cheap bike tracker

[danlandberg]

Frankenstein, where can we get a peek at this Sherlock device you mentioned?

 

[MadModder]

Actually it was mentioned in the post above yours about how bad of an idea tiles (and all the basic copies of) are. I think above that one as well.

Sherlock is $151 and comes with 2 years free service and costs less than 4 dollars a month after that to keep active, im sorry but there is no way you can beat the pricing considering its all been already designed and built for you, comes with an app, and to keep an active connection on anything else you would probably spend just as much monthly for the bare minimum (as in purely a text message based communication hub with the home built tracker, when used minimally.) Not to mention that Sherlock is is active responsive, it tells you when the bike is being disturbed, unless you program the Arduino to check for disturbances (which requires additional hardware to detect motion since GPS location can change even if the object didn't move an inch meaning it isn't reliable until it recognized a large change) you won't be immediately notified that your bike is being f***ed with, you'd only know after you go back out for it.

Also Sherlock is already small enough to fit inside the handlebars, you'd be hard pressed to squeeze something powerful enough into the same place which means you might have to cut a downtube open just to hide it.

If you want to play the actually game like I misspoke at least make sure you read my post thoroughly first because ACTUALLY I never said anyone didn't say tile was a bad idea, I said no one pointed out the fact the app needs to constantly be running with Bluetooth on every phone you expect your bike to sync up with - i.e. the entire single point I touched on, adding to what was previously said. Again, the thread is CHEAP bike tracker. A bike tracker that has an initial cost more than the bike kit your protecting isn't what most people would consider cheap. $20 with a $10 a month prepaid data sim is cheap and doesn't rely on the company staying above water for the lifespan of the product like Sherlock or tile. What happens if Sherlock goes under? Nothing, besides being left with a useless thing you paid $150 for, wonderful.
An Arduino is meant to be programmed, so acting all butthurt over adding a 30 cent sensor, wire and two lines of code is a bit senseless... Then again so is paying $151(don't forget that 1!) For something you can make yourself for a tenth of that, not to mention there is a myriad of accelerometer equipped GSM GPS boards so if you're that pressed about it you can omit the hole 30 cent sensor. Viola. Not to mention if you aren't so lazy that two lines of code is a deal breaker you could add a touch screen TFT display to rid your bike of one of those cheap Chinese bike computers that seem to only ever measure speed in KPH, and use it as an entire cockpit control to trigger lights, act as a kill switch, lockout, speedometer, even trigger your gopro to record if that's your thing. Can your beloved Sherlock do that and still fit in the handlebars? Which an Arduino Pro Mini, nano, digispark, STM32F103, etc. Can also all easily do in standard 31.8mm bars, along with as many 18650 cells, hell even 20700 cells in parallel you could ever need, giving exponentially more battery life than sherlock(which at this point seems to have you on the payroll or something, or Maybe you're one of those guys that knows everything and needs to combat anything someone new says as if their mere presence is a personal attack on you and your family?) Either way, I don't really care about Sherlock. I didn't even reference Sherlock or anything of the sort. I offered a CHEAP easy DIY solution, and never claimed it was the one and only solution for the world to be run on so calm down.

 

[MadModder]

Frankenstein, where can we get a peek at this Sherlock device you mentioned?

Obviously his personal website... Duh

 

[Frankenstein]

https://www.sherlock.bike/en/

Anyway you forget to account for a 10 dollars a month plan for 2 years should cost you at least $240 plus tax, and depends also on that company not discontinuing that service at that rate. 151 dollars with the service for absolutely nothing seems like a fair trade. Funny enough you don't have to code if you don't want to, since the devs have already did it both in the device and the easy to use app. Certainly you could reverse engineer it if you wanted, or even build one yourself!!

I guess if you want to be independent like that go ahead, but it's easier just to make a slightly bigger investment in something that actually gives you a better deal and works out the box to boot... You realize the more people who sign on to it the more likely they will profit well and not go under, it would be rude not to promote such a good idea and deal, and no programing almost pointlessly unless it's for the sheer thrill of wanting to say you can do it, belive me I understand that feeling.

Personally I would just hack the f*** out of it and install a much larger lipo battery and simply hijack the protection circuit they used on their battery, yes it would void my warranty which is a regular thing for me, but then I'd have a very long lasting battery that required less charging, and I would probably run a wire to charge it hidden wherever it gets put and have a simple on off switch in the electrical box to charge it. I could even hide the switch elsewhere on the bike, something like a magnetic switch which is activated by magic.