Install GPS Tracker for less than £30

[grahamfromoldham]

I have installed a GPS tracker, available from Amazon for around £26-£29 delivered. Go to Amazon and search for GPS tracker. You will see one listed as GPS car tracker with GPRS and vehicle theft protection system (model TK103A).

You will need a 'Smart phone' so you can see your car's location when you use the tracker. I use an Android phone but works on Iphones too.

Link: GPS Car Tracker with GPRS and Vehicle Theft Protection: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

It comes with an instruction booklet, some say Chinglish but you can follow it easy enough. The tracker seems well made and presented well in a box complete with all wiring and fuse holder you will need.

Cost - £27
Installation time - Approx 1 hour

You will also need:

Wire cutters
Pliers to crimp spade/ring connector
Trim removal tool or large flat screwdriver
Spade connector x 1
Large-ish Ring connector x 1
10mm socket
SIM card (PAYG or contract) that will have a decent text allowance. Giff Gaff works brilliantly and their cheapest tariff is £5 per month
12 x cable ties


Before you start, please note that this tracker will do a whole lot of things that are well worth the money, including a door alarm which will notify you when a door is opened, and a fuel cut off function to stop the car dead if you wanted it to do, all done by text message. While this is a great little gadget, I do not trust it enough to install the fuel shut off function especially if it should go faulty whilst driving. The consequences don't bear worth thinking about.

So to keep things simple, I have set mine up to:
Locate the car when you ring it.
Set a speed warning, so should the car travel over a certain speed limit determined by me, it will text me its current speed and location. The one downside to this, is that you can only set in in kph and there is no mph function here. I can live with that though so no real issue.

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Tools required as above. You may need to use a larger, different ring connector as the blue coated one doesn't fit very well on the ground bolt.



Tracker and cables. Don't be daunted by the wires, you are likely to only use the red (permanent live) that has a 1Amp in-line fuse, black (ground) and the red/black wired 'help me' button. The rest of the cables can be cable tied together and tucked away. Put the black coloured relay to one side, we will not be using this unless you are wiring the tracker up to the fuel pump.



Aerials supplied, a GSM (mobile phone aerial) and the GPRS (satellite aerial)



I am going to show you the most suitable place to locate your tracker and aerials (supplied with the tracker) so for this installation it is being installed in the boot area inside the panel at the left hand side of the boot area which contains the rear fuse box.





You will need to prise off the roof lining using either a trim removal tool or a large flat screwdriver although it is perhaps best to use your fingers to prevent damage to the roof liner. However, you MUST carefully move the rubber seal away and carefully pull the liner in a downwards motion in the CENTRE first as there is a white clip hidden inside which secures the roof liner to the roof of the car. Prise it downwards and it will work free easy enough. Then, use your fingers to move away the rubber seal as per the photograph. This is where the two aerials will be housed.



Here you will see the fuse box behind the left hand side panel in the boot space. I have additional wiring in this area for my detachable towbar electrics so don't worry if I have wires that you do not have.



Note where my finger is pointing as this is where you'll need to connect the black wire for the ground. It is a 10mm nut which attaches the fuse box to the body of the car so remove it in preparation. Beware of it falling as you unscrew it. It should only fall onto the bodywork below the fusebox so all is not lost.



In your Tracker box of goodies are the two aerials with cables. Now is a good idea to put a small sticker on each cable otherwise you may get them muddled up once you feed the cables up behind the door pillar. I used a small piece of sellotape with 'GSM' and GPRS' labelled on paper to identify them.  Don't connect them to the tracker just yet.
Now you can install your SIM card into the tracker but be careful as the SIM card slot is fiddly and can easily be broken.




Take both your aerials one at a time and gently pull the roof lining downwards as this is where you need to hide your aerials. Push them inside the roof liner as far as you can reach without causing any damage to the roof liner. They should 'trap' themselves nicely and hold themselves into place once the roof liner is re-fitted. Now route your two aerial cables inside the left hand side roof pillar towards the fuse box. You may have to prise off the trim although it is possible to feed them through and they should appear near the fusebox. Be patient and with a bit of wrangling you should do it.



At this point, find the single red wire and attach the spade connector. Find the single black (ground) wire and attach the ring connector but make sure the ring connector is large enough to fit onto the 10mm bolt you have removed in the fuse box area that holds the fuse box to the body of the car. Tighten up the 10mm nut so you now have the ground connected only. DO NOT connect the red permanent live wire just yet.
The only other cable we'll be using is the 'help me' button which has a red+black wire attached to it. The help me button is a function explained in the instruction booklet but in a nutshell if you're lost, you press and hold this button for 3 seconds and it will text you where you are if you happen to be lost. Beware though as it continues to text you every 3 minutes until you text it to stop. Again, this is all explained in the booklet provided.



This is the space inside the fuse box housing where your tracker will fit discreetly and snugly.



Connect the aerial cables you have fed from the roof lining to the tracker ensuring you have the correct GSM and GPRS cables connected to the correct terminals on the tracker as explained providing you labelled them correctly.
You can now connect the wiring loom to the tracker and cable tie all the other cables together out of the way that you do not intend to use (door, fuel pump wiring). Also, use some cable ties every 6-8" to tie your GSM and GPRS cables together to keep everything neat and tidy.
Gently push the tracker into the recess where it will sit neatly and out of the way.



Now connect the single red wire to the no.23 terminal on your fusebox (located next to the 'Hi pwr' relay). This should be a permanent 12v supply. The tracker uses the same amount of current as about the same as an interior light being left on. I have had this a few weeks now and it has not caused any voltage problems with flat battery or similar, nor are there any canbus errors.



Next, stick the 'help me' button to a suitable place. It comes with a sticky pad attached and I stuck mine on a component as per the photo in the fusebox.



This should all be now looking good and ready to go. Ensure you have switched the 'On' button on the tracker and you should have a red LED blinking every second or so to show it is working. It has an internal battery that lasts about 3 hours. Tuck the remaining wires out of the way.
You now need to follow the instructions in the booklet to set up the tracker. The default password is 123456.



Re-fit the roof liner and give the area a tap that has the roof liner clip to ensure it fits back into place. You may need to spend a couple of minutes with the rubber seal but it should all go back into place OK.

To locate your car, simply ring your SIM card phone number that is in the tracker and then hang up when it answers. It does not ring in the car as it is silent. It will then text you back within a minute with its longitude and latitude, speed of the vehicle and also a link to its location using Google maps accurate to within 10 meters.

I live in Winsford but travel to Oldham regaularly and I am more than happy to give a demo to anyone wishing to see it working and also help with installation if anybody is willing to call round. If you simply want to know where your car is at any time, accurate to within 10 meters, then this is a great modification to any car.
You can set it up to also text you when the car gets driven over a pre-assigned speed. The downside is that it is in Kph and not mph but you can easily convert this. The tracker will then text you every time the car gets driven over, for example 50kph, every couple of minutes. It gets a bit annoying after a while, but if like me you needed to see how much your son was abusing your wife's car, then it will tell you more information you can wish for ROFL

I use a Giff Gaff sim card that costs £5 per month for 300 texts which is more than ample. A small price to pay in my opinion for peace of mind for where your car is.

Any questions, message me and I'll do my best to help out, and again if anyone needs assistance with the install, I'm more than happy to help anybody out who can make the trip to Winsford or Oldham.

[cornishtaz]

Excellent write up

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[tucpal]

that looks like a nice little mod there and well worth having for that price
it is going on my to do list for sure
very good wright up there and also well done

[Dicko]

That looks like the same one I got of flee bay and you fitted it in the same place
I use mine to keep track of the soon to be ex out in my car
But it will stay fitted after just for peace of mind

[tucpal]

the snoop mic could be a good thing to have
i like the idea of being able to cut the car out by text
but it may as said be doggy

[Dicko]

Yeah I know what you mean
Just trying to find a good place for the mic
There could be problems with the cabbus wiring in the cut out the poss wire un to the crank sencer

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[grahamfromoldham]

[MENTION=52]Dicko[/MENTION], a mic suggestion (but pain the ass) would be to route it so it is located inside the panel above the drivers head where the small holes/vents are. You'll need to buy an extension cable to route it from the boot. My daughter sells the 3.5mm jack extension cables from her company so inbox me if you need any and I'll put you in touch.

[cornishtaz]

Does it need a sim card just for the gps tracking

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[grahamfromoldham]

[MENTION=18]cornishtaz[/MENTION] You definitely need a SIM card for it to work so it can receive the signal for you to ring it. It then uses the GPRS aerial to locate your position before texting you back its Longitude and Latitude and precise location on Google maps. All usually in less than 20 seconds.

[tucpal]

You just need a cheep pay as you go SIM then

[grahamfromoldham]

Yes a cheap payg sim should work.

[Kevin]

Yes a cheap payg sim should work.

Giffgaff!

And anyone that needs a giffgaff sim, let me know. We both benefit as you get £5 extra when you pop £10 on it and I get £5 too!

[bhalay207]

Did your insurance provide a discount on the policy due to this being fitted?

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[grahamfromoldham]

Did your insurance provide a discount on the policy due to this being fitted?

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I've not found an insurer who offers a discount for having this type of tracker. The reason is because its not a monitored tracker i.e. not monitored by someone sat in an office and is able to forward the details to the police. Instead, it'd be up to you to track your car and inform the police of its whereabouts. I'm confident because of its accuracy, I'd get my car back in a few hours with the help of a mate in a car and to inform the police myself once I found my car.

[sheppy1]

wow!! seems like a great little mod which I'd love to carry out, one problem for me though...I don't have the rear fuse box...is there any other way for me to get the permanent live feed to the tracker? Thanks

[tucpal]

you would have to take it from the front somewhere fuse 16 10 amp
is a permanent live in the front glove box fuse box you could piggyback of that fuse
but rusty will know for sure

[sheppy1]

Ahhhh right okay, suddenly this gets a bit harder then lol. Be a ball ache getting a wire through the trim all the way from the front fuse box wouldn't it..

[DC_ELiTE]

Now connect the single red wire to the no.23 terminal on your fusebox (located next to the 'Hi pwr' relay). This should be a permanent 12v supply. The tracker uses the same amount of current as about the same as an interior light being left on. I have had this a few weeks now and it has not caused any voltage problems with flat battery or similar, nor are there any canbus errors.

Hi Graham

Is this still the case in terms of no flat battery etc? The tracker is only £17 now, think this could be next on the mod list after the DAB is sorted.

[Jj0063]

I like the concept of this but there are two issues

it says "GPS TRACKER" on it - any thief who is looking for a tracker will be given a good helping hand in finding it & ripping it out.

These type of trackers can be rendered almost useless with a signal jammer which any good thief will have! They're a couple of quid - I saw a program on it last year.

[sheppy1]

I'm still considering this mod and it's now a lot cheaper to install and maintain too! The tracker box itself is now down to £21 on Amazon and there is a new SIM provider who provide a rolling contract SIM card that is totally free! They have a limit of 200 text, 200 mins and 500mb data or something like that but that would be fine for this tracker...they're totally legit and use 3s network. I have one of their SIMs in my spare phone which I use purely for my satnav and it works great...They're called freedompop if anyone wants to know...

Still dunno if I cba routing a power cable all the way from the tracker in the boot to the front fuse box which is the ONLY thing stopping me from doing this

[DC_ELiTE]

Morning mate

I actually did this recently, very simple to install and works very well. I'm actually waiting for a cable from china so I can hook the GPS up to my aerial which has GPS built in. That way I can get rid of the aerial unit from the tracker itself.

If you do go ahead, make sure you enable sleep mode on the tracker, it will half its energy usage. It just means if you ping it for a location and its been asleep it can take around 30 second to get its location. Also when you plug it in for the first time its going to charge its battery so have the engine on for a bit.

I wouldn't sign up to the china website that allows you to track the location live either, I honestly don't trust that at all with my personal information let alone the location of my car and myself. I'm looking into alternatives at this time to use which I will update here in due course. All you do to find the location is call the phone number, it hangs up then text's you the location with a google maps link.

Personally I used a giffgaff sim. I am on giffgaff for my personal phone, so I chucked a £10 topup on the GPS sim and I now have completely free txts for 3 months, after that it will slowly eat into the £15 of credit I have (got £5 for referring myself...) which tbh will last me all year if not longer. After that I will bung a £10 on when needed. as you can see it really wont cost much.

Let us know how you get on if you do do it.

[sheppy1]

Morning

That's great! Glad it was a doddle for you to setup and works as it should! Good to hear a proper review from one of our own haha.

Yeah I heard about that so I'll do the same, Thanks for the heads up and info on what sleep mode actually does! As no one on Amazon said what it did.

Can you track the car using any sort of app without that China website then?

You should defo consider the sim I told you about, it's totally free as I say!

Any idea what the best way for me to get a cable from the front fuse box to the rear would be? I was thinking of going along the foot sill thing and up into the boot that way...

I will buy it once I've worked this wiring situation out... Can get it for £18 quid too and that free sim

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[Rusty2009]

As you said @sheppy1 along the sill.

[DC_ELiTE]

Hey mate

Tracking wise, i'm a bit of a geek so I'm going to tell it to point to my own server and see how it sends the updates, then work out how easy it might be to actually plot that data. I just simply don't trust a cheap Chinese manufacturer to secure that data properly.

Wiring wise, from your glove box just push it into the sills under the door and all the way to the boot, its exactly how I got my sub power cable there, no need to even remove anything.

Not sure what fuse is permanent live would have to look that up.

I will check that sim out as well. Btw if anyone wants a giffgaff recommendation let me know as it gives you £5 free credit.

[sheppy1]

Cheers @rusty2009! Just don't wanna run any more cables up the A pillar and into the roof lining... Getting busy there now! Hahaha.

Any idea which fuse location I can use? 16 was suggested last time but sure I'm using that now for the extra usb connection I have in the glove box...

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[sheppy1]

Okay, I have fuse 21 and 26 free in the glove box fuse board... Anyone know if either of these can be used for powering the GPS tracker and if they're permanent live?

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[sheppy1]

Gonna go into the fuse box with a wire to fuse connector... Anyone know what amp I need?

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[DC_ELiTE]

Low ampage should be fine mate, the unit itself has a fuse on the wire built in in case that helps?

By the way, ive been testing some software....



This is me driving down the M4, then viewing my journey in a web browser.

Got it hooked up now so that

1) It turns on with the ignition, stole this signal from my amp
2) reports every 60 seconds its location to the server via GPRS
3) when car stops and ignition drops off, the unit reports for 5 minutes then goes into sleep mode, saving data and power.
4) the unit seems to wake up every 7/8 hours, report its position then go back to sleep if you haven't moved the car.

Commands I have put into the tracker so far.

begin123456
password123456 XXXXXX (change to your own 6 digit password)
adminXXXXXX <My Phone Number>
Time zoneXXXXXX 0 (this sets it to UTC)
imeiXXXXXX (this gives you the IMEI number, useful later)
sleepXXXXXX on (sets it to sleep mode, very important to ensure it doesn't stay on all the time and drain car battery)

Now you are good for SMS alerts, you want to know the location, call the sim and it will report back.

Next is the commands for setting up tracking on a server, I am using a giffgaff SIM so this will change if you use anyone else

APNXXXXXX giffgaff.com
adminipXXXXXX server.ip 5001 (sets server ip and port number)
upXXXXXX giffgaff  (you want to put two spaces on the end here as giffgaff use a blank password)
less gprsXXXXXX on (just make sure we don't cain your data)
fix060s***nXXXXXX (tells it to report GPS every 60 seconds when on, then periodically, this combined with the sleep command ensures it doesn't go too mad)


The software allows you to

1) see live location anywhere in the world from a webbrowser
2) run reports on days to see movement

https://www.traccar.org/

Thinking of setting up the software on a server for members so you can all have access to live tracking without sending your data to god knows who. Of course that means you trust us which I hope you do! Would you be interested?

[Rusty2009]

That would be great mate handy to have something on our sever for members that wish to do this I've still got to buy a tracker need 2 tho


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[john w]

Excellent write up Graham.
I live in Oldham and have been looking at getting one of these.
I have a SIM card for my in car internet can you tell me what size the SIM card is please.
And if possible can i have a look if not busy one weekend?

john w.

[bhalay207]

If this is any good then the tracker install may have just gotten cheaper

Guaranteed 100% 4 band car GPS tracker GT02A Google link real time tracking free shipping
http://s.aliexpress.com/2e2MNnUn
(from AliExpress Android)

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[sheppy1]

Hmmmmm could be as good but you'd have to take the risk and find out and also wait about a month for it to arrive...

The one Graham used is only £21 now anyway and we know it works so be better to stick to that one IMO

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tracker-Vehicle-...ps+tracker

[mrtc]

That looks like too much work. Ill be finding a hidy hole for a trackr. No voice on it but ill be able to track the car in case of theft

https://www.thetrackr.com/

[stigeye]

Reviews of TrackR on play.google.com are not very flattering. There are more 1 star ratings than 5 star ratings. (3238 reviews)

[mrtc]

i got 4 cheap, seem ok for what they are

[stigeye]

Could you trust it though to track your car, it has no power supply and the battery lasts a year so sods law predicts that the one time you need it the most you'll be sat there looking at your phone thinking where the hell is it, why's it not doing anything.

[DC_ELiTE]

Just reporting in to give everyone an Idea of costs with this tracker. I started using the tracker in Feb (the date of my post above with the giffgaff settings). I put £10 credit on the sim, which gave me £15 because I referred myself...nice. I didnt sign up for a goody bag.

Currently my balance stands at......£14.02

4 months of tracking, driving every day has cost me less than £1.

GPS tracking software also runs without a hitch giving you access to reports since the beginning of time, members service will come soon.

[SalinaGomez]

I think it so helpful for me. I also looking a car gps tracking. But i don't know how to install it. I think i need to call a mechanic for this.