Track your stolen bike with GPS & Google Maps

[Thug]

Came across this bike blog on the Guardian website in the UK.

 

An excellent idea but I think a little too expensive at approx R 1 200 excl shipping and possible duties.

 

 

According to Immobilise, the police-backed property register, a bicycle is stolen every minute in the UK and less than 5% are ever recovered.

 

The sad truth is that you can use a couple of chunky locks and leave your bike in busy, well-lit places, but nothing stops a really determined thief.

 

The SpyLamp is pragmatic; it accepts that bikes get stolen from time to time, and focuses on getting them back and catching the thief.

 

A mobile phone, vibration sensor and GPS chip are all crammed inside what looks like – and even works as – a rear bike light.

 

You mount it on your bike and it beams its location back to you if it senses movement – such as a bike thief carting it off, but – hopefully – not someone bumping into it as they lock theirs next to it. It keeps doing that until it's disarmed or runs out of power. Before that happens you can hand that information over to the police, who swoop in and save the day (in theory).

 

I doubt the average thief would suspect a thing, because it's very well camouflaged. Although if they become popular this would quickly change (the company is working on a smaller device to hide in the seat tube, due for release this summer).

 

Several police forces have already been using them in sting operations involving flashy bikes left locked up as honey traps, leading to several arrests and even a few design refinements.

 

I've been testing one for the last week, and it's shown a lot of promise despite some flaws.

 

Thankfully, one of the things that will soon be updated is the user interface. It took several hours of head scratching and trial-and-error to get the various settings sorted, which is all done by sending codes to it in text messages.

 

Once it was up and running it worked well. Every time I forgot to disarm it and used my bike I was sent a text message warning me that it was being stolen. I could then log in to the tracker website and see exactly where I had been on a Google Maps interface. It was a bit like having a GPS bike computer, but one without a screen.

 

So far, so good. Feeling confident, I decided it was time for a more realistic test. It was time to get my bike stolen.

 

So I called in a friend to act as a bike thief – that's him, pictured above.

 

He "stole" my bike at a prearranged time and place and took it on a jaunt around the city while I went for a coffee.

 

Using my iPhone and the tracking website I could follow the red line that appeared on the map and see where he was with only a minute or two delay. If he stopped for more than five minutes the device would turn off, and if he jumped back on it would fire up again thanks to the motion sensor.

 

It was all quite voyeuristic – I even got a text alert when he turned the light on. I can imagine that tracking an actual thief could be great fun, like some sort of dramatic techno-thriller.

 

After an hour or so of watching him like some sort of amateur Big Brother I noticed he had ended up, predictably, at his own house. A rookie mistake. I sauntered over, rang the bell and recovered my bike. The SpyLamp had done its job.

 

Of course, this is where the first big flaw becomes evident; unlike me, who had been to his house several times before, you won't know exactly which house the thief lives in. Try knocking on every door in a block of flats, asking each person who answers if they stole your bike and see what sort of reception you get.

 

And when you find the right one they probably won't politely hand it back and offer you a cup of tea, as Mark did. Would the police have time and inclincation to follow your tip-off?

 

There are other problems, too. It costs £125, and you have to keep the SIM card topped-up with credit, or it won't be able to report its location.

 

But if it stops an expensive bike being stolen, it's worth every penny. The Environmental Transport Association, which is also trialling the device with an eye to offering reduced insurance payments to those that use them, claims it has seen the average bike value rise 62% in five years to £850.

 

With that kind of value to protect I can see things like the SpyLamp becoming more common.

 

[/Quote]

 

Full article HERE

 

Link to Integrated Trackers HERE

[Christopher Brunsdon]

I really like its application but my only concern is what is the operating life of this device when its in full swing. Just using my B2100 on EDGE reduces the battery life to only a few hours.

[Markdeep]

Surely the thieves will realize this soon enough and rip the lights off? As they do with anti-hijack and tracker devices in cars..

[Lukep]

Also do we honsetly think the police are going to do anything in time before the bsattery on this goes dead or before they rip it off and trow it away?

Waste of money.

[Christopher Brunsdon]

Surely the thieves will realize this soon enough and rip the lights off? As they do with anti-hijack and tracker devices in cars..

 

Agree but this will help recover those rides the garden manager decided to reposes. I'm interested in such a device for my commuter but I want to hook it up to a dynamo. I would love real time tracking so my wife can see online where I am while out commuting or doing a Sunday cruise.

 

The motion sensor is a nice touch, going to mention the idea to a guy who is playing around with real time tracking units.

[Christopher Brunsdon]

Just spoke to the guy about the motion sensor and he says it standard architecture. Also the wake on SMS is also built in. So one could source this locally for a lot cheaper.

[Thug]

If someone could produce this locally for a significantly cheaper amount, I'd definitely be interested.

 

 

Also do we honsetly think the police are going to do anything in time before the bsattery on this goes dead or before they rip it off and trow it away?

Waste of money.

 

According to the article, the battery lasts a year.

 

 

Why get the police involved? Once you've located your bike, a couple of friends with baseball bats will sort the problem out.

[Markdeep]

Agree but this will help recover those rides the garden manager decided to reposes. I'm interested in such a device for my commuter but I want to hook it up to a dynamo. I would love real time tracking so my wife can see online where I am while out commuting or doing a Sunday cruise.

 

The motion sensor is a nice touch, going to mention the idea to a guy who is playing around with real time tracking units.

 

 

True what you say, at least somebody could monitor your normal ride and see if you went off the planned route which would probably mean trouble...

[Il Bufalo]

it will work till a few are caught and then they will be broken off, plus it has be activated, so if you ride with it on you will get and endless stream of SMS at 75c a message

[Ratty]

Sounds like a great idea. Then we can catch the bastards that steal are beloved bikes.

[Il Bufalo]

Not with this device

[Christopher Brunsdon]

If someone could produce this locally for a significantly cheaper amount, I'd definitely be interested.

...

 

Actually the hardware is freely available and is dirt cheap in SA. Just keep in mind that our data costs are expensive in South Africa. Our company is testing out pineless data recharges on prepaid and topup sims and it works well.

 

The guy I spoke to is planing on launching his product in the future as its a part-time venture. Will keep you guys posted.

[Seeker911]

I have a feeling GrumpyOldGuy would love this and should the need arise he probably would'nt wait for the cops either

[Christopher Brunsdon]

it will work till a few are caught and then they will be broken off, plus it has be activated, so if you ride with it on you will get and endless stream of SMS at 75c a message

 

Actually the underlying hardware can use either SMS or GPRS messaging. It will just stream to a webserver and the intervals can be set.

 

This hardware (not the product in the OT) was tested during a MTB ride a few weeks ago by a camera crew on a mbike, was interesting to see the real time tracking.

[madmarc]

maybe get it as blackberry App then it would be included in the 59 ronds per month bundle.

 

If it could be made small enough to fit inside the frame, handlebar or stem then its a winner - i'm in th eline for 4 units

[Il Bufalo]

Only inside carbon, won't work in metal. Plus you have to charge the device, GPS/GSM solutions are power hungry. I have beeplaying with this for a few years and don't have the exact solution yet but am damn close.