tazeat

If I were to make kits available to set up GPS tracking on your car would you guys buy the kits?

The kits would come with:
*Boost mobile cell phone most likely the i425
http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-p....html
Preloaded with the GPS software Mologogo which is a free service that you sign up for and it will keep a tracking history of where the phone has been updating every 60 seconds.

The phone is very thin, fully functional with gps, standard usb port for charging and application downloads.

*Sim card
Call boost to activate, they give you a number and what not.

*Power adapter
Just a 12v Cigarette Power adapter you would wire in your car to keep the phone charged, I would assume you can mod the power adapter to fit your needs. They are easy to take apart. I could make a pre-made kit with splice adapters if there is a demand.

Install Ideas (I'm not making a guide, be creative, hide them from the theif):
These can be installed pretty much anywhere under the dash you can wire power and it has a direct line of sight with the sky (exluding plastic, glass, etc, NO METAL or you wont get gps signal).

Or I was thinking in the coupes behind the back seat underneath the felt as long as you have power back there (be creative, 12v from amps and stuff is perfect).

Cost:
I would sell the kit for ~70ish I would think to cover the phone and accessories and my time to get the mologogo app installed properly.

Boost mobile data ends up about ~11/month you would obviously be responsible for setting up the boost cell phone, reload w/ credit card, echeck, prepaid card whatever on their website.

Software:
The mologogo software is pretty easy to use.

Think your at a buddy's house and you parked on the curb, partied a bit hard the night before you wake up, walk outside. Its gone. Your cars been jacked. Sure you can file a police report and hope they can find it, but what if you could just sign on to the website and know within a few feet EXACTLY where your car is.

I know I'm not the first one to think of this or anything I'm not taking credit for doing so, but if I had a kit premade ready to go?

D50boy

I've been thinking about something like that. The phone service would end up costing you a lot more for the trackin. I think the pre-paid phones don't allow for the tracking features and the prepaid minutes expire really fast. You'd have to get their higher calling plans in order to track.

I was thinking about the Verizon one too, but you'd need at least an $80 a month family plan with a 2nd line at $10/mo and pay another $10/mo for the Chaperone service.

needanew1

haha I've thought about this idea before... but couldnt find software that updated periodically. Its a good Idea, but I dont think you could sell it... main reason being, because you've posted this and how you plan on doing it, what keeps people from just getting the phone and installing the software them selves? I think its an interesting DIY though

needanew1

theres gotta be some kind of just gps tracker you can buy... seriously!

tazeat

Well the kit would come with everything and it would have it all preinstalled ready to go which is sorta a pain if you dont have the software.

The kit would not really cost much more than going out and buying it.

And for the plan information. Boost mobile has unlimited data for $.35/day which comes out to $10.50 in a 30 day month. If you pull out the phone and make calls and stuff on it obviously this uses more money.


And as far as mologogo, its not the best service, but its free you have to watch out, it only keeps the last 100 updates, so if you have it set to like update once per minute it will only be current for about an hour and a half, but like 30 minutes would be good for 2 days or so. The alternative is pay software which is $6/month which is AccuTracker which looks to be a better product, but then again its not free.

speedooo

the police asked me if i had a nextel phone when my car got stolen for this reason

mortificationrock

Well honestly it sounds bad ***. Like the idea. And yeah I rather pay than mess around with a program I don't know. Good idea . Now question would be what if you already have some boost phones laying around? this would be a great DIY.

kuja396

Someone has something like this already, but I can't find it, I was looking into getting it for my car, plus one other type of gps tracking, just in case.

I can't afford to get my car stolen. and if i do, I need to be able to find it before its stripped.

tazeat

Well I just bought some supplies to start making a few packs. Once they get here I'll get some packs started up, will definitely do starter pricing just to get these moving and some feedback, will post back when I get something definite , looks like I should be able to at least for introductory pricing almost half that expected $70, but we will see

tazeat

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mortificationrock &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Now question would be what if you already have some boost phones laying around? this would be a great DIY.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Learn how to install the Mologogo software (or accutracker if you wish to pay for the better software). Depending on the phone this gets tricky, see the i425 is easy as it takes a standard usb plug which is partially why its so convenient. Make sure the phone has data, make sure you can power this in your car, setup the software on the phone and you should be set .

I will try and do a pictorial installation this weekend

doubleoazn03

i was thinking of doing the same thing but with those prepaid disney phones. they have free pre installed gps tracking on the phones for the kids, i work at toys r us. hhahahah, ya'll seen the comercial

LeftLaneB*tch

Interested- Will look for your updates this weekend

Frost7177

why dont u just take your car to honda get the low jack with early detection. and call it a day. If the sensor isnt on your key chain when you start the car honda calls everyone down the list until they get you. By the time they get to where their going to strip the car its already tracked on the gps. Its only $650 i dont wanna hear thats alot of money cause people pay 3 times that for a motor swap.Its either you wanna keep the car safe or you dont.

tazeat

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Frost7177 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Its only $650 i dont wanna hear thats alot of money cause people pay 3 times that for a motor swap.Its either you wanna keep the car safe or you dont.</TD></TR></TABLE>
"Poor mans GPS theft recovery"

Yes if you have the money for that go ahead please do it. If I had the money for a nice swap + turbo + tune + parts + **** + etc I'm sure I would have something like that. I don't. To be honest my cars probably not worth the thief's time, thats not the point. For a solution that costs less than 10% of that up front (~6% if my pricing comes out to what I plan) and 1/65th of that per month its gonna take a few years to reach $650 , not to mention I still think a GPS alarm is better than lojack, if I had lots of money I would definitely go w/ the DEI alarm addon, I don't.

bpr0422

If the car already has an alarm installed, properly...

you could setup the alarm to turn on the phone when the alarm has been triggered.
there would be about a 2-3 min delay for the phone to boot the software i guess... which is about the same amount of time a thief needs to try and start the car...

this would reduce the cost, and allow you to have the software update every X mins, instead of x hours, and have better tracking when you need it.

tazeat

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bpr0422 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If the car already has an alarm installed, properly...

you could setup the alarm to turn on the phone when the alarm has been triggered.
there would be about a 2-3 min delay for the phone to boot the software i guess... which is about the same amount of time a thief needs to try and start the car...

this would reduce the cost, and allow you to have the software update every X mins, instead of x hours, and have better tracking when you need it.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Thats actually not a bad idea. I have it set every 10 minutes at the moment just testing it out, with 100 points of history that comes out to 1000 minutes or 17 hours which I would think SHOULD be enough backtracking history to know the route the thief took when taking your car if that becomes important.


Anyway if your curious heres the phone I have 3 right now to play with, but I should be able to get my hands on more, (pm me if interested now, but I will make a formal kit w/ car charger and stuff when I have more than just 1 that I already had):

The package:


The accessories, basic AC charger + battery, nothing special:


The front, plastic still intact:


Side:


Back:


I was gonna try and take one apart but found stupid torx screws. I dont have any small enough to fit it I may have to buy a set of torx bits that will have one this small:


Screenshot of the software in action:


And now for the grand finale, a sneak preview of my flat black install plans :



Misc picture on my camera from a car at work, VW Jetta on 18s, I loled.

tazeat

DIY thread in security forum:
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread/2281300

randomnineh2b

so wats wrong with the lojack???

EK9Rider

i'd be intersted to see the finished product - the concept is good i think it just needs to be thought out fully.

expense, tracking, installation....

i don't know where i'm going with this - but i can almost predict that there will be missing data.

fearthis4

good Idea I like it.. You could mount the phone in a radioshack project box to help hide it... I like the idea however of the phone turning on when alarm goes off anyt programers out there?

team_exceed

alright, so your a "poor man" i take it... i assume you have to keep reloading the minutes. Suppose you have your car for 3 years... i gotta believe you have paid more for this than you did for lojack.... but i like the idea, i do, but i just think your best off waiting it out, and scoop on a lojack man. But definitely do it and try and make some cash and then say "HA, GOTCHYA ALL" and then quit! lol.

SIRIUS VTEC

or just get a blackberry it does the same thing

tazeat

Well I found out you DONT need the .35/day data to use this. Just need to keep your account active, which means reloading $5 every 3 months.

And yes I have a blackberry, getting a $300 device, paying 30$/month on a data plan just for keeping it in your car, lol nice...

SIRIUS VTEC

Take into consideration that to some people their cars are priceless, we see it alot, they spend endless amounts on clutch locks, pedals locks, fuel cut off, kill switches and alarms and yet still get their car stolen and never found..until stripped, maybe keepin the gps in the car may have its perks like letting you know where the car is before it gets stripped..idk its just me but i think my ugly car is pricelss.