Locatea.net, Vehicle Tracking - Discontinued

Whilst this product can do nothing to stop your caravan being stolen, it can certainly go a long way in helping to find it once it has gone, and hopefully before it is too late to do anything about it.

This tracking system is a neat little unit that you can wire into your caravan / motor home for extra peace of mind.

LocateA.net is your one stop resource for free telematics and live vehicle tracking, locating the live positions of moving objects, whether they be Cars, Vans, Trucks, People, Caravans, Motor Homes, Smart phones or PDA's, even better, its free!

With LocateA.net you control which vehicles are tracked, whether you have 1 or 20+, all of them can be tracked for free using our software, you decide which ones are displayed on the public map, or your own private map.

• 100% Free Vehicle Tracking
• The ability to add unlimited users to your account.
• Record up to 43,200 individual tracks per user ID.
• Automatically turns recording on or off based on your setting.
• Export your recorded data for use in other applications.
• Find all your users on a single map.
• Find single users and track them live in your control panel.
• Make individual users appear public, or keep them private.
• You control what appears in each users balloon.

It might be low cost, but it's packed with features the most expensive tracking systems are finding hard to beat!

• Unit measures just 98x64x36mm
• Instant Geo fence System, just text the Unit 'Stay' and if your vehicle moves more than 200 meters it will alert you to a phone number you program in to it.
• Easily programmed by sending the unit simple SMS message.
• Low Power Consumption, Typically 12mA on standby
• SiRF III GPS Receiver to ensure a good signal at all times
• Intelligent power control
• The unit is already configured to send data to the LocateA website, just tell it your User ID & PIN, OR informs you of the nearest motorway junction if you send the unit a SMS Message from your phone!
• Runs on any network Pay-as-you-go & contract SIMS *
• Tells you how much credit is available on supported SIMS
• Extremely simple wiring, just 2 wires
• IP56 Protection
• Full RoHS Compliance, Pb (lead) free

The benefits of using a Hard Wired unit are...

• Low cost, updates typically cost just 1p on a PAYG SIM
• Updates can be programmed, every 2 minutes, 5 minutes etc
• If your vehicle is stolen, LocateA can help in the recovery of it
• Set & forget, once installed and programmed, there is nothing else to do
• Shows you on the map only when the vehicle is moving, saving you money
• No subscription to the LocateA website

You can also give out a Unique Tracking ID Reference, so if you receive a text alert that the vehcile is moving, you can call the police and then give the police this Unique Tracking Reference, the police can then come to the LocateA website and enter this reference number on the LocateA home page, they can then send someone out to this location and find the vehicle. This page updates every 60 seconds without you having to 'refresh' the page, and can leave a 'snail trail' so you can see where it has been, and in which direction it is travelling, how fast etc.

What did we think?

The unit arrived in quick time from ordering and after a read through the 10 or so pages of the instructions, we were ready to go.

The unit came supplied with a Vodafone pay as you go sim and was set up already with GPRS activated on the sim, I simply had to put it in a phone, make one call and the card was activated and ready to go.  The unit itself is very simple with just two wires needing connecting.  One to a fused positive, the other to an Earth.  The box also comes with screws holes, so you can mountit easily to a surface, e.g. inside a locker.

The unit was soon wired in and ready for testing.  By taking the cover of the unit off you can identify if the unit is working by flashing LED's, and with the sim in, after 10 minutes I was able to ring the number once, hang up and wait for a text back with the GPS location.  After 20 minutes I was then able to set up the system.

This is simple to install and use and the website is just as simple, visit their website, register your details and tracker and away you go, you can see your unit on the map, trace its journey and more.

Overall a great system and at just £234.99 is a real bargain.

Where can I get one from?

You can visit the manufacturer's website at www.locatea.net , however as of September 2010 it appears this product is no longer available.