"Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street." (demon-xanth)
04/23/2019 at 15:46 • Filed to: None
0
25|
"Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street." (demon-xanth)
04/23/2019 at 15:46 • Filed to: None | 0
| 25 |
We’re going to be moving in a couple months and having our stuff basically shipped via a 28' semi trailer and stored until we find a house. We’re considering a GPS tracker just so we know where our stuff is. Updated every 6 hours is fine, but we will need something like a month and a half of battery life. Anyone have any experience on something like this?
MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s
> Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
04/23/2019 at 15:53 |
|
Make sure however the move is being handled there is insurance on your stuff. Our stuff was shipped by a similar sized trailer and did not sit in storage, but the trailer leaked so a lot of our stuff got damaged. Thankfully the move was paid by my work who had insurance.
Michael
> Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
04/23/2019 at 16:03 |
|
In a previous life we used a company called Lat-Lon, which had a magnetic GPS/cellular linked solar recharging device that could live stream a trip, including impacts, sudden stops, sudden accelerations, etc. Expensive, though.
Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
04/23/2019 at 16:07 |
|
I bet just throwing a cheapo android phone with a prepaid sim card in there would work. Just also include a battery pack to keep it charged. Probably the cheapest route since you could find a $30 phone, a month of service with a couple gb of data for $30, and a battery pack for $30. Plus you can reuse the battery pack afterwards and have the phone as a backup for whatever.
Edit: the month and a half thing might be trouble I guess lol. I wonder if something custom could turn it on and off every few hours and do the same thing.
benjrblant
> Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
04/23/2019 at 16:09 |
|
28' trailer? just throw a few dozen lead-acid cells in there!
Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz)
> Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
04/23/2019 at 16:18 |
|
This
seems promising. Oh, or
Tile
. I hear they have long battery life. Ignore my first suggestion probably, look at Tile.
PartyPooper2012
> Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
04/23/2019 at 16:18 |
|
drive behind it for a month and a half?
TheRealBicycleBuck
> Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
04/23/2019 at 16:23 |
|
This may or may not work, depending on where the GPS unit is placed. If it’s in a box at the bottom of a stack in a trailer, it probably won’t receive a signal. If you have some bigger items like a credenza or a wardrobe, consider attaching whatever you buy to the top of the furniture. It will be more likely to receive a signal that way.
|
Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
> TheRealBicycleBuck
04/23/2019 at 16:27 |
|
I figured to place it at the top before we close it up. We’re packing the trailer ourselves. So far this seems the most promising:
|
Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz)
04/23/2019 at 16:31 |
|
I’ve used tile for key tags before, thats definitely an affordable solution!
|
Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz)
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/23/2019 at 16:36 |
|
I just am not sure about their connectivity: requiring wifi/network, service, etc. But I do hear that people love them.
facw
> Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz)
04/23/2019 at 16:38 |
|
Doesn’t Tile only work if you are close by? I know they have something where other Tile users can find your stuff, but that still seems like a very weak and flaky solution.
|
facw
> Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
04/23/2019 at 16:40 |
|
I think the hard part will be getting reliable signal in the trailer. I don’t have any experience tracking freight though. One of my parents’ dogs has a Whistle GPS collar but she can block signal by laying on it. Also wouldn’t have the battery life you need.
|
TheRealBicycleBuck
> Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
04/23/2019 at 16:43 |
|
Is the trailer aluminum or steel or are you talking about one of those PODS? The last one is your best bet for getting a signal as the top is plastic.
Two of my moves were handled by movers and they did all of the packing, including loading the trailer.
That unit does look promising since it will estimate the location with cellular data when it cannot get enough GPS data to compute the position.
My X-type is too a real Jaguar
> Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
04/23/2019 at 16:44 |
|
When I was a PI I used these fro this company
There may be cheaper options but these were very reliable
https://www.brickhousesecurity.com/gps-trackers/spark-nano-extended-battery/
|
Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> facw
04/23/2019 at 16:46 |
|
Yeah, its definitely not useful for this since the cargo is supposed to move. It would only help if you were trying to find your box in a pile of other boxes in a big room. Definitely not useful as a GPS tracker.
tromoly
> Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
04/23/2019 at 17:19 |
|
We had reception problems with the Trak4, the aluminum trailer body was causing GPS signals to be spotty at best. I ended up mounting it on top of the trailer and we’ve had no issues since, that’s not really an option for your move though.
His Stigness
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/23/2019 at 18:26 |
|
One of those mobile battery generator thingies would probably have enough power in it to keep the phone charged long enough.
|
His Stigness
> Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
04/23/2019 at 18:29 |
|
WrongWheelDrive had a good idea which gave me an idea:
An el cheapo Android phone and then just have it plugged in to a massive power supply like this Jackery one. That way when the move is done you have to useful items and not one expensive one you won’t really have a use for.
|
Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
> TheRealBicycleBuck
04/23/2019 at 19:04 |
|
|
Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz)
> facw
04/23/2019 at 19:19 |
|
I have no cl ue as I’ve never used one , but it appears so.
|
Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
> tromoly
04/23/2019 at 22:48 |
|
Was it good enough that if I had it update four times per day at least one would get close?
|
Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
> My X-type is too a real Jaguar
04/23/2019 at 22:50 |
|
What kind of service fees did they have, and would it work inside an aluminum trailer?
|
TheRealBicycleBuck
> Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
04/23/2019 at 22:57 |
|
Yeah, that’s a problem. It’s good that you’re looking at one with a cellular option because a GPS receiver in a wooden box in an aluminum trailer is going to have a tough time picking up the satellite signals. C ellular towers are designed to have little signal overlap, so when they say they trilaterate (the proper term) off of multiple towers, they aren’t being completely truthful. The cellular signal doesn’t have the same accurate time elements as GPS, so measuring distance from the tower is a rough estimate and if the receiver is only picking up one or two towers, it’s really difficult to get an accurate location. That’s one reason that cell phones tell you to turn on WiFi for a more accurate location. People don’t realize this, but most internet providers provide the physical location (coordinates or an address) of the WiFi routers connected to their network. Since each WiFi router has a unique MAC address, it’s a simple matter to get the MAC address from the wireless signal and look up the physical address from a database.
If you could find a GPS tracker that also picks up WiFi, that would provide the most accurate location of the three options given how the tracker is going to be packed.
|
My X-type is too a real Jaguar
> Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
04/24/2019 at 08:57 |
|
Last I used them they were about $35 a month but you had to buy 3 months of service. Give them a call very friendly. It should work in an aluminum trailer it is cellular based.
|
tromoly
> Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
04/24/2019 at 09:58 |
|
I don’t remember how accurate it was, I want to say it just wouldn’t update if there was no signal but it’s been a little while since we had the issue.