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Feedback on GPS trackers and tamper alerts

X

xingster

New member
Joined
Jul 28, 2008
Location
Alameda
Moto(s)
2005 Yamaha R6
Hi barfers,

We're a local Redwood City startup and a barf sponsor. We initially built a GPS tracker for finding and tracking lost pets, but thought the product would work great for quickly recovering lost or stolen motorcycles.

The device and app will be released with a few features including a motion sensor for detecting anyone messing/tampering with your bike, and a geofence that will let you know when your motorcycle has excited a "safe area" around your home.

Anyone interested in finding out more, or chatting with us online, just visit http://moto.iotatracker.com
 
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I was going to create a thread about this since I did see the ad and look through your website but since you already started..

It's not clear how your tracker communicates with the internet. You mention something about "home bases" on your website. So what exactly is the coverage/range of this and where/what are these home bases?
 
I don't see a link anywhere to give feedback or a survey. $89 sounds pretty great but the question is how far is the range? Will this even work outside of the bay area?
 
click the chat bubble in the lower right to take their survey. There is more info on the pet tracking version of this product.

I suspect it is being built on unlicensed WiFi spectrum using p2p. The pet version site talks about a home base that covers 12 blocks. This base must then use your ISP to connect to the net (and other bases to build their network). 12 block coverage seems like a lot for WiFi though.
 
Alright, I just bought one. Will be going into the Ninja 300. Will follow up with how it works out.
 
ctwo said:
That's pretty cool. I see what they are doing there.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I guess the other real big question is how long this startup will last. Seems like if their servers go down all the customers are screwed.
 
hey guys, ctwo got it right. We built a new wireless protocol in the unlicensed spectrum on the 900Mhz band, and the range depends on how high you mount it (usually between 0.5 miles - 1.5 miles).

It's a community network though, so even if your GPS tracker moves past the range of your own home base, it's likely to be picked up by another one nearby.

We did a kickstarter campaign awhile ago and sold about 2500 units to pet owners, which helped launch our coverage nationwide, but I'll be honest - it's very spotty outside of the Bay Area.

Mrzuzzo, love to hear your feedback after you try it out! If any of you guys have any questions at all, or find the product doesn't satisfy some specific need you were looking for, just contact us and we'll take care of you.
 
xingster said:
hey guys, ctwo got it right. We built a new wireless protocol in the unlicensed spectrum on the 900Mhz band, and the range depends on how high you mount it (usually between 0.5 miles - 1.5 miles).

It's a community network though, so even if your GPS tracker moves past the range of your own home base, it's likely to be picked up by another one nearby.

We did a kickstarter campaign awhile ago and sold about 2500 units to pet owners, which helped launch our coverage nationwide, but I'll be honest - it's very spotty outside of the Bay Area.

Mrzuzzo, love to hear your feedback after you try it out! If any of you guys have any questions at all, or find the product doesn't satisfy some specific need you were looking for, just contact us and we'll take care of you.
Click to expand...

My beloved Honda Grom was stolen a few months back and was found within your coverage zone.

I've been shopping for a GPS tracker for a while, I was going to buy a trackimo, but I've been a bit lazy to find a time to install it so your tracker with install is a great deal.
 
I think there is no worry about "their" network going down. This is all built on p2p ad-hoc networking if I understand it right.

It works kind of like a torrent.

Are you guys building this into a kids watch or something? Maybe if you spin enough applications off this you can build very good coverage.

The system is also a little bit like aprs (aprs.fi).
 
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ctwo said:
I think there is no worry about "their" network going down. This is all built on p2p ad-hoc networking if I understand it right.

It works kind of like a torrent.
Click to expand...

Are you sure? It seems to me like their servers are needed for the core functionality.
 
ohh yeaaaaaaaaaaaa

Whammy just ordered... how long till I get it?:teeth
 
I like the idea - however you need to connect one of their home bases to your home wifi network.

So... If your wifi goes down, perfect time to steal your bike - unless of course you're within range of some other home bases.
 
Very cool!

How much power does the charging draw?

Does the moto version also have an internal battery so that I can charge it only when the engine is running?

There's cement between my wifi and where I park my bike, but a clear line of site from my wifi to the street. I'm guessing the 'fencing' would be most applicable to me, but I'm kind of skeptical about how useful that'd be for preventing a theft.

Anyways, I love the idea and I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops!
 
Yeah I'm in for a home base (I see I'm in an underserved area) and a tracker - the tamper notification functionality will only come later in the month but I'm going to give it a shot on my street bike and let you guys know how it works.

Their rep was super helpful and it seems like a good price point for even just bay area tracking and tamper functionality, but I'll have to see how the range works and all that.
 
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just to post a few clarifications on some of the questions:

mrzuzzo has it right... all the data gets fed through our cloud hosted on Amazon AWS... maintenance cost is really affordable right now at ($500/mo), so we've put 4 years worth of funds in the bank in case the company does go under.

our iota tracker draws 1mA of current, so it's definitely not going to drain your battery like other alarms. All versions have an internal battery that lasts between 2 - 4 weeks (depending on if you configure a geofence alert). My impression is that the geofence will probably be less useful than the motion alert that we're releasing end of this month.
 
Whammy cant wait to test

I'm assuming the unit will have a wire to connect to the battery.
Ive located a suitable unseen area to install the unit.:teeth


Ohhh one more question.
Is it possible to have two base stations to monitor... one at home and one at work?
 
I almost got one of these but I don't like the concept. It's not actually GPS. it relies on nearby sensors. So it's practically useless in the real world lol... if they go out of range. I guess it's better than nothing but I think I'm going to get a real tracker
 
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