Anti-theft Shock Sensor.. Does it Work?

[patrickdiviacco]

Ok, does this mean that the device needs to update its location sending a GPS request at a certain interval. In other words, the battery is always consuming fast. And I probably need to recharge the device every 2 months?

[belizesailor]

Or put a small solar panel on the boat.

[mariner36bob]

Post reminded me of an old friend back in Florida. Spent a ton of time and money putting a gps tracking type anti theft device (lojack?) on his 32 Contender. Went to sleep with it in his driveway. Next morning it was gone. He and his service provider tracked it to a warehouse a few miles away. Called the sheriff and went to the scene.

What they found was one of his batteries with the tracking device wired to it sitting in the parking lot.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Biggest sort of scum sucker on earth is a thief.

[socaldmax]

I use 2 different GPS trackers for my toys. Both of them use a GSM SIM card to communicate with your cell phone. You can set a geofence and if the unit moves outside of the fence, it transmits a text msg to your phone with lat/lon and a link to google maps. One of them is a TK102B. It has a battery in it that should last 3 or 4 days, so if the main source of power is removed, it will still transmit. It will also listen and let you hear what is going on inside the boat. About $30-35 on Ebay. The other is the GT02A. This one does all the same except no listening, no battery backup, but it is waterproof. It needs a constant source of power, if they cut battery power, it no longer works. It's also about $30 on Ebay.

If you need professional tracking services, you can contact Airsis (Portvision) which provides real time fleet marine tracking worldwide. A little more expensive, but their units transmit back via satellite, so if your boat is taken offshore beyond cellular range, theirs will still work. They have a website showing the location of your unit, and you can rewind and follow the tracks from the moment it left the dock. Theirs uses Lithium AA batteries, they will last 6 mo to 5 or 6 yrs depending on ping interval.

[autumnbreeze27]

It would probably be cheaper to just get a dog?

If it's 50m from your house, put a webcam on it and wifi and link it to your place.

[sevgi]

@ patrickdiviacco, There are two approaches towards the said problem. If you want to monitor that your boat isn’t being stolen, you can simply insert a GPS monitor and ensure the signal strength of the signal. Then you can have a small notification script that will inform you via text or call that your boat has moved a certain distance from its original spot. In case you want to monitor the theft from your boat, you can simply install two different shock sensors, one on the outside and one on the inside. By comparing the results of both the sensor outputs (XOR the outputs of sensors), you’ll be notified if there is someone one the boat.

[frgeorgeh]

I use a small GPS locator on my Quadcopter in case it goes down far away from me. It only costs around $60 and that included the sim card and phone number to call.

When needing location, you call a phone number. This activates the unit and it send coordinates to a website. You log onto the website given by the company and are given a google map location of where the device is.

Very small, easily hideable. Battery use very efficient as it is in sleep mode until pinged by phone.

Just my 2 cents worth