# DIY real time GPS tracker for $40 + $15 a month



## JonMR2turbo (Jun 19, 2008)

Check this out http://www.instamapper.com/diy.html

I'm working on putting it together right now.


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## CRD (Apr 23, 2008)

JonMR2turbo said:


> Check this out http://www.instamapper.com/diy.html
> 
> I'm working on putting it together right now.



Let me know how it works, this could be my part of my alarm system


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## JonMR2turbo (Jun 19, 2008)

You should try it. Hell, you could even plant one inside your sub box in case your system ever gets stolen .

I've got everything ready for it to work, the only thing that is holding me back is this ****ty phone won't pick up any satellite signals. I called Boost and they say it takes about 24 hours for everything to become fully active. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow.


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## phreakness (Apr 11, 2008)

Man I wish this would work on my N95 phone. I would look into this option for at least the Lincoln.


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## Melodic Acoustic (Oct 10, 2005)

Ok thats cool.


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## CRD (Apr 23, 2008)

I would hardwire this to the car and set the phone to autoanswer with a loudspeaker, if the car get stolen I can call the celphone and tell him "thieft" I know where you're hehe.


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## CRD (Apr 23, 2008)

You want to have the BEST audio bug wireless?

Just buy one of this phones make sure it haves the autoanswer feature, turn off the ringers etc and just placed anywhere on the office/room/car/ etc etc. and when you wanna hear whats happening just call the phone and it will answer itself automaticly and then you hear everything


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## its_bacon12 (Aug 16, 2007)

This is really cool.

I'm going to look into this.


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## Melodic Acoustic (Oct 10, 2005)

CRD said:


> I would hardwire this to the car and set the phone to autoanswer with a loudspeaker, if the car get stolen I can call the celphone and tell him "thieft" I know where you're hehe.


LOL, Thats funny as H**L, and a great idea.


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## JonMR2turbo (Jun 19, 2008)

Haha sweet, the phone I got has an auto answer option. Now I'll have GPS tracking and a mic bug. Now if only it would connect to the freakin satellite.


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

waste of money. here is how one might get real value from this.

Assuming the phone is set up to turn on and shut off with the car, it would least as a "dead fixture" essentially for the life of the car.

The waste is the monthy charge for nothing. But if it can be turned on and off remotely with a phone ID number, then there is value. Because $40 gets you set up and then there is NO monthly fee.

when your car gets stolen if ever, then you can call the company and set up the GPS service, then track the car as needed. $15 would be more than too rasonable to pinpoint the location of the car.

$15 a month is $180 a year. Even satellite radio is a more worthwhile expenditure.

This might be a dumb question but is the phone in the car when you are trying to pick up satellites? if you have metal between your line of sight you wont pick up any satellites.


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## CRD (Apr 23, 2008)

Whiterabbit said:


> waste of money. here is how one might get real value from this.
> 
> Assuming the phone is set up to turn on and shut off with the car, it would least as a "dead fixture" essentially for the life of the car.
> 
> ...


There is nothing like it that cheap, this is good only if you want to keep track of your car, kids car, wife, etc etc hehe. GPS signal can go thru metal even house roofs, I have own several types of GPS and they work fine inside the house, even my Sprint Touch GPS works inside the house.


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

CRD said:


> There is nothing like it that cheap, this is good only if you want to keep track of your car, kids car, wife, etc etc hehe. GPS signal can go thru metal even house roofs, I have own several types of GPS and they work fine inside the house, even my Sprint Touch GPS works inside the house.


My mistake. Homes in California are made of wood, not metal. So I just assumed US homes everywhere were of similar construction.

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cach...htm+gps+block+signal&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us

"GPS receivers require a line of sight to the satellites in order to obtain a signal representative of the true distance from the satellite to the receiver. Therefore, any object in the path of the signal has the potential to interfere with the reception of that signal. Objects which can block a GPS signal include tree canopy, buildings and terrain features."

Of course, if your GPS gets its data from a cell tower, that might help signal transmission without line of sight.

Anyone else who doesn't like the idea of a $15 monthly fee can check out homemade projects. They require more knowledge than cell phone contracts, but cheaper solutions for ANYTHING (store bought computers, audio systems built by shops, etc) tend to require knowledge over money. Though I'd hazard a guess that startup costs would exceed $40.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/06/gps_logging_arduino_shiel.html
http://www.ladyada.net/make/gpsshield/


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## CRD (Apr 23, 2008)

Whiterabbit said:


> My mistake. Homes in California are made of wood, not metal. So I just assumed US homes everywhere were of similar construction.
> 
> http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cach...htm+gps+block+signal&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us
> 
> ...


Most of them work thru metal , the real GPS trackers most of them installs under the car.

I had a GPS tracker from Sams Club that worked perfeclty on my glove compartmet and under the seat. all depends on the GPS chip that pulls the "signal in"

I used to live in Puerto Rico and the houses there most of them are concrete roofs , and my old usb GPS track me inside the house going from room to room. Once again all depends on the quality of the GPS receiver chip


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## JonMR2turbo (Jun 19, 2008)

I finally got a satellite connection. The phone works well hidden in my car. What's also cool is the tracking site logs the route you take so not only can I see where the phone is but I can see where it's been. I still need to hardwire it in though.


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## CRD (Apr 23, 2008)

JonMR2turbo said:


> I finally got a satellite connection. The phone works well hidden in my car. What's also cool is the tracking site logs the route you take so not only can I see where the phone is but I can see where it's been. I still need to hardwire it in though.


I'm buying one today


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## JonMR2turbo (Jun 19, 2008)

Sweet . I hope you like it.


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## nrte (Aug 9, 2008)

It doesn't cost $15 / month, more like $10 (0.35 * 30 = 10.50).


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## JonMR2turbo (Jun 19, 2008)

I added a few dollars in case you decide to make some calls with it


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## X Ray (Oct 29, 2007)

SWEET!! Definitely on my "things to get" list. I can think of all sorts of things to use this for. Hee hee!!


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## JonMR2turbo (Jun 19, 2008)

I finally got it hardwired in today using the cigarette socket kit from radioshack. It's hidden well but still easily accessable and so far it has no problem getting GPS reception.


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## felix509 (Dec 17, 2006)

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...


My job has revolved around DGPS since 1988 and i have sat in front of the best $50,000 GPS receivers made in the world for many many days.. 


GPS absolutely does not work through metal... You can block GPS signals with your hand over the antennae.. 


I am not disputing it working in the glove box, but these signals are diffraction and will not be accurate in their position.. It may be a few hundred meters to the real position..... 

Not saying you cannot find the vehicle with this, but do o think it is in any way 'accurate'


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## Melodic Acoustic (Oct 10, 2005)

felix509 said:


> Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
> 
> 
> My job has revolved around DGPS since 1988 and i have sat in front of the best $50,000 GPS receivers made in the world for many many days..
> ...


You would be correct, not metal, but it will pass through plastic. So putting it in the dash behind the radio or hind the dash cluster should not be a problem. Man for 10 bux a month a couple hunderd meters is not bad.


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## felix509 (Dec 17, 2006)

I absolutely Agree!!! I am going to do this myself!!\

I was just chiming in that it will not work under the car or in other extremely obstructed places... 

I like it, and it is a great thing that affordable phones have GPS now!!!






Here-I-Come said:


> You would be correct, not metal, but it will pass through plastic. So putting it in the dash behind the radio or hind the dash cluster should not be a problem. Man for 10 bux a month a couple hunderd meters is not bad.


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## CRD (Apr 23, 2008)

felix509 said:


> Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
> 
> 
> My job has revolved around DGPS since 1988 and i have sat in front of the best $50,000 GPS receivers made in the world for many many days..
> ...


I'm really surprise about that, the kind of metal I'm talking about is sheet metal or aluminum roofs, or even 5"-6" concrete roofs and they're really acurate, all depends on the model. I have own more than 20 diiferent types of GPS , watches, trackers, bluetooth gps, normal tomtom's, Mio's etc. The worse was the Garmin forerunner, and the best one is the MIO gps+a bluetooth I used to have. I currently have the Tomtom 720 and I get reception with my hand on top of it, inside my house and on the office 1 floor building with metal roof.

The bluetooth GPS used with google maps worked great inside the building I work, it showed me on aerial pictures where I was inside the building with an accuracy of maybe 5-10 feet.


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## CRD (Apr 23, 2008)

Here I tested my TomTom 720 inside my house, I don't have metal roof but it's very acurate less than 10 feet from my actual position even though is inside the house and as you can see only half of the satellites are pick up.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE CORDINATES on the map

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=...404,-81.463329&spn=0.000622,0.001202&t=h&z=20


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

felix509 said:


> Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
> 
> 
> My job has revolved around DGPS since 1988 and i have sat in front of the best $50,000 GPS receivers made in the world for many many days..
> ...



Thanks for the support, felix


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## felix509 (Dec 17, 2006)

I like it that they GPS chips are so good these days, for cheap.... 

Sensitivity is through he roof and that is good for locking onto GPS signals.

At my Work We would barely function with 4 sats, very sketchy positions, barely into 3d mode.. We have Quality indicators that would probably shut us down. Of Course we rarely have fewer than 8 sats locked on, and we are sub centimeter accuracy also.. 

What type of differential do these DGPS have? My Sirf Star uses WAAS and works pretty good. WAAS is approx 6m accurate for 95% of the time, but really does 2-3 meters alot of the time. 

I have the sirf star III chip in my truck computer, it works GREAT, and cost all of $50..


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