[Ragul]

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

Moreover,the house was of a retd policeman who on enquiry said that those people(thieves)are from neighbouring village.But the police instead of going in search of those fellows sat in his house for snacks!!

Sad and pitiful condition of policing in India. So are the culprits arrested?
What is the defence of the retd. Policeman? Is he named as a co-accused? Are you perusing this matter and involvement of an ex-cop with the theft case?
What if you refused to pay the money? Could you not simply sneak off and drive away with the vehicle?

--Ragul

[mayankk]

but tell me this.
if these thieves carry those DX etc sourced gps/gsm jammers, they can effectively block off gps trackers, or the microvbb sms alerts till they locate them?

[akmits_bhp]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

One of my acquaintances has a petrol pump and has apparently installed a GPS device on the trucks/ tankers that deliver the petrol. He said that he has also linked something to the seals/ caps of the fuel tanks. This helps him in knowing if there has been any pilferage. Is this feasible or is he pulling a fast one on the drivers just to keep them in check?

No, it is very much possible. Typically a mid-high end GPS tracking device has following as additional hardware features:

1. Digital input: to sense any ON/OFF triggers. For example one can monitor ignition, Door, AC or a custom switch on top of fuel lid or an SoS button

2. Digital output: with these plus relays one can control (switch on/off remotely) things like Fuel pump, ignition power, siren etc.. A typical use is to immobilize the vehicle remotely

3. Analog sensors: with these you can monitor Fuel level, temperature etc.

Fuel monitoring is not an exact science. If you just take the voltage reading coming from the stock gauge, it is not very accurate. You can assume 10-15% error.

For accurate fuel monitoring you need to replace the float based fuel gauge with ones little more accurate.

[sudipta]

I did lookup a few products (China made) in eBay India. But I am not confident as they will need a lot of wire cutting in the car. Is there any option for branded stuff made in India?

[akmits_bhp]

Originally Posted by sudipta

I did lookup a few products (China made) in eBay India. But I am not confident as they will need a lot of wire cutting in the car. Is there any option for branded stuff made in India?

You at least need to pull one wire for powering the unit. You can use battery +ve directly from battery or from anywhere in the car where there is direct battery power e.g. stereo.

You may also choose to use ACC power. In that case unit will be drawing power only when the vehicle is ACC ON.

You can always connect the negative wire to by grounding it anywhere.

Rest of the connections are optional.

[nishad.hameed]

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

So he asked me to start tracking the vehicle. Since it was a Sunday, they also had their day off so they noticed the missing Bolero around 11:30am only.

if your brother had enabled a feature called geo-fencing SMS alerts, he might have received an SMS alert the moment the Bolero went out of your building premises.

[sudev]

Yes geo-fencing or auto-park function exists in many GPS VTS systems. The moment your vehicle goes out of this area a alarm is generated for the user(s). Auto parking is superior as you do not have to set it on the map but sets a radius around wherever you park your vehicle.

[sumathindra]

Congrats on the return of your ride. It is really fascinating to know that such technology really works. The question is how many actually know this can work! If it is reasonable then i guess it makes sense to have one in every car! Congrats again. Hard earned money never goes waste :-)

[nishad.hameed]

Originally Posted by sudev

Yes geo-fencing or auto-park function exists in many GPS VTS systems. The moment your vehicle goes out of this area a alarm is generated for the user(s). Auto parking is superior as you do not have to set it on the map but sets a radius around wherever you park your vehicle.

parking sensor is again difficult. will give you unnecessary alerts on your movement after each parking.

[kaushal21fb]

Note from Mod : Please READ our rules. We insist on a STRICT limit of 2 smilies per post. Thanks

Hey, Congrats Bone collector on getting your Bolero back.

Your brother having to pay a 30,000 bribe just shows how shabby our law and order system is.

My brother's santro got stolen in a similar fashion last year. Sadly the car did not have any tracking system on board. When we went to the police station to lodge a report the cops advised us to forget about the car, and claim the insurance instead. The cops said that they may be able to track the car in couple of weeks but it will be in a state that we'll not want it back.

Going by your story and what they did to your brother's bolero in 24 hrs, i can only imagine what would have happened to the poor Santro in a year.

Wish there was a way to control this menace

[Carb]

What if thieves are also reading this thread :-D

Any way the Cost of the GPS Tracker will cost 20,000 for the device alone and for the server it will cost 1500 per year(server charges) Company name invendis.
If any one Interested check it out.
Cheers :-)

[sudev]

Trackers costs ~10k or even lower.

[akmits_bhp]

Originally Posted by sudev

Trackers costs ~10k or even lower.

I agree. Descent quality trackers start around 8.5k. I can not post name of the company as it is my own company . Will be against the TB's policy to promote commercial interest in a public forum. May be I will post an ad in the classified section

Cheers
-a

[vikrut]

the mapmyindia vehicle tracking thing is around 16k , looks to be great piece of hardware for people with these expensive vehicles. Id trust them rather than the cheap ebay knockoffs which are around half the price

[Fornax]

What an Experience!

I had a "funny" feeling in my stomach, when I tried to imagine myself if your brothers' shoes - trying to enter into the criminal's lair alongwith corrupt policemen. Cops these days won't hesistate to twist the case in favor of the highest bidder.

Lately there have been too many car thefts reported around me by my friends / relatives. Just a few years back it was mostly car-audio / valuables that were stolen from cars, but I suppose theives are also aspirational, especially with tacit support from high-ranking / well-connected individuals.

GPS and such technology will fall flat if the vehicle is kept in a covered room, or better still if the thieves themselves discover mobile jammers.

Its' a shame really that vehicle security systems are so full of holes for the goons to exploit. I remember having seen a video of a South-African company introducing a security system which would set ablaze anyone attempting to steal a car, apparently it was against Human-Rights!!!

Can the security experts on this board give their opinions on whether its' possible to have a no nonsense vehicle-security-system, and if one exists, please do educate me.