Inexpensive GPS trackers, Articel?

Lots of us own cars that are fairly easy to steal. I've seen quite a few of GPS trackers for sale. Some for ~$200, and a lot of them in the $25-$50 range. Some use cell phone tower triangulation and require a SIM card and data connection, others are a hybrid, or just good old GPS. I want one I can hide in my car. If someone steals my car, I want to track them down and send the police, guns blazing, to protect my property.

How about a magazine article comparing different devices? Lots of inexpensive ones, which ones are any good?

Okay, not a crazy idea at all. Thanks for sharing.

Happy to. Next time I might even spell the title correctly!

Just use an old smartphone that you have laying around.

Android has device manager that will pinpoint the phone and if you connect to comcraps xfinity wifi, there is a good chance you will always find it.

My sister got me a box of trackers from tile for Christmas. I was using them on outr key bains as there are 4 in a box. We are in a metro area and it seems to locate them pretty well and one even survived a trip through the wash in a pants pocket. They are disposable and are advertised to work for a year, but I have been thinking of putting one in my truck and my race car for the purposes you are describing.

Old phone sounds like a good idea, until you realize the battery in the race car died so the battery in the phone died, and the trailer with the car in it got stolen... happened to a friend of mine... still not recovered.

Would love an article on this one, including any insurance benefits from any of these.

Spot has some cost to it but a lot of times there's a rebate on the unit it self but there is a monthly subscription fee. Lots of racers are using them on trailers for theft recovery.

I know we've got some Arduino users here. I've looked at using pre-paid cell phones, "Go Phones" for text alerts for other things. I know there's some Motorola brick phones that can be controlled with an Arduino, but looks like there are modules that integrate with much less hacking, and simply need a SIM card.

My thought was to simply have something that would reply via text, with Lat & Long coordinates when prompted to do so.

Looks like real-time tracking is fairly do-able though.
https://www.cooking-hacks.com/projects/arduino-realtime-gps-gprs-vehicle-tracking

You could hide one of these Tiles in the car interior. Low effort. But not real time tracking

In reply to LuxInterior:

That only works on Bluetooth, and if the tile is within 100' of the phone/app device.

The tile works best with Bluetooth but it does locate without being on Bluetooth rangeright now I'm at work and I can get a map showing an approximate location that seems to be withing a house or so radius. I'm sure the sensitivity is better in cities with more cell towers and there is no way I'd go guns blazing until Bluetooth range confirmed the exact location. But it seems to be a decent ballpark estimate.

bigdaddylee82 wrote: In reply to LuxInterior: That only works on Bluetooth, and if the tile is within 100' of the phone/app device.

Yep. I'm aware of that. I realize that it's not the ultimate solution.

But for someone who doesn't want to go build an "expert" level Arduino project, and also doesn't want to pony up the hardware cost + monthly fee for a commercial product, it could provide a little piece of mind for almost no cash.

Or buy one of the many many $25-$50 trackers available made specifically for this purpose. My problem is, which one?

I want to weld one into the frame rail, with a little lead sticking out to charge the battery

Anything ever come of this?

In DC, I would have to send a tow truck out to collect it for me, because there's no way I could get DCPD to go after it.

An old smartphone is a good idea hardware-wise, but no matter what hardware you use, you'll either need a subscription to some kind of mobile connection - either cellular or satellite ($$$$), or you'd have to hack up your own automatic wifi-bumming system that wouldn't be too reliable - your car could be safely stolen to the sticks and driven around forever in that case. I agree that a tracking device is a good antitheft system, in fact the only meaningful antitheft system in a world where the sound of a car alarm going off is as common and meaningless as a pigeon squawking.

Next problem, police don't take private asset tracking systems in general too seriously - technically with good reason, because technically you could modify the system to frame/harass someone. So if you call the cops and tell them that your car has been stolen and is at X location they'll just file that away for future reference while they slowly work to track down your car like it's 1899. Ask anyone who tried using one of those systems to recover a stolen phone/tablet/laptop.