Vehicle GPS Trackers

[Shibe]

Does anyone use a GPS tracker and their Subaru? 
 

Can anyone advise what sort of unit they use, installation difficulty and cost? 
 

As far as I can see, they range from low end 3g units online to professionally installed high end ones.

[Technikhaus]

A friend has a basic 3G unit form AliExpress in his Isuzu, was super cheap, seems to work well. 
I'm tempted to buy one as well, just also not sure on what unit.

[Shibe]

3 hours ago, Technikhaus said:

A friend has a basic 3G unit form AliExpress in his Isuzu, was super cheap, seems to work well. 
I'm tempted to buy one as well, just also not sure on what unit.

 

Also not sure on what unit, and whether to get one with a constant power feed or a battery operated one. My thoughts now are maybe wire one into the car that can be powered by USB, and run it so it's hidden in the (unfortunate) event of my car being stolen. 

 

I'm assuming the lower end ones can be blocked pretty easily, but then again, I'm guessing they'd be a pretty 'high-end' car thief if they're blocking GPS trackers 😂

[Gripless]

As long as you realise 90% are all running on the same s****y servers in China from one company. It’s all just rebranded hardware and web front ends. 

ive seen the platform hacked and live track every car. Or changes the phone number that controls the car and mess with people. 

smart place that runs all those kid tracker/sos cellular units.  
 

 

[Gripless]

Have you thought about the modern trackers like tile maybe airtag next year or even a cheap cellphone joined to your account as a child. Then you can track and set boundaries as well. The aim cost can be added for $20-25 a month with data only. 
 

[ris2t]

Late to the topic but i've play in this space a bit.

https://www.mictrack.com/product/4g-gps-tracker/ - this is what I currently run. Although I believe the preference now is NB-IoT models. I've also played with GT02A units.

Using this with an upgraded external GPS antenna, 45mm/38db I think. Alot of these aliexpress/ebay units don't seem to use A-GPS so once your in a shadow spot of hills or car park you get no GPS signal.

With each of the units I disable GPRS. Keeps the cost down, i.e. no monthly data usage. Use SMS to manually ping the location when I want.

Although I've not used it most units typically allow you to change the "server" address so you don't have to use the Chinese ones. You can run your own one or one of the more opensource/community servers.

Edited July 12, 2022 by ris2t

[Joker]

Apple Air tag / Android equivalent?

 

/ cheers for the update too! I feel alot of kiwi's are behind on these tech's and dont find out about them until too late ❤️

[boon]

6 hours ago, ris2t said:

Late to the topic but i've play in this space a bit.

https://www.mictrack.com/product/4g-gps-tracker/ - this is what I currently run. Although I believe the preference now is NB-IoT models. I've also played with GT02A units.

Using this with an upgraded external GPS antenna, 45mm/38db I think. Alot of these aliexpress/ebay units don't seem to use A-GPS so once your in a shadow spot of hills or car park you get no GPS signal.

With each of the units I disable GPRS. Keeps the cost down, i.e. no monthly data usage. Use SMS to manually ping the location when I want.

Although I've not used it most units typically allow you to change the "server" address so you don't have to use the Chinese ones. You can run your own one or one of the more opensource/community servers.

 

Nice, where'd you buy from?

[ris2t]

On 12/07/2022 at 6:20 PM, boon said:

 

Nice, where'd you buy from?

If I recall correctly off ebay.