Vehicle Tracking: A Beginners Guide

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John03 said:
well your right, but I think each door wire goes to either a central point, which feeds onto the interior lights, or and I'm kinda hoping it does they are all fed to a relay that then triggers the interior lights. The only problem I can see with wiring it up to the light itself which is perfectly do'able and safe is the GPS will not trigger if the bulb has failed. The relay would switch even if the bulb has gone and thus trigger the gps, and I was kinda hoping that somebody on here would have jumped in by now and said weather or not there was a relay. Sorry due to work load I havint had time to look at the gps, never mind fit it or my new radio and next week I have my new series style doors arriving and her indoors has a pile of odd jobs waiting for me too.....its nae wonder I drink ;)
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That's good info, John. I'll investigate the door switch/light relay. Kwakerman sent me a set of wiring diagrams for the 300Tdi, so I'll have a look through them. I'll let you know what I find out. It's a nightmare when the Mrs has plans! I think I'm a relatively free man this weekend :) Still be on the drink tonight though ;)
 
There are incentives to top up by a decent amount each month, called 'goody bags'. The more you top up by the bigger the goody bag you get. The goody bag is free extra talk time or data. As we don't need talk or data we don't need to top up by regular monthly amounts to earn the goody bag. We just need to keep topping up as and when we need to so the SIM can send us texts.
 
John, this is the circuit diagram for 97 Defender Station Wagon with immobiliser
Inerior%20Lights%20Circuit%20Diagram_zpsrtnpqcqm.jpg
 
Al2O3 said:
John, this is the circuit diagram for 97 Defender Station Wagon with immobiliser
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thanks for the diagram

Looking at that diagram I would say the best place to wire the trigger on the GPS too would be the interior light I say this because it seems the LH and RH door are on two separate wires to the ECU so if you wire the GPS to one door wire say the RH door then all somebody needs to do is gain access from any other door and the GPS wont be activated. Looking at that diagram I think I will be wiring the GPS trigger to the negative that goes between the front and rear interior lights as the GPS can have a negative or positive trigger. I'm doing that coz I think if one bulb went the trigger would still work, be pretty unlucky to have both bulbs go;)
 
John03 said:
thanks for the diagram

Looking at that diagram I would say the best place to wire the trigger on the GPS too would be the interior light I say this because it seems the LH and RH door are on two separate wires to the ECU so if you wire the GPS to one door wire say the RH door then all somebody needs to do is gain access from any other door and the GPS wont be activated. Looking at that diagram I think I will be wiring the GPS trigger to the negative that goes between the front and rear interior lights as the GPS can have a negative or positive trigger. I'm doing that coz I think if one bulb went the trigger would still work, be pretty unlucky to have both bulbs go;)
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That sounds like a plan, John. I'm following your lead and ideas :)
Been busy with other things today, but I'm going to start investigating the installation and where to hide it on the Landy tomorrow.
 
Al2O3 said:
That sounds like a plan, John. I'm following your lead and ideas :)
Been busy with other things today, but I'm going to start investigating the installation and where to hide it on the Landy tomorrow.
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Talking with my good mate who's a auto electrician with a local bus company he came up with a pretty brilliant idea with ref to the fuel cut off relay. This is based on the fact that both of us are slightly nervous of using it for its intended purpose. Wire up the fuel cut off relay to the GPS unit as instructed but dont connect it to the fuel pump, instead instead purchase from ebay a really loud 12volt sounder/alarm install this somewhere in the drivers area out of site but not so it muffles it, wire this and the hazard relay to the relay for the fuel cut off. It wont stop the vehicle but the noise inside the drivers area will be so loud the driver would have no choice but to abandon the vehicle and with the hazards flashing it must draw some attention from bystanders.
 
John03 said:
How did you preload them? did you use an unlocked phone or just top it up on the providers web site. I'm probably stating the bleeding obvious now but the instruction for the GPS tracker do tell you to register the SIM card on an unlocked phone before putting it in the GPS and use the unlocked phone to phone your own phone.
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I activated mine in a unlocked phone. To top it up I just czll asda from my normal phone and add credit without removing from the car or use a funny credit card that came with it.
 
gazman said:
I activated mine in a unlocked phone. To top it up I just czll asda from my normal phone and add credit without removing from the car or use a funny credit card that came with it.
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With the Giff Gaff SIM you can top up online and it's straightforward. It got a signal on the phone quickly too, not a big signal, but big enough. That's good for up here. Even on my phone which is on EE I often have to run upstairs and press my face against a south facing window in order to maintain a decent signal.
 
I've got my two front door switches working today, John. Took a bit longer than I thought, but did spend time sat in the Landy with the tracker box in my hand wondering where to put it. I've got a few ideas, but it struck me that there are not that many places. Unless I'm just lacking imagination, which is probable :rolleyes:
 
Al2O3 said:
There's a video on Youtube about the app, which is helpful.
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sorry to say I've been too busy with my new series style doors that the tracker has kinda taken a back seat, it is installed in my vehicle still have one or two things to wire up and still to sort my sim card out but I hope to get to them soon.
 
I've fitted it just with the live and earth for now. It's bob on though. Tap the 'check Tracker' button on the app and it send me a text with the co-ordinates of the location. The hyperlink in the text goes to google maps and opens spot on the house and there's a little street view image which when I tapped on it opens a big picture of my house and drive from street view, cos that it where it is parked. :) The geo-fence is really easy to apply with the app. You just use your fingers on your smart phone to drag a square around the vehicle on the map. I drove the Landy up the road and got a text when I was about 150m up the road telling me the vehicle had left the 'stockade' and was doing 24mph. When I was finally tucking the cables away I disconnected the main socket which includes the power supply. When I went back in the house I found I'd had a text to say the power supply had been disconnected! The only other thing I want to do is connect the door trigger wire. I'm guessing the Defender has a positive door trigger, but really I've no idea. I need to find out, so I know which wire from the tracker to use. Another thing, it includes the time with any text it send you. It took my tracker an hour or so to download the correct time, but now it's spot on.
 
Al2O3 said:
I'm guessing the Defender has a positive door trigger, but really I've no idea. I need to find out, so I know which wire from the tracker to use
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I'd like to be able to say I'm 100% sure that the landy does have a positive door trigger but there are always the odd one out there that is not. Best way to be sure is use a test meter.
I'm still having problems with text delays. At the moment I have my caravan alarm on my work bench I trigger the door switch at say 7pm. I receive the warning text at 3am. 8 hours later if that was installed in my caravan it would be on the other side of the channel by then. Is there any delays with the GPS setup, what telephone networks are you using?
 
Je ne comprends pas l'électricité. :confused: I stand more chance of being able to say that in Greek than understand how the door doesn't have a positive trigger. When the switch is operated by the door the electricity flows - is that not positive? When the light comes on it must be getting fed by a positive feed. :confused: I can see how a switch could be holding a circuit and then when the door opens it breaks that circuit and this drop in current causes something else to switch on. But, not the way the Landy door switch works. But, what do I know? Nowt!

My smart phone is on EE and the tracker has a GiffGaff SIM card in it. Yesterday when I finished setting it up it was working perfectly. Just took a few seconds to get a text back. I could tap the app and it would send me a text with a hyperlink which opened up in google maps showing it exactly on the drive. When I pretended to steal it I got a text by the time I got 150m up the road.
Today it's been iffy to say the least. Mrs took it to work and I was at work 50 miles away from her. The tracker wouldn't text back from a request from the app. I've been on the GiffGaff website and they are working on masts in this area today and tomorrow, so I'll wait a few days before getting worried that it's packed in. :rolleyes:

Are you using the app?
 
I've watched the video again, John. I was using the wrong button on the app today :oops:
I'll give it another test when we're at work tomorrow. The Mrs uses it as her daily drive to work so it's handy that it goes a long way from where I am for testing purposes.
 
Al2O3 said:
When the switch is operated by the door the electricity flows - is that not positive?
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erm no! yes electricity flows when the door is opened but with out a meter you cannot possibly tell which way it is flowing. As I said best way to be sure is a test meter put the red wire of the meter to the door wire and the black meter wire to the bodywork if you should see a voltage anything between 10 volts and 13 volts just depends on how good your battery is and if anything is on. Lets say for ease of explanation your battery is given out 12 volts.
if the door wire is positive the meter will show 12 volts
if the door wire is negative the meter will show -12 volts

A small inexpensive test meter is always a handy tool to have esp if you own a landy. I'm assuming that you dont own a meter and are not sure how to work one if thats not the case I apologise for teaching you to suck eggs. There is also plenty of youtube videos to guide you on the use of testmeters.

I'm not using the app just yet, until I get the delay issue sorted with my Sim cards.
 
I do now own a digital multi-meter. Bought it earlier this year. I'll look at some Youtube vids, though I have used it reasonably successfully so far o_O Can't see how the body can be acting as the positive supply though, but don't worry about it. I'll learn from experience :) And don't worry about teaching me to suck eggs, I won't be offended.
The tracker has been spot on today, showed me pinpoint where it was parked at the Mrs workplace. Showed her the map with the pin in it tonight and she reckons it was the exact parking bay she was in. Text responses have been within about 5 - 10 seconds, even though the GiffGaff website said they were working on the transmitters today. Maybe they got it all done yesterday.

I'm not experiencing any delay in the GPS. My simulated stealing of the Landy to check the Geo-Fence proved that. I got the text saying it had left the fenced area when I was only 150m away from the house. I would think it is the GPRS having an issue delivering the texts. Are you using the GiffGaff SIM that came with the tracker? I'm sure I read somewhere that you need to use a basic 2G SIM card - I can't remember where though. My research had indicated GiffGaff would be a good value network to use, when it came with a free GiffGaff SIM I just used that . I also registered it first in an unlocked phone. Just thinking out loud here!
 
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