Right, I'm after a very small tracker for my doggy. I've been looking for a while now, ruled loads out for various reasons, mainly size. Theres a good one just coming to market is the 'Tracca' (http://www.traccauk.com/) Seems good, chuck a sim in and away you go BUT a few people have said to just get a cheap tracker from ebay for 1/3 of the price. 

 

Anyone used one for ebay? The bits that put me off are the 2G sim card that the majority seem to use, they sound like to be a pain to get hold. Also they all say accurate to 5m, I wonder if thats true, they say they use GPS/GPRS on a 2G sim, is that possible? I have it in my head that a 2G sim can only do calls and texts but I guess we had WAP back in the day which is all these are doing. From what I can gather the device gets a text from you, sends back its location (as coordinates I assume) which you then open in google maps. 

 

In reality I hope to never use it BUT I'd want it to be useful when I need it. 

 

Strange one I know but anyone got any experience of these kinda things? 

 

Seriously though you'll have have a data contract with the pet sim will you not.

 

Is there a reason you think the dog will go off on its own?

I have this;

www.traxfamily.com/phone/index.html

I had issues where it wouldn't locate the Trax, but I've recently went from a Samsung S3 to an S5 and it works a lot better.

2G network is capable of supporting GPRS which is about the speed of dial-up internet.

 

Plenty fast enough for a few pings of data here and there.

 

Most sims support 2G.

 

Phil

 

Seriously though you'll have have a data contract with the pet sim will you not.

 

Is there a reason you think the dog will go off on its own?

 

2 main reasons, the first is dog theft, while I am under no illusions that as soon as they take a dog a thief would remove the collar any chance of seeing where the dog was last would be valuable in finding him. The second and main one is if the dog just goes wondering. At a recent breed specific meet a little dog called Jade went missing, she was normally good on and off her lead but something spooked her and she went charging off into the bushes, lead still attached. After 4 days of hunting and heartache for her owners they found her cowering under a hedge. Thankfully she is ok but had she had the tracker on her she'd have been found within a few min rather than days. 

 

The majority of these things seem to use about £1 a week in data at worst, I'm happy to cover the £5 a month top up on a pay and go sim. 

 

I have this;

www.traxfamily.com/phone/index.html

I had issues where it wouldn't locate the Trax, but I've recently went from a Samsung S3 to an S5 and it works a lot better.

 

I've not seen that one, are you in the UK? Where did you purchase it from, the site seems to do every currency other than GBP. 

 

2G network is capable of supporting GPRS which is about the speed of dial-up internet.

 

Plenty fast enough for a few pings of data here and there.

 

Most sims support 2G.

 

Phil

 

Thats good, so if I take a punt on a cheapie from china at least I know it *should* do what I expect it to

 

CHeers all

I'm south of Glasgow. I think I paid for it in €'s. At current exchange rates it is

£162 at $249 or £145 at €199, that covers your roaming charges for two years and I think it includes Europe as well.

The Trax in its protective case is about the size of a box of matches. I have it placed under Hadley's harness; stops it getting caught on branches and rocks when she decides I'm slowing her down, it also makes it difficult to see. Once fully charged, the battery is supposed to last approximately 2 days, though I've not put that to the test.

As per the website, you can set a geo fence around things ; your house, paddock, etc and if the dog leaves that, you can set an alarm to go off on your phone. You can set it up so another person can track your dog on their phone, I think it is limited to one person to be logged in at a time.