Nissan QashQai Forums

Anyone got any thoughts or ideas on portable trackers that are advertised on eBay? As I don't feel confident enough to use grahamfromoldham's guide, I bought a trackr device which works well. The downside to this is a battery warning light showed up on the phone after about 2 weeks use even though the webpage states the battery life is around 1 year. Also the double sided tape provided is next to useless and you need something stronger to hold it in position.

Will the insurance companies accept these portable devices in order to lower your premium or have they got to be hard wired?

I somehow can't imagine any portable device being able to sustain a standby mode of up to a year if it relies on a mobile telephony network to communicate. It's effectively a cut down mobile phone so it needs to be constantly listening to and communicating on the telephone network as well as monitoring for movement if it uses that as a trigger to send an alert. The only reliable way really is to connect into the car's electrical supply which is quite straightforward these days using piggy back fuse connectors. I haven't tried it (yet!) but thought Graham's guide was comprehensive enough to ensure a successful install. The only thing to be aware of is that his suggested device uses GSM mobile services so you need to choose your mobile network carefully, I don't think it would work on THREE because that's a 3G/4G netrwork only. When I last looked Asda mobile looked the most cost effective and only needed to be used every six (I think but check) months for the account to remain active.

I somehow can't imagine any portable device being able to sustain a standby mode of up to a year if it relies on a mobile telephony network to communicate

It doesn't. It emits a GPS signal which shows its position on a map via your smart phone. Infact it you put in your home address in it will give a route to the actual place it's at. So far it's been quite accurate and reliable. Not bad for £23. There are other devices on eBay which rely on a sim card for roughly the same price.

Crewmeal, you are so very very wrong. GPS transmissions come from a bunch of satellites in geosynchronous orbit. Your tracker will be using mobile phone technology by probably sending a text message with its current GPS location.

crewmeal wrote: It doesn't. It emits a GPS signal which shows its position on a map via your smart phone. Infact it you put in your home address in it will give a route to the actual place it's at. So far it's been quite accurate and reliable. Not bad for £23. There are other devices on eBay which rely on a sim card for roughly the same price.

crewmeal, post a link to theproduct you have got and the site you purchased it from. As others indicate, im sure you are misunderstanding how it works.

Your tracker will be using mobile phone technology by probably sending a text message with its current GPS location.

It doesn't send a text message, it shows the position of the car on a map, that's all.

https://www.thetrackr.com/bravo/?utm_so ... 0wodrekEuQ

I didn't buy from the States, they're for sale via eBay.

crewmeal wrote:

Your tracker will be using mobile phone technology by probably sending a text message with its current GPS location.

It doesn't send a text message, it shows the position of the car on a map, that's all.

https://www.thetrackr.com/bravo/?utm_so ... 0wodrekEuQ

I didn't buy from the States, they're for sale via eBay.

Almost useless. It doesnt emit a gps signal at all. It emits a a bluetooth signall that your phone can detect, but with a range of no more than 100 feet. If it is further away then it can be detected by another Trackr unit nearby which in turn can become visible to your phone and display its whereabouts.. Honestly, its absolutely no use as a vehicle tracker.

So far it has worked well for me. It doesn't work on bluetooth it works on gps!. So far the most I've been away from the car is 2 miles and it still picked up its location. When you set it up you marry it to the trackr app otherwise you would pick up other trackr's. Until it fails I'll continue to use it. As I said before I don't trust myself messing about with the wiring of my QQ otherwise I would get a hardwired device plus sim card and fit it myself.

Check out the website again. You aren't understanding how the product works. Up to now you have just been lucky, as the disc only communicates via bluetooth, over less thang100 feet in distance. If someone else has the app active on their phone, and they are close to your missing vehicle, then their phone sends you a message/link to the cars location. It sends it as a gps reference to be shown on maps. For this to work properly you would need to have literally millions of users across the UK. You woukd be better sticking it to your tv remote control for when you cant locate it...thats about all its usefull for, honest.

crewmeal wrote:So far the most I've been away from the car is 2 miles and it still picked up its location.

I assume that the person who parked the car in that location had the app running on their phone - any other explanation is highly unlikely.