So your dog thinks: "Bye Bye Boss"! Next Fido jumps over your fence or simply disappears in the woods during a walk, completely hypnotized by scents of rabbits.
And it is not only dogs, I would like to track thieves too, putting this tracker in bikes and cars.
This page describes a solution based on a SMS tracker. So the ingredients are:
- A tracker device
- A prepaid SIM card
- A way to attach the tracker to your dog
- A master phone, probably your current phone
There are plenty of nice solutions out there, but they'll cost you a fortune. So I choose a different approach: A tracker from Aliexpress plus a prepaid Alditalk solution. Costs: less than 70 Euro's plus 5 cents per SMS. Tracker: VJOYCAR T633G. By the way, I am situated in the Netherlands.
Starting without any experiences yet, my expectations were not too high. Let's name the challenges.
Conclusion
- Tracker body is okay, not constructed for heavy use but also not crappy. For normal use it is strong enough. But I know my Great Danes, they tear each others collars, bump into most impossible objects. So an extra casing is a smart idea.
- The tracker is small and does what it should do. And it is 3G, ready for years to come. A first impression about battery usage: When using just SMS messaging to get locations, it will serve you for at least two days. But in case things go south, you want a full charged battery when Fido escaped. So charging every night is a good habit.
- Response times are a bit disappointing. I am not blaming the tracker - or maybe. Expect serving a location to take a minute. This largely depends on providers but the tracker takes some time too, in order to collect data about its position. In a minute, both Fido and a thief can be moved over a considerable distance.
- Please understand that without GPS signal, the tracker is not much of a help. Think about your stolen bike in a building or Fido in certain woods. This is not a panacea.
Q&A
How to enter the PIN of the SIM card?
You have to disable the PIN security on the SIM card. Use a phone to do this. See for example this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrHeC4ZWEOA
If I SMS *status*, I get an answer in 30 seconds, which is long. But if I SMS *locatemap*, it takes minutes or is even unanswered, so I can't track a thief or Fido.
- This is exactly where I am struggling with too. THIS IS WHAT MAKES THIS TRACKER USELESS. SOLUTION NEEDED HERE!
Challenges
Testing a Vodafone prepaid card? It is said to be faster when using cards from same provider. But Vodafone is triple the price of AldiTalk, Bummer. Extra phone for tracking only based on AldiTalk can be a solution. However for incidental use... Let's try a card from Vodafone. PIN can be disabled by putting card in a phone first, disable PIN, put card in tracker.
So far: connect to Linux PC, enter PIN, detach.
Discovering LED meanings
Colors:
- G: Green
- R: Red
- B: Blue
Modes:
- F: blinking Fast
- S: blinking Slow
- C: continuous on
States: No LED: Can be active 
SMS *status* to check. GS: ??????????? Not responding to SMS, detecting GSM signal RC: Charging - no identification when fully charged. BF: Turning off after three short and one long button press