Does anyone have/know of any security or gps chip/tag type solution for kit? We have all this expensive stuff that is easily nickable, and gps type technology has come on loads.
I was thinking about the paddleboards (that are finally due to arrive today! woohoo!) and how popular they are now. They must be getting nicked off the beach/roofracks all the time as people are distracted. Same thing for bikes, as per the Skipper chat these last few days.
So can you buy like a tiny sticker type thing that you could stick on the board or on the frame. They’ll clearly not be fully tamper proof. But if you can track the item quickly enough to grab it back, assuming your standard opportunistic d!ckhead won’t think to look for any sort of security.
I’m going to start looking into it, but thought i’d ask the question here as well.
For it to work it would need to be transmitting which requires a battery. I’m sure it’s possible but it won’t be one of those flat stickers they use in shops because they rely on the power of the detectors you walk through.
Most solutions need to be charged and then a subscription fee paid after the fact.
For me?
Don’t let your nice bikes out of sight (unless leaving in transition, in which case you don’t have a choice - don’t lock them in T1/2, as I’ve seen people forget their keys before!)
Only take a bike you don’t mind getting nicked into town.
And make sure your home insurance covers it (mine are specified items - all photo’d and insured to the value they’d be to replace with the extras; think of the £50 bottle cages, £50 saddle bag, £1500 Zipp wheels and all that jazz)
Yeah that’s a good point. I need to update my home insurance and taking pics of all my stuff and chucking it in a folder somewhere is a really good idea.
As said above, to go full GPS location, you’re talking something fairly chunky. And it wont be cheap, and will often require an ongoing subscription, as to transmit that signal somewhere it needs data. I’ve looked at it before for more accurate family tracking during races, but never found anything practical that would work and would be what I consider cost effective.
For what you’ve described, I would think something like tile would fit the bill. If someone nicked the paddleboards on the beach, then so long as you spotted in reasonably quick time, the location range of bluetooth should enable you to run around the beach and see if they’re at least in close proximity. But other than maybe being additional evidence it’s yours, I imagine bluetooth range on something so large is really not much better than using your eyes, given they’re not small pieces of equipment!
That said, you do get to “crowdsource” trying to find the item with anyone else nearby who uses tile. All dependent on others having tile devices and using the app on their phones though: Best Spy Camera ~ Top Hidden Cams For Spying.
Tile do waterproof “sticker” type transmitters, rather than the original keyring style.
The Tile like route is the one that will soon exist, Apple announced that they’ll be opening up their network to it - probably to beat off the anti-trust of their own version - but either way with every iDevice out there assisting in find then it will be found.
I’m not covinced tile alone would have any sort of coverage given the short time window you need before someone has removed the tile as you said originally.
hadn’t really thought about the size and power element if i’m honest. In my head i had a little rfid style sticker. Didn’t know if something long range existed. Clearly not!