Alarm that sends SMS text

[eleclogic]

I looked into getting a small alarm for my bike. I park it outside my local gym and the bike is just out of shot of Bluetooth/Wifi etc. I see most decent alarms require some kind of monthly subscription so they can send alerts/track etc.

I am very surprised that there is no basic alarm that can send an SMS text for free (as in the UK pay as you go SIMs are free), thus no subscription costs and I can be alerted wherever my bike is.

Does anyone know of a non subscription based alarm that can alert for free (in the UK)?

Thanks

 

[mschwett]

i looked into this quite a bit. there really aren't any "unicorn" cellular lock alarms.

what i ended up doing is pairing a simple u-lock with a loud audible alarm (e.g. blackstone) with a cellular movement sensor.

the lock :

the movement sensor / tracker:

i don't know the details of network fees/usage/coverage area in the UK; but it seems like they sell them there, so they probably work. i doubt there's a free service version, you pay in advance a very trivial/nominal fee which amounts to a few bucks a month for the first couple years.

i've set them up a few ways. i have one inside the nylon casing of my very heavy abus chain lock at home (it literally alerts me if someone even bumps into the bike!) and have also hidden them in various parts of various bikes. they work nicely with IFTT, so you can set it up to text you, call you, flash your lights at home, etc. i have the one at home set up for a call (so the phone rings audibly, vs a text) and it also flashes all our wifi lights. the one in the bike is just set up for a call.

 

[mojoe]

I use two of these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y8BW8TF/

It's a rear light, horn, motion sensor and alarm. I set it to fast blink when riding. The horn/alarm is very loud. When armed, it will blast once if the bike is jostled. If they persist, the alarm sounds. You'd hear it from inside a store.

 

[Benyajawo]

I put together a basic system using a GPS tracker hooked up to my bike and used programmable verification engine called Verify API to send myself SMS alerts. It wasn’t hard to set up once I followed the docs, and I like that I can tweak how the alerts work. I’ve tested a few triggers already, and it texts me right away if there's movement.