GPS tracker ideas

Y

yyf926

Member
Hi All,

The month of May cannot get here soon enough. Totally stoked to get my Nevo and begin riding.

I've been thinking about hiding a GPS tracker on my bike in case it falls into the wrong hands. Anyone have any suggestions? I've Googled the topic and have yet to find a device that provides the battery life/range/small size for concealment that seem appropriate. I know, for example, about the Tile waterproof sticker (it only has a search range of 400 feet and depends on other Tile members to pitch in to locate), the Trek 4 (kinda big and so easily removed; I'm hoping for something I can hide, maybe in a in a seat post), and the Americaloc GL300W (14 day battery life)

I'm intrigued by the LandAirSea54 Tracker but I have not found battery life (I'd prefer a year between changes.)

Anyone have any suggestions? I welcome your ideas.

p.s. I had a long talk with the LBS that sold me my bike. My contact there agrees that the high-traffic location where I will park (outdoor, higher end mall with restaurants, a microbrewery, fitness shops, Apple store, and 24/7 roving security) reduces the opportunity for thieves to grab and run. I will put multiple hard to hack locks on my bike to slow down the opportunistic thief. Even so, my LBS thought a hidden GPS would be a good extra step. But it has to be hardy and it needs long battery life.
 
boomerangbike.com

Home

Boomerang CycloTrac is a self-contained bicycle anti-theft GPS device that tracks your bike's location & movements, sending alerts straight to your phone.
boomerangbike.com boomerangbike.com
 
Boomerang has a plastic cover .it can be easily ripped off from the frame. and is also obvious , a tracker should be inside the down tube or seat tube , somewhere near the battery
 
Ebiker01 said:
Boomerang has a plastic cover .it can be easily ripped off from the frame. and is also obvious , a tracker should be inside the down tube or seat tube , somewhere near the battery
Click to expand...

I hear your point, @Ebiker01. Boomerang's website says its obvious presence is itself a deterrent since it means an owner will get a real time notification that someone is messing with their bike. Not sure I'm convinced about that.

I like the idea of a hidden tracker in a down tube or seat post but have yet to find one that combines long battery life with a connection to the cloud. As I understand it, Tile uses other Tile members in the network to extend the search area beyond 400 feet. But what if the thieves aren't near other Tile users?
 
I did find one that is hidden but they are always out of stock.
tile would not work well really. I tried their service that notifies you when you leave a tile behind. well I would be at least a mile away on my bike or more before I got an alert.
 
with prompt text notification to the owner that someone is jiggling your bike and a loud obnoxious alarm, the boomerang relies as much on deterrence as tracking. The idea is to make the bike a less attractive target incentivising a thief to find an easier less troublesome target. They claim studies with the PD in San Jose have proven this out. Their version 2.0 is due out shortly.
 
You're not likely to get a device that is housed in an indestructible case and/or frame that can receive weak gps signals from satellites 20,000km above the Earth, or if it can it will not likely receive signals from many satellite's simultaneously to get an accurate fix location.
 
One does have to wonder how great the transmission range is if the device is hidden within a metal seat tube. Do they somehow use the frame itself as an antennae?
 
webcurl said:
Probably a plastic top cap with the GPS antenna(s) directly beneath it.
Click to expand...

@webcurl I'm just hoping the device has a sim card and enough power to connect to a local tower. The tower can do the communicating from there. I may be searching for a yet to be created (or yet possible) device.
 
Hah, forgot about the cellular transmit/receive requirements.
If you can't get a GPS fix and only rely on a location fix from a single cell tower (cell site) then forget it, you may be searching for your bike in a radius of 2km or more :)
More cell towers the better, gps much better, more gps satellites even better, combination of all of the above better still. Add WIFI to all of that and it can improve accuracy as well but getting more complex.
As i write this at home the GPS on my phone is getting a fix from 20 satellites out of 42 in view.
GPS antennas are not like ordinary antennas:
www.taoglas.com

External Antennas: GNSS, 5G/LTE, Wi-Fi, LoRa, SatCom, AM/FM

Search Taoglas' advanced external antennas, including GNSS, 5G/LTE, Wi-Fi, LoRa, SatCom, and AM/FM antennas for mobility, infrastructure, and first responders.
www.taoglas.com www.taoglas.com
 
Last edited:
webcurl said:
Hah, forgot about the cellular transmit/receive requirements.
If you can't get a GPS fix and only rely on a location fix from a single cell tower (cell site) then forget it, you may be searching for your bike in a radius of 2km or more :)
More cell towers the better, gps much better, more gps satellites even better, combination of all of the above better still. Add WIFI to all of that and it can improve accuracy as well but getting more complex.
As i write this at home the GPS on my phone is getting a fix from 20 satellites out of 42 in view.
GPS antennas are not like ordinary antennas:
www.taoglas.com

External Antennas: GNSS, 5G/LTE, Wi-Fi, LoRa, SatCom, AM/FM

Search Taoglas' advanced external antennas, including GNSS, 5G/LTE, Wi-Fi, LoRa, SatCom, and AM/FM antennas for mobility, infrastructure, and first responders.
www.taoglas.com www.taoglas.com
Click to expand...

That’s helpful @webcurl. Learned something new and useful today!
 
The rumoured Apple air tag still sounds promising. This from one of the apple rumour sites -

“Will AirTags still work if my item is far away?

Yes. If an item is not nearby and can't be located, you can put it into Lost Mode. In this mode, if another ‌iPhone‌ user comes across the list item, they'll be able to see your contact information so they can send you a text or give you a phone call to let you know the item has been found.

You'll also receive a notification as soon as an ‌iPhone‌ comes across your lost item. This feature that lets any ‌iPhone‌ detect a lost item is part of ‌iOS 13‌, and it leverages Bluetooth to locate lost Apple devices and when released, AirTags.”

Of course the end product maybe too big for hiding on an ebike, but presumably it will be designed for use with keys or a wallet so it should be on the smaller side. I suspect Apple will either have a toggle to turn off, or will prevent actual contact information from being seen by someone who is near the lost/stolen item.
 
Jay Kay said:
The rumoured Apple air tag still sounds promising. This from one of the apple rumour sites -

“Will AirTags still work if my item is far away?

Yes. If an item is not nearby and can't be located, you can put it into Lost Mode. In this mode, if another ‌iPhone‌ user comes across the list item, they'll be able to see your contact information so they can send you a text or give you a phone call to let you know the item has been found.

You'll also receive a notification as soon as an ‌iPhone‌ comes across your lost item. This feature that lets any ‌iPhone‌ detect a lost item is part of ‌iOS 13‌, and it leverages Bluetooth to locate lost Apple devices and when released, AirTags.”

Of course the end product maybe too big for hiding on an ebike, but presumably it will be designed for use with keys or a wallet so it should be on the smaller side. I suspect Apple will either have a toggle to turn off, or will prevent actual contact information from being seen by someone who is near the lost/stolen item.
Click to expand...
Average range for Bluetooth in phones is 10m, industrial devices - 100 meters. Apples Ultra Wide Band range is supposed to be less than Bluetooth.
So if it's "far" from your iphone or anyone else's then i guess you'll be out of luck.
And the thief's iphone will be the closest to the the item so does this mean they will be able to tell if you have a tracker? :)
Cell coverage is much larger.
GPS is global but of course one-way, it can't transmit.
 
Last edited:
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