is then LOL.

[naanbread]

Oct 6, 2009 16:41:15 GMT datman said:

Reminds me of an old joke: Bloke rings cops and says 'someone breaking into my garage, cops say sorry, nobody available to come out at the moment.
Bloke hangs up and rings back, 'I just shot some guy breaking into my garage'
cops arrive immediatly, catch the burglar and say to the man ; 'i thought you said you shot the burglar?'.
man says ' I thought you said you had noone available'

haha thats a good one for future reference!

[naanbread]

Oct 6, 2009 12:35:39 GMT datman said:

GPS trackers are quite cheap now, I've got one , so far I've only attached it to my dog to see where she disappears to but I plan on installing it in one of my cars at some point. Its kind of crude, you just text it, and it texts back the coordinates. You then type them into google earth, or your tomtom. Battery life is terrible, about 8 hours, so it would need constant power from the car electrics. Theres supposed to be a 'geofence' function on the tracker whereby it knows if its been taken out of a predefined area and sends you the alert, but I had trouble getting this to work properly.

where did you get that from out of interest?

[Mark]

For the sake of a couple of quid its might, just might - not will definately - MIGHT help you find your car if its stolen. No doubt someone had this idea before - well done you! - no doubt someone somewhere will have a mate of a mate who's car was never found, or a mate who called the Police only to be told they were shut. Unlucky.

HOWEVER - IF you have an old phone why not give it a go? You don't have to though. Its not law and I won't be offended.