Will your tracker still work

[Zigisla]

I’ve just seen the latest podcast by motorhome Matt. He talks about the withdrawal of 2G in 2033 and how this will affect trackers.
Now, when we went to France recently my tracker still had me at the euro tunnel even though I was in the south of France. I contacted the tracker people who said it was a really old one; 9 years old, and it could do with updating. Could this have been because France has switched off 2 G already?. As I renewed by warranty they said they will replace this free of charge to a more modern and up to date one.
At the moment mine is working fine again and has me at home where the van is. For those away at the moment, does yours work in the EU

 

[HugoBNB]

Yes. The current Moving Intelligence Sentinel S5 is 4G. I checked with them this morning. I wonder if our insurance companies would try to wriggle out of a claim if someone took their motorhome to a country where they knew that there was no coverage for the tracker?

 

[Guigsy]

For those that bought "lifetime" coverage to avoid the annual fee, I suspect tracker manufacturers will wriggle out of their commitments. The standard wheeze in the IT industry is to offer "lifetime" support, but then re-release the product under a new name with only slightly changed features to force users to buy the new one.

 

[Deep Owl]

The “lifetime” of my Snooper satnav turned out to be 7 years. They no longer support updated maps, etc. It’s weird when it starts going off into the undergrowth if a major junction has been changed!

 

[fred_jb]

I had some correspondence with BikeTrac when I noticed that some motorcycle journeys were not fully tracked in the route history and that it was not detecting the bike being at my home location. They said they would enable additional networks for my tracker to get a better signal. When I asked if the 2G and 3G networks are starting to wind down causing patchy coverage they said no, the switch off date is not until 2033. Having looked into this I found that what OFCOM and the UK networks are actually saying is that these networks will be switched off by 2033 at the latest, which puts an entirely different slant on this. It could well be that it will happen even earlier in the EU which is why I chose a 4G tracker for the van.

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[fred_jb]

My GPSLIVE 4G tracker seems to be giving perfect coverage in the UK and Europe as can be seen from the track of our latest trip.

 

[Guigsy]

Here in the UK, we are using 2G for smart meters and tracking buses and tons of security systems. Hence the realisation that killing it would disrupt a lot of national systems, so it's been delayed.

3G and 4G have never offered a low energy, low cost solution (over simplification!). So a lot of products continued to use 2G. But NB-IOT, LTE-M and Lorawan technologies now exist to replace it. It's going to take time though.

 

[MichaelT]

I just looked at mine and it seems to use GPS

 

[fred_jb]

I just looked at mine and it seems to use GPS

They all use GPS to know where they are, but that is a read only system, and you need the phone network to report back to base so that the supplier can record location at regular intervals and so monitored services can alert you if the van has moved when it shouldn't have.

 

[pappajohn]

The standard wheeze in the IT industry is to offer "lifetime" support, but then re-release the product under a new name with only slightly changed features to force users to buy the new one.

TomTom do the same.....THEY decide how long "lifetime" really is.
I stopped being conned by TT years ago

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[eddie]

I wouldn’t worry about the network being turned off, more,worry about your tracker being shut down remotely by a thief

I can shut down any tracker, which is why I devised the Non Starter

I do mean ‘any’ tracker

 

[Zigisla]

It was why mine stopped working at the tunnel, not even tracker could see it. Then started working on return to the UK. Then Matt’s podcast. All seems suspect to me.
Anyhow, they will replace it and still honour the lifetime subscription.

 

[MichaelT]

They all use GPS to know where they are, but that is a read only system, and you need the phone network to report back to base so that the supplier can record location at regular intervals and so monitored services can alert you if the van has moved when it shouldn't have.

Just asked Scorpion and my S5+ uses 4G and GPS so that's good.

 

[yorkiebar]

I wouldn’t worry about the network being turned off, more,worry about your tracker being shut down remotely by a thief

I can shut down any tracker, which is why I devised the Non Starter

I do mean ‘any’ tracker

That's pretty scary! You can permanently disable a tracker remotely ? Remote as potentially in other side of the world type thing ?

 

[Fragle]

I'm sure Ash@Vanbitz or someone will soon clarify the Growler/Raptor Metatrak position for funsters with said equipment and not just hearsay.

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[Guigsy]

It was why mine stopped working at the tunnel, not even tracker could see it. Then started working on return to the UK. Then Matt’s podcast. All seems suspect to me.
Anyhow, they will replace it and still honour the lifetime subscription.

Or the SIM it's using doesn't have roaming.

 

[eddie]

That's pretty scary! You can permanently disable a tracker remotely ? Remote as potentially in other side of the world type thing ?

No locally, it will jam virtually any radio signal, IE phones, radio, GPS, CCTV, even the wireless mouses in the Van Bitz office when we bought and tested one

Fragle I don’t understand the ‘hearsay’ remark? I devised the system you refer too

It’s the raison d’etre for the Non Starter over a tracking system, rather that let a motorhome get nicked and hope to use SMS/GPS to find it, possibly wrecked, vandalised and abused, use the same technology to immobilise the vehicle before hand to ensure it stays where you left it.

Jamming the Non Starter, just makes it harder to steal as it ‘needs’ to be in touch with your phone to start

No ‘hearsay’

 

[HugoBNB]

No locally, it will jam virtually any radio signal, IE phones, radio, GPS, CCTV, even the wireless mouses in the Van Bitz office when we bought and tested one

Fragle I don’t understand the ‘hearsay’ remark? I devised the system you refer too

It’s the raison d’etre for the Non Starter over a tracking system, rather that let a motorhome get nicked and hope to use SMS/GPS to find it, possibly wrecked, vandalised and abused, use the same technology to immobilise the vehicle before hand to ensure it stays where you left it.

Jamming the Non Starter, just makes it harder to steal as it ‘needs’ to be in touch with your phone to start

No ‘hearsay’

Is that the same as the separate tag (where you refer to a phone) you get with some immobiliser systems? You need to have that with you for it yo start.

 

[Zigisla]

Or the SIM it's using doesn't have roaming.

It’s worked absolutely fine for nigh on 9 years. It was just this last trip it failed.

 

[fred_jb]

No locally, it will jam virtually any radio signal, IE phones, radio, GPS, CCTV, even the wireless mouses in the Van Bitz office when we bought and tested one

Fragle I don’t understand the ‘hearsay’ remark? I devised the system you refer too

It’s the raison d’etre for the Non Starter over a tracking system, rather that let a motorhome get nicked and hope to use SMS/GPS to find it, possibly wrecked, vandalised and abused, use the same technology to immobilise the vehicle before hand to ensure it stays where you left it.

Jamming the Non Starter, just makes it harder to steal as it ‘needs’ to be in touch with your phone to start

No ‘hearsay’

If it spits out high levels of RF over a wide frequency spectrum to achieve the jamming of multiple channels, then using such a device will no doubt be totally illegal in terms of radio transmission rules, not that that will stop the thieving scrotes from making use of one!

I agree that it is far better to prevent theft rather than trying to trace and recover after the van is taken, so my security includes deadlocks on all doors and a means of disabling the auto gearbox, so even if the vehicle is broken into and started, it won't be going anywhere unless they manage to drag it onto a low loader or tow it away with the gearbox locked in park mode.

As it seems the vast majority of camper thefts involve breaking into the vehicle, before starting it and driving it away, then hopefully I have reduced the chances of mine being stolen.

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[Guigsy]

It’s worked absolutely fine for nigh on 9 years. It was just this last trip it failed.

I've heard that some UK mobile companies have started blocking roaming from foreign phone SIMs on their 2G and 3G networks. That shouldn't affect the type of SIM in a tracker, but it does depend on how the SIM has been set up and what the supplier negotiated.

I guess it boils down to the same thing. For you at least, the tracker doesn't work abroad.

 

[Fragle]

No locally, it will jam virtually any radio signal, IE phones, radio, GPS, CCTV, even the wireless mouses in the Van Bitz office when we bought and tested one

Fragle I don’t understand the ‘hearsay’ remark? I devised the system you refer too

It’s the raison d’etre for the Non Starter over a tracking system, rather that let a motorhome get nicked and hope to use SMS/GPS to find it, possibly wrecked, vandalised and abused, use the same technology to immobilise the vehicle before hand to ensure it stays where you left it.

Jamming the Non Starter, just makes it harder to steal as it ‘needs’ to be in touch with your phone to start

No ‘hearsay’

Good morning Eddie.

Sorry for the confusion. I'm referring to comments made in a (my mates friends uncle said) rather than from the people that like yourself/Vanbitz who know what they are doing and saying in these maters.

I know all about the Vanbitz Strike back Alarm Non starter. 3 vans so far and all have had it fitted no problem and I have genuinely recommended it to any motor-homer and am happy do do so.

The present van has an Autowatch alarm and Global telemetries already fitted when we bought it. That is fine and works and satisfies the insurance but for me it's not the best and it's an S6-S7 tracker
Although Global telemetrics have worked very well up to last week all over France/spain and I've received calls for false alarms and ferry movements very quickly.

So although covered I am again booked in this month for an upgrade to the Vanbitz Strikeback Raptor so it as you say doesn't get taken in the first place.
I'm also reliably informed by Metatrak that it will work going forward all over Europe for tracking (except Switzerland apparently) But don't envisage that will be needed.

 

[Jimhut]

I was offered a system by Moving Intelligence (Phantom) that involved driver recognition. Sounded good ?