GPS Tracking....

[powder311]

Okay.... I hear so much about cars getting stolen (and acuras especially) and i get scared thinking of what I would do if my baby got stolen... Does anyone know of any GPS tracking thingy's they make for cars? I was thinking last night in a drunken rage about how if it didn't exist I would invent it but then i thought , gee, maybe someone with ambition and goals probobly already invented it.... Anyway anyone gotta link? I was thinking one in the engine bay and one under the dash to be safe.. lemme know...

[wild.irish]

there are several devices that track your car. they're priced $450-500. you could get one on ebay for $350, but i'd not go that way.
also, you pay monthly fee similar to your cell phone. this is so that you're able to communicate with your car and visa versa.
This store: http://todaysupperedge.com/ is located in Flat Irons mall and in Westminster mall. they sell these devices.

heh, and yes, it's basically a gps device with a cell phone module, i also was thinking if you could do it yourself, but then even if i was an electronics guru and was able to design it, price for separate parts would pretty much be in the range of what they sell it for. :)

[powder311]

Word thanks.. So are you telling me that if I don't pay and my service gets shut off and then my car gets stolen they won't activate it to help me get my car back? I wonder how that works?

[wild.irish]

yeah, you have to be an active subscriber of their service. btw, this communication service could be not the same company that makes and sells devices.
The way it works is - they have several plans (once again, like cell company), and you select different options. check out this site http://www.streettrak.com/ they have most of what i know about it ;)

[Kwando]

I want GPS for navation and to track my car incase it gets stolen.

[wild.irish]

this is not the only company out there, btw. i can't find a discussion i once read about them, but i remember there's like difference in coverage areas, i.e. you'd want a company that reliably covers the area of your primary travel.

[Kwando]

there are several devices that track your car. they're priced $450-500. you could get one on ebay for $350, but i'd not go that way.
also, you pay monthly fee similar to your cell phone. this is so that you're able to communicate with your car and visa versa.
This store: http://todaysupperedge.com/ is located in Flat Irons mall and in Westminster mall. they sell these devices.

heh, and yes, it's basically a gps device with a cell phone module, i also was thinking if you could do it yourself, but then even if i was an electronics guru and was able to design it, price for separate parts would pretty much be in the range of what they sell it for. :)

I use to work for them when they had a store in Buckingham Mall.

[powder311]

I just want tracking if my car gets stolen and thats it.. kinda like ADT for your car. I contact them and tell them my car was stolen and they send the cops to the signal quick before they can find the transponer or whatever and throw it out... Thats what I want...

[wild.irish]

first, you call the cops yourself and file a report. and then you use their (EDIT: their, meaning tracking company) web-page, cell phone, etc, to locate your car, and i think basically tell cops where to look for your car. they go there, check it out, and (hopefully) bingo - your car is recovered and thief's ass is in jail.
and this is something i was looking for myself. i figured you'd only need a basic plan to ask for location of the car. personally, i'd hate to have all other bells and whistles that those tracking systems provide. I'd actually have the system disabled while i drive it myself. because i would not be able to tell if someone else (authorised or not) start checking my location.

[STIBungy]

You mean it's not a device that tells you "you're getting warmer" as you get closer to it? :D

[wild.irish]

hehe, it would be a big pain to circle around the fence of some industrial hangar area and keep getting "you're getting warmer" message over and over again! :D

[Bedlam]

Just get LoJack early warning..its pretty bombproof..and it actually works. :p

-Bedlam

[wild.irish]

it's actually about LoJack that i heard it has coverage problems. does anyone have any personal experience with it in denver? On their site (http://www.lojack.com/where/lojack-coverage-areas.cfm) Colorado is not in "Statewide coverage" section, but in "Major Metropolitan areas, cities and high crime area coverage" section. It might mean if i park the car say in Estes Park - i would never get a signal then, right?

[ryanman]

Lo Jack is a complete waste of money.

[chrisbarnett01]

Lojack sucks. It isn't a GPS system. It is a beacon system.

With GPS, you can find your cars location at any time at almost anyplace. You can get digital maps, sometimes satellite photos with the more expensive places, of where your car is. They can track the speed driven, and it is usually logged so if your car was stolen 8 hours ago, you know where it has been, how long it was there, etc.

With a beacon system, well, when your car is stolen, the beacon is turned on. Hopefully someone with a receiver is within range. Not all police cars have Lojack receivers. So basically, the cops aren't out actively looking for your car, but if they happen to drive within a mile or so of it, and they have a receiver, they will probably find it.

Not to mention Lojack is EASY to find and disable. GPS units are tiny, sometimes the size of a quarter. Power it with a 9v battery, and you can hide it anywhere. It's on if the car is off or on. You can hid the GPS transmittor inside a seat, or a gauge cluster, etc. If the car is stripped, the GPS receiver still works. So lets say someone steals your seat, and it has the GPS transmittor. You'll be able to track your seats movement until the battery dies(about a 2 month life).

And, with the wired in GPS systems, you can remotely shut your car off. Thief driving your car? Dial a phone number, hit some numbers, the car turns off. You can unlock your doors this way too, in case you locked your keys inside.

Aftermarket GPS rocks. Lojack blows. Onstar would rock if it wasn't so easy to find/disable.

[powder311]

Word.. do you have a link to any GPS tracking sites? size of a quarter? sounds nice i want two.. Gotta link?

[chrisbarnett01]

I did, but they are on the computer with the now broken hard drive.

Some basic Yahoo(or other) searches should find them. They are generally used for covert vehicle tracking, mostly commercial vehicle. The bigger systems got their start in the trucking industry. People like to know if their drivers log books reflect what actually happened. The smaller ones have gotten some publicity lately, for parents to track their teenagers driving habits with. The more often found systems are different, they don't transmit data via GPS, only receive. Then later on, you download the info from the "black box", and you can see exactly what happened. These systems are dirt cheap though.

Another cool thing about them, is that if you ever get a traffic ticket that you don't deserve(speeding, incomplete stop, etc), you can show the judge PROOF that you weren't breaking the law. GPS printouts show everything.

[foxxof]

i would love to see the faces of the guys who stole your car and got tracked down! id love to have a gps sys in my car.

[powder311]

dirt cheap sounds good to me... :) I'll have to look in to it...

[powder311]

Found it.....

http://www.gpsonsale.com/vehicletrackingdevices/index.htm?OVRAW=gps%20tracking%20for%20cars&OVKEY=car%20gps%20tracking&OVMTC=standard

Looks about perfect to me.. (even though i havn't exactly checked it out.. only found the site...) I'm gonna have to get the details tomorrow cuz it's friday and I just got laid and i'm going to bed now....

:werd:

[powder311]

:werd: If I understood right the website says that I can hook it up so that I can disable my starter from my computer.. that would be sweet.... Imagine the thieves waiting outside the chop shop?? hmmm.....

[oldskoolracer]

after my crx got stolen i took my del sol in
and had the install "lo jack" the guy comes in and puts all the sensors in
where only he knows where they are.
and the batterys last 4-5 years.
and no monthly payments. if they try to steel it i will track them down myself.

[Mario]

$300? That sounds good.. $10/month, not bad at all.

Does anyone know if I can use this as a GPS reciever too so I could hook it up to a computer inside the car?

[chrisbarnett01]

after my crx got stolen i took my del sol in
and had the install "lo jack" the guy comes in and puts all the sensors in
where only he knows where they are.
and the batterys last 4-5 years.
and no monthly payments. if they try to steel it i will track them down myself.



Actually I more than likely know where the receiver is in your del sol.

And anyone who can use Yahoo can know also.

You can't track them with Lojack unless you have a receiver for the beacon and are within a few miles.