GPS Tracker Cheap and no Subscription

Jonesy101

With all the bikes getting stolen does anyone use a cheap little GPS tracker that doesnt require a subscription? Would be an extra bit of security leaving the bike in the garage.


Insurance is probably not worth it after the excess and a few years of monthly Asubscriptions add up. Probably wouldnt get much money off them anyway, and good luck having the gards recover it.

magicbastarder

not sure i would expect you'd be able to get one without a subscription; the tracker would need some way of communicating its location to you, and i'm not sure how that would be possible without signing up to a service.

Breezer

A company called Tile make them, but I haven’t found them great, because the functionality relies on other Tile users being near your tracking device, and there isn’t enough Tile users.

If you can hold off a couple of weeks, there are strong indications that Apple is about to launch something similar. The rumour is that it will release a device called “Air Tags” and that these will be detectable by any nearby iOS device (but not actually visible to the owner of that device, only by the owner of the Air Tags). The functionality has also recently been made available to third party companies to develop their own trackers which can piggy back on the iOS tracking function. Obviously the huge iPhone user base would be a major advantage here.

It remains to be seen whether it will be a subscription model or a case of buying the device outright.

Edit: More here.

ED E

Tile is a wet fart. Forget em. As you say the new iOS service will have billions of beacons. Could work.

Wont help you get them back though, wont work through a 40ft container.

Breezer

ED E wrote: »

Tile is a wet fart. Forget em. As you say the new iOS service will have billions of beacons. Could work.

Wont help you get them back though, wont work through a 40ft container.

They’d eventually be taken out of the 40 foot container, you’d have to hope!

ED E

Breezer wrote: »

They’d eventually be taken out of the 40 foot container, you’d have to hope!

Yep, in another country where you'll have plenty of fun trying to engage the local constabulary.

Welshkev

Breezer wrote: »

A company called Tile make them, but I haven’t found them great, because the functionality relies on other Tile users being near your tracking device, and there isn’t enough Tile users.

If you can hold off a couple of weeks, there are strong indications that Apple is about to launch something similar. The rumour is that it will release a device called “Air Tags” and that these will be detectable by any nearby iOS device (but not actually visible to the owner of that device, only by the owner of the Air Tags). The functionality has also recently been made available to third party companies to develop their own trackers which can piggy back on the iOS tracking function. Obviously the huge iPhone user base would be a major advantage here.

It remains to be seen whether it will be a subscription model or a case of buying the device outright.

Edit: More here.

Bit more here, more bike-specific:
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2021/04/apple-rolls-out-find-my-to-bicycles-and-more-sports-tech-thoughts.html