Tracking Apps and Security Cameras.....any recommendations?

[Mike]

Just doing my letter to Father Christmas and wanted to ask for a tracking device app thingy for the car, and then a small security camera for the garage with motion sensor which sends an alert to your phone.

A quick on-line check shows loads out here, but any first hand recommendations and advice would be appreciated, like for instance I'm guessing all the gps trackers work with a pay as you go sim card, is that the case?

A camera that caught my eye is the Blink XT which seems ok at just under a hundred quid....



As for trackers, there are these from the Trackershop, all seem horribly expensive though and which is best for our kinda use .....



https://www.trackershop-uk.com/product- ... -trackers/

Thanks for your !

[Kenyon]

Mike - This is from an earlier thread re trackers. I spent a bit of time looking at trackers and I think you get what you pay for. There's quite a lot of info on MTrack's website so worth a read why the set-up offered by them is better than just a GPS.

"I didn't want to wire into the ignition - 6 volt system and battery drainage. I came to the conclusion the MTrack type of system is best:

https://www.trackersecurity.co.uk/buy.html#

As I understand it, when its dormant it checks in to a mobile phone tower every 1 hour (less or more depending on how its set). You can set an anchor and if the unit is moved outside a zone it notifies you. If the car is stolen you switch to RF mode and the company has tracking experts that take over. Also it has something like a year battery life.

The beauty of the system is thieves can't tell it has a security device. With GPS based security this is always emitting a signal they can use a cheap scanner to see if this is turned on and jam it. The RF technology is the old school radio frequency triangulation.

Worth noting there is an annual subscription and also a cost for retrieval."

[smallspeed]

I had a netgear arlo system and was pretty good - not cheap but worked well

[IanM]

.

[murph2309]

M-track very good - and have great customer service..... also has 3 types of tracking: Cell, GPS & Radio, so it's easier to find the car if underground or in a container....not cheap, but a lot cheaper and less traumatic than having to find another car...

Internal battery means no wiring and thus easier to hide / less easy to find

[Mike]

Thanks guys appreciate that! Mtrack seems to be getting the nod here, all I have to do is try to understand their web-site......

[Bruce M]

They post some entertaining videos on you tube too.

[KS]

Thanks guys appreciate that! Mtrack seems to be getting the nod here, all I have to do is try to understand their web-site......

That IS officially the world's worst website...

[ch3tman]

and then a small security camera for the garage with motion sensor which sends an alert to your phone.

Hikvision seems to be a popular name when it comes to security cameras. In fact, we'll soon be having a Hikvision 'CCTV' setup at home. Useful info: Hikvision have recently bought out Pyronix who are a leading name in the home alarm/intruder market. So lots of potential for both systems to come together. Anyway...

The CCTVs we will have installed will feed back to a DVR which will record footage, via PoE, standard affair. An after thought was the inside of the garage.
After some online reading, it looks like we will at some point in future go for this camera, as an addition:

https://www.hikvision.com/en/Products/N ... 2442FWD-IW

(lots of videos on YouTube)

With it being a Hikvision unit, footage will be accessible from the Hikvision phone app if needed, for 'live viewing'.
The camera is WiFi enabled so easy install.
Additionally, it has SD capability, do you can record locally to the camera if you wish (or presumably, have it connected to a separate recorder if you prefer).
As with all Hikvision cameras, you can set up areas in the 'field of view'... so that if movement occurs within the set area, it notifies you immediately on your phone. This allows you to ignore, for example, movement of trees, but only be alerted to movement on a footpath. Maybe not so relevant to the inside of a garage.

A watch-out for any camera you go for, will be whether the vendor wishes to tie you in to their cloud platform to access your footage. That's an instant no no. The Blink XT page states "FREE CLOUD STORAGE: Totally wire-free, with no monthly fees or service contract required." which is promising, but if they change tact in future....

[DarthMJH]

tracker locate looks good https://www.tracker.co.uk/products/locate but I have not used one so cannot tell you from experience if they are good. On paper they do. Shop around as prices vary from memory.

[gridgway]

I've been very happy with M-track, the device and their customer service. Not used them in anger though.
Graham

[smallspeed]

I had a netgear arlo system and was pretty good - not cheap but worked well

The older netgear system i had was totally free to a certain data limit which was fine for me
The newer one (I think called "HD"? ) can be plugged into your home computer/usb sticks for offline storage as well as their cloud

[Mike]

Thanks again guys all good information there, though might have to a mortgage out if I went for the Tracker Locate!

[gridgway]

I got a cheapy tracker from ebay which I've not bothered to install in the car. I presume you get what you pay for though?
Graham

[takeflight]

I bought a eBay TKSTAR gps tracker, this thread as prompted me to actually get it out of the box and have a play.

I purchased a pay as you go sim, inserted into the tkstar and all initial setup was carried out via texts, with the instructions being fairly simple, they have to be for me. However after downloading their app it makes changing settings etc even simpler. From the app you can set all sorts of alarms, set historical track data, the current position with speed on google maps, or if you use your text it provides lat and long, speed and a link to google maps.

For £35 approx I think great value, longevity who knows but there are YouTube vids where people have been using one for over two years.