DIY Tracking Devices?

Dord

Anyone know of any tracking device how-to's on the net, or have any advise on how to go about building something. I'm looking for a small solution for the transmitter, something that I can hide easily enough. Maybe 9V battery size or less if possible?
Obviously recommendations on how to track the thing would help, and how to receive the signal etc...

Nothing to do with illegal activty or anything like that. I'm just throwing around ideas for tracking some expensive gear I have in case it gets stolen.

DaithiM

4 letters RFID

humbert

What range would you be wanting to be able to pick up a signal? Also how long would the device have to operate between charges? RFID is typically very short range but doesn't require internal power.

copacetic

RFID isn't going to work unless you are going to bombard the country with a sensor network.

OP, whats your budget and range? If you are trying to track potentially stolen equipment over a large range then you will need to be looking at GPS really, which ain't going to be cheap.

SouperComputer

Really what you are looking for a a device that combines GPS with a mobile phone. GPS to verify its position and the phone part to transmit/track it.

This is all assuming its within coverage of both technoligies. Such devices are available for cars, ive no idea what size they are. There are some single-chip GPS solutions out there which you could utilise, but id say it would be pricy enough to get one.

Also I think the size of it would largely depend on how long you want it to run and its power consumption which of course will determine the battery size and type. You could also setup a circuit where it goes from standby and comes out every 3-5mins to give a "heartbeat" signal. Only problem is that you might have to leave the GPS module on or you have the hassle of wasting energy to acquire sats every time it relays it location..

Not really direct info I know, but hey its free!

HTH

shanethemofo

*cough stalker Cough*

Cantab.

Joe Robot wrote: »

Anyone know of any tracking device how-to's on the net, or have any advise on how to go about building something. I'm looking for a small solution for the transmitter, something that I can hide easily enough. Maybe 9V battery size or less if possible?
Obviously recommendations on how to track the thing would help, and how to receive the signal etc...

Nothing to do with illegal activty or anything like that. I'm just throwing around ideas for tracking some expensive gear I have in case it gets stolen.

For a rapid solution:

- HTC P3600 GPS phone
- USB cable
- Microsoft Visual Studio
- an internet server
- a GPRS contract

^ all above will cost you about €1000 (I've implemented such a tracking system)

For a james bond solution, you'd probably need to get yourself an electronic engineer and perhaps some of these new lithium ion batteries: http://www.exduco.net/news.php?id=2727&PHPSESSID=6960b3fbce1f1fc7c126ca57b2e0b489

^ above would cost you countless €€€, although I'm sure if you got on to a company like QinetiQ, they'd be able to fix you up with something off-the-shelf (if you're "their kind of customer") http://www.qinetiq.com/home/commercial/gps_and_rfid/gps/GPS_Products.html

towel401

it doesnt need to cost that much.. you don't even need a HTC phone. there are various long-range RS-232 transmitters out there. they are supposed to be good for 20 miles on a good day when the sun is shining and nothing is blocking the way. all you need to do is connect a cheap ol serial GPS module to it and a battery.

if you are real hardcore you can get an Orbcomm or Iridium module and use that to track it from anywhere in the world. some of those have built-in GPS

Cantab.

towel401 wrote: »

it doesnt need to cost that much.. you don't even need a HTC phone. there are various long-range RS-232 transmitters out there. they are supposed to be good for 20 miles on a good day when the sun is shining and nothing is blocking the way. all you need to do is connect a cheap ol serial GPS module to it and a battery.

if you are real hardcore you can get an Orbcomm or Iridium module and use that to track it from anywhere in the world. some of those have built-in GPS

How much would your solution cost do you think? How long would it take you to set it up?

Google's android phone looks promising. You've even got access to accelerometers on this phone which could be combined with the GPS data to give really accurate positioning. Hopefully the accelerometer will be 3-axis.

Wazdakka

Might not be suitable for tracking down missing gear but.....

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/8f90/

A well gool gadget none the less...

Capt'n Midnight

SouperComputer wrote: »

Really what you are looking for a a device that combines GPS with a mobile phone. GPS to verify its position and the phone part to transmit/track it.

It would be nice if phones could transmit the cell tracking info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Position_Reporting_System
APRS is a lot cheaper than mobile phone + contract
but like any system the two big problems are
- how to power it
- how you can detect it but the bad guys can't

All UK cars will be fitted with a GPS tracking system in the near future.


Actually a good gamma source would do - self powered 'n all

towel401

Cantab. wrote: »

How much would your solution cost do you think? How long would it take you to set it up?

Google's android phone looks promising. You've even got access to accelerometers on this phone which could be combined with the GPS data to give really accurate positioning. Hopefully the accelerometer will be 3-axis.

a pair of those RS-232 transmitters are around €200-400. gps module is cheap, got one for 30. then you need batteries, but thats all you need. if you use an iridium module you'll need some low-spec system on chip computer with two serial ports, the iridium module is around €600 (data only) and you need to pay for the service - around 15 per month maybe less if you don't send many messages. if the computer runs linux and a python interpreter it should be easy to code. a day or 2 to set up maybe

sheesh

Depending on how small you want it

you can get a bluetooth GPS receiver for about €50
get a mobile phone that has bluetooth and able to run java games less than 100


you can get an app to create a track of the net for free getJars .com

so now you need to get the phone to text message you the location at specified interval

so if you can program you could do it for less than €200

you can buy trackers for a couple of hundred that will text message their location

Stop stalking people.:D

Dord

shanethemofo wrote: »

*cough stalker Cough*

Not a stalker. Just have some expensive equipment.

Thanks for all the replys guys, I guess it's a little more complicated (& expensive ) than I envisaged. I have found a place to get rfid chips specifically for identification but obviously no use if you can't find it or if the person who does find it doesn't have an rfid scanner. Oh well... :pac:

Theta

It might be a bit late but these might be suitable?

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?c=138

watty

A 433MHz or 864 MHZ licence free legal 9600baud serial TX/RX CE approved pair can be bought cheap. It's TTL rather than RS232. Matchbox sized TX.

Cheap surplus €40 GPS modules have internal aerial and TTL serial out @9600 and need +5V supply also.


Range is more like 100m. The 20mile transmitters use a Yagi and licenced band to achieve the range. Also quite large. I sold some on eBay a while back. Not a reliable solution as band is shared with Baby Alarms, Cordless Doorbells, Weather sensors, TV sender IR remote return channel, Wireless microphones etc.


RFID is fairly useless for this application. (actually possibly fairly useless period).


For longer range you can buy a prepackaged GSM/GPS solution in a small box not much more expensive than a mobile phone. Needs a SIM and bill pay account. As others have suggested, this is the only really practical solution. I'd not bother with an actual phone and BT GPS as that is very unreliable compared with the professional "all in one" product.

APRS is not suitable. Also it needs GPS and Radios. It's just extra complexity with no value for this application. (I've used it too).


Satellite based solutions are very much more expensive.


Note that USA and China /Asia direct sourced solutions are usually illegal lacking CE approval or on the wrong band. They'll cause interference or be blocked by other equipment.

Martron

i am no expert on any of this but this was further down the forum

http://www.mr-lee-catcam.de/ct_index_en.htm

Martron

ah crap just looked at it more closely its only a logger so no good if it went missin.

hobochris

You can do this for about €100 if you know Java. I built a system for my 4th year project that does what you need.

you need

-a bluetooth gps receiver. about €40 on ebay.
-a phone (must be CLDC 1.1 to handle floating point values) get this for about €50-60
- a server with a static ip, I found tomcat handy enough to use, recommend use of google maps api for viewing.

you can easily build this in 3 months.

derry

With triangulation the cell masts can figure to a few meters where a mobile phone is

You pay for the service so when you lose your phone you ring a number and it says where is the phone

Attach the phone to the object you wish to track and there you have it

The cost in time minutes to set up the service feature

The cost in each demand for each location is something like a few euros

So in 24 hour tracking onece every hour it could cost you about 100 euro each day

So instead to stalk her give her a free phone that you have got the pernmission done to track it without her knowing and you can become a cyber stalker and see where her boyfriend lives


If she has lots of boyfriends well it will cost you more to track the phone for a longer time

Honestly its so easy if you got buckets of money

Derry

towel401

shoot her with an arrow filled with radioactive tracking fluid.

makes the boyfriends glow green as well

derry

towel401 wrote: »

shoot her with an arrow filled with radioactive tracking fluid.

makes the boyfriends glow green as well

Anyway funny how the gals dont need thesse tracking things
They got a host of well developed arments that being doing that for thousands of years
Things like lie detectors antennas detective abilities to spot strays hairs you name it coupled with jungle drum gossip machinery you name it

Only guy's need these high tech gadgets
Ayway if you buy her the wrong colur phone she will leave it at home and you can fool yourself thinking she always stays at home

Sucker born every day

Derry