Track your car! (free)

**turbocad6** · 01-29-2005, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by Twopoint

here is an option that nobody has brought up. if your car gets stolen, chances are good that you weren't stupid enough to leave your keys in the car.

have something wireless, i.e. bluetooth on your keys. when your carputer starts, it looks for the item. If it doesn't find it THEN it sends out the GPS coordinates via a cell phone\card.

you could have it look as it shuts down . . .

this is my solution kind of, since I decided to go keyless ign. I plan on trying to integrate this to the pc as well, & that could trigger the dial out & feed coardanances to my work pc which is on a static ip, I can then just connect remotely to my work pc & see in real time (close anyway) where my car is at any given time, one guy said it already though, that this will do nothing if you stuff is all ripped out of your car, but the idea of a long range two way security system helps alot to, I'm using compustars spred spectrum two way, so I will know if the car is touched imeadiatly 99% of the times, since that's how often I am within range of the two way communication....

**Curiosity** · 01-29-2005, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by Twopoint

here is an option that nobody has brought up. if your car gets stolen, chances are good that you weren't stupid enough to leave your keys in the car.

have something wireless, i.e. bluetooth on your keys. when your carputer starts, it looks for the item. If it doesn't find it THEN it sends out the GPS coordinates via a cell phone\card.

you could have it look as it shuts down . . .

Cool idea. A keyfob could work. There's probably a circuit in it that changes state when you're in or out of range. When out of range, the starter could be disabled and the remote doesn't work, and maybe even have it automatically lock when you go out of range. 2 different frequencies and forms of protection would confuse 'em.

**noodles** · 01-29-2005, 04:53 PM

You could also set it to upload pics to the internet from your camera, if you have one.

**Grayscale** · 01-29-2005, 05:31 PM

you guys area all geniouses. i wonder how much current that "keyfob" pulls? also when it sounds the alarm does it do this continually until you get back in range? you could use the alarm output to trigger a relay that would cut your ignition like was posted already. the webcam idea is sweet too, and the cell phone would be good if i wasn't poor hah. actually a prepaid phone service wouldn't be too bad...i'd have to pay $20 every 3 months to keep it activated though =\. unless anyone else knows of a good prepaid phone service that has phones that would work for the car for the US?

**bd3521** · 01-29-2005, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by Twopoint

here is an option that nobody has brought up. if your car gets stolen, chances are good that you weren't stupid enough to leave your keys in the car.

have something wireless, i.e. bluetooth on your keys. when your carputer starts, it looks for the item. If it doesn't find it THEN it sends out the GPS coordinates via a cell phone\card.

you could have it look as it shuts down . . .

Bingo

**noodles** · 01-29-2005, 07:26 PM

I've seen that item from Thinkgeek before. But I really don't that will do any good.

When someone breaks into a car, they either:
A) take the stuff inside
B) take the entire car
C) damage whatever they can't steal

Now a lot (if not all) of the things listed in this thread are for option B, when the car is powered up and operational.

**bd3521** · 01-29-2005, 07:39 PM

A & C are cases for car alarms (until they are disabled)
B is a case that still should be on if the car is stolen and alarm ripped out

All of this assuming your carputer isnt on 24x7 as well

**turbocad6** · 01-31-2005, 06:31 PM

carputer on 24/7, that's my goal, pentium m w /centrino low power design...... hidden like a lojack, but transmiting to my own server........give me a few months.................then I'll just have to make sure I've got an extra car around at all times to go chase it, that could be a slight problem....but I'll be ready for em', damn thieves

**Vchat20** · 01-31-2005, 06:42 PM

lol. talk about overpriced and oversized tracking devices. be nice if we could have pin sized tracking devices like dick tracy

**Big Zack** · 01-31-2005, 07:52 PM

Originally Posted by Jeeve5

You are right about the COM port being reserved once a single application uses the GPS device. I have been searching for a device driver to mirror or replicate the data going in one COM port to two or more virtual ones, but no luck so far. shouldn't be too hard to program though.

http://curioustech.home.insightbb.com/xport.html <-- Best Choice!

http://www.eltima.com/products/serialsplitter/

http://www.mks.zp.ua/shared-serial-ports.php

http://www.sharewareriver.com/product.php?id=11598

http://franson.biz/gpsgate/

- Z