Installed A GPS Tracker on the Typhoon

[TNPhoon]

EDIT: deleted original question because I was a moron and not thinking.

Anyways, installed a GPS tracker on the Typhoon today, one of the ones that we use for our cars here at the dealership. Has a starter interrupt/kill option on it, but haven't done that yet because I am mainly testing this for the dealership and an added bonus of being able to GPS track my shit in case it's jacked again or anything.

Just ran the hot and ground from the radio and have the box installed behind the dash for the moment - This will eventually change assuming that the box works as it's supposed to.

Some more information below in this thread.

Thanks guys!

 

[TNPhoon]

Re: Quick Question About Column/Ignition Wiring

Re: Quick Question About Column/Ignition Wiring

None of those two "flat" groups are what you want.

The Ignition switch is high up in the right-hand upper corner of that pic. You can barely see the wires.

Starter = Yellow
Ignition = Pink
Accy = Brown
Hot at all times = Red (2 of them, either work).

There are other, better options to interface a device, IMO. The first place a thief will look is at those wires to see if there are any attachments. And they will find your device.

Call me.

Thanks Dave!

Yeah. Im a maroon.

Ignition above the column and a PITA to access. Testing something right now though. This is one of the boxes that we use at the dealership, one of the new ones that has full time active GPS. Going to test to see if I can just do a 12v hot and ground and if the box itself will work. I don't care about the starter interrupt option or anything like that since I have a kill switch installed already, just want the GPS option so I can geofence it and track it and a few other GPS that the boxes offer. Gonna test it real quick on something else and see. Don't want a battery drain. Might just tap into the radio and put the GPS box in the glovebox or somewhere behind the radio. Be back in just a few.

Was thinking of running a hot to it with a switch so I could turn it on and off, but problem is I think that the box will send me constant alerts. I believe that it's setup so that any time that power is lost to the box, it will alert us.

 

[TNPhoon]

Re: Quick Question About Column/Ignition Wiring

Re: Quick Question About Column/Ignition Wiring

In a Typhoon, all those circuits are available under the center console.

Hot at all times = orn/blk @ 12V accy outlets, or in RKE harness.
Ignition = pnk/blk in RKE harness
Starter = Pur @ shifter switch.

Hrm. Never thought of that. I don't use the 12v in the center console anyways....:tup:

BRB. Doing some testing.

 

[TNPhoon]

Re: Quick Question About Wiring - Installing A GPS Tracker

Re: Quick Question About Wiring - Installing A GPS Tracker

Okay, so think that we are gonna try and go off the radio and put the box behind the glovebox.

Like I said, don't really care about the starter interrupt part of it since I have a kill switch.

Just to let everyone know what I am doing:

We use a payment assurance system here at work on our cars that we sell. The newest ones have real-time GPS tracking on it, so that's what I am looking to do, is the GPS aspect of it.

Here's some of the options that it has on top of real-time GPS tracking/locating:
Tow Notification: Enabling this feature will notify you if the vehicle has moved more than 2 miles with the vehicle’s ignition in the off position. You will be notified both at the beginning of the Tow Detection as well as after the vehicle has stopped moving. Notification by Email or SMS is optional.

Low Power: Enabling this feature will notify you if the vehicle’s battery begins to get low and may need to be replaced soon. Notification by Email or SMS is optional.

3 Hour Reporting: Enable the 24 Hour Tracking feature when you need multiple, automated locates within a 24 hour period. With this feature enabled, the device will send a location every 3 hours within a 24 hour period.

Ignition Notification: Enable the Ignition Notification feature to record the time, date, and location each time the vehicle is turned on, turned off, or both for a 24 hour period. Notification by Email or SMS is optional. * This won't be active on the Typhoon since not tapping into the ignition.

Time Tamper Notification: Enabling this feature will notify you if the vehicle battery has been disconnected for a period greater than 4 hours and therefore causing the time remaining on the unit to be out of sync.

Power Loss Notification: Enabling this feature will send a notification if power is removed from the unit.

 

[TNPhoon]

Re: Quick Question About Wiring - Installing A GPS Tracker

Re: Quick Question About Wiring - Installing A GPS Tracker

GPS installed and working correctly.

Thanks DaveP, you made me put on my thinking hat and use some critical thinking this morning. :tup:

Gonna set up some Geofences and play with the options a bit to ensure that everything is working.

These boxes come with 2 years free air-time on them then I think it's like $25/year after that to keep them activated, but not real sure since it's all through the dealership and they're brand new versions of the old types of boxes that we are using.

 

[Quickstop [UK]]

Re: Quick Question About Wiring - Installing A GPS Tracker

Re: Quick Question About Wiring - Installing A GPS Tracker

Wanna sling a few? People might like 'em!

 

[TNPhoon]

Re: Quick Question About Wiring - Installing A GPS Tracker

Re: Quick Question About Wiring - Installing A GPS Tracker

Possibly. Need to see what our cost is on them and gonna test this a bit to ensure it's all working right.

If I were to wire it through the ignition, then I could a few other things. Say that the truck was stolen or something, could send a KILL COMMAND down to it and the box would kill power to the starter and shoot a GPS signal where it was at.

 

[TNPhoon]

Re: Quick Question About Wiring - Installing A GPS Tracker

Re: Quick Question About Wiring - Installing A GPS Tracker

^^ Then why would you NOT want to do this? ^^

If going behind the glove box, there's an Ignition source at the ECM, right below it. Or the DRAC. Pink/blk at the ECM on A6, or the pnk/wht at the DRAC. Easy-peasey.

That system is really cool. I'd like to have one in my Super Duty for when I'm towing other people's Corvettes. I'm always cognizant of what happened at the GN Nats a few years ago.

I might eventually. My main goal today was to just get it hooked up and verified working. So long as it doesn't kill my battery and continues to work like it's supposed to, I probably will. I will check and see what these are costing us. I need to check and see too if maybe there would be a way that I could setup "users" underneath our main account and if someone wanted one, they could log in and have direct access. Not sure if there is a way for Passtime to allow a certain login to only allow access to one specific vehicle. Gonna run this for a few days, make sure it's working right and do some research about the possibility if anyone wants one of these, seeing how I could make that work on our system.

Hell, might be able to work with passtime and create an entire account for SyTy and have a few administrators or something for it. Not sure. Will update soon.

 

[Quickstop [UK]]

Re: Quick Question About Wiring - Installing A GPS Tracker

Re: Quick Question About Wiring - Installing A GPS Tracker

:rotf:

That's the one I plan to install - it has all those features you mentioned. I'd never heard of geofencing but am impressed with its capabilities.

Like Dave says, it's not that hard to disable the starter or even the fuel pump. With mine, once below a certain speed, it will kill fuel. Not too expensive either.

 

[TNPhoon]

Re: Quick Question About Wiring - Installing A GPS Tracker

Re: Quick Question About Wiring - Installing A GPS Tracker

[QUOTE='Quickstop [UK] With mine, once below a certain speed, it will kill fuel. Not too expensive either.[/QUOTE]

Like it it's been stolen and you send a command, if it goes below 20mph it will just kill all fuel to the vehicle? I'd be afraid that if the motor stopped, the thief would possibly crash it.

If you send a KILL COMMAND to one of these boxes, it doesn't activate until the vehicle is shut off again. Once it's had a command sent and the next time the vehicle turns off, it won't restart unless you send a start command down to it.

Legally in the US you can't turn a car off when it's in motion or running. Some dude up in MI had a system on his dealership cars that did that and they turned someone off that was driving down the interstate and they wound up wrecking and sued the dealership.

 

[Quickstop [UK]]

Re: Installed A GPS Tracker on the Typhoon

I think you can set the speed for specifically that reason. Say 5 mph or stopped in traffic or whatever. Then I'd be afraid of the assholes vandalising the car.

 

[TNPhoon]

Re: Installed A GPS Tracker on the Typhoon

I think you can set the speed for specifically that reason. Say 5 mph or stopped in traffic or whatever. Then I'd be afraid of the assholes vandalising the car.

Been playing around with this one a bit more with the settings and doing geofences...One thing that it doesn't have that I wish it did, was a speed alert, so that you could tell it to notify you say if the truck is ever driven over 80mph. Not that I would use that on my unit particularly, but would be good for parents or employers to ensure that their drivers aren't driving all crazy.

Geofencing could be a little bit better as well. Right now it's only in a "boxed" area. Would be nice if you could create your own non-rectangle/square geofence areas. When I worked for BlackBerry, we had a similar type setup for geofencing. Some people had units in their car so when they came in/out of the parking lot, it would alert so that you would know if someone was there or not.

Of course, could be expecting a little too much out of this box. It's main purpose isn't GPS really. It's main purpose is to turn cars off if the customer decides they don't want to pay for it. Gonna dick around some more with the settings.

It would also be great if this company created an Android app or programmed the box with a list of commands, which I don't think would be THAT hard to do. The GPS and reporting is done via the Verizon Wireless network, so each box has a phone number associated with it. In a Nate World, you'd be able to send commands to the vehicle just by text message and not having to log into the website in order to do so. IE: text IMMOBILIZE to the number and do it that way.

 

[TNPhoon]

Re: Installed A GPS Tracker on the Typhoon

The secret with any Security System, including Remote Starters, is that they can not be found easily or quickly by a thief. I always laugh when I see the starter interrupt relay spliced into the wires at the ignition switch with yellow butt connectors. Yeah, like that's going to stop anyone. It's obvious what it is, and takes 10 seconds to bypass it.

I mentioned Remote Starters for a reason. Lots of vehicles have aftermarket R/S, and I recently read a comment that I hadn't thought of. Most R/S have an "activate" wire to the brain box. It is seldom utilized, and is usually just taped off. R/S requires the key to be turned on before the brake pedal is pressed, or the engine shuts down. Most modern cars have a shifter interlock that requires the brake be depressed to get out of Park, so this is effective against someone driving an unoccupied, running car away. Not to mention that factory Immobilizer systems require a bypass device to allow Remote Starting without a key in the ignition. An R/S activation bypasses this protection.

The comment was "If I were a thief, and found a R/S, I'd activate the R/S with the aux input wire, cut the brake input wire and be on my way...." Hell of a revelation. You don't want a thief to find that wire.

I make it VERY difficult to find or access the modules, remove any unused wires from the harness, and make my interfaces to vehicle wiring in hard to find, unusual places. If a thief looks under the dash of one of my installs he won't see a thing to clue him in as to what has been done for protection.

The way it should be.

Some of my installs take days to execute. You won't get what I do with a 2 hour, $100 Best Buy install. If you have a vehicle with an aftermarket R/S system, something to think about. Or keep the comprehensive insurance coverage paid-up.

At one time I toyed with the idea of putting a remote start on the Ty, but ultimately decided against it. I don't really trust them to be honest. Dunno why, just one of those things. I have R/S on the CTS from the factory, so I feel fairly confident in it keeping someone from starting the car and being able to drive away.

Imma give this about a week or so to test the GPS, make sure it doesn't lose signal, make sure it's sending notification if the truck battery is removed, etc. Once that's verified, I will look into doing a COMPLETE and correct install. That's gonna take a little longer than the 30 min it took today just to do the test, because I am sure that once I go to do that, I am going to get a case of the "while i am here's" and try and clean up the complete cluster****ery of wiring that I have from some previous owners alarm installation. Also thinking of moving my kill switch button to somewhere else in the vehicle. Where it is now, most people wouldn't think it's a kill switch, but it's visible to the nekkid eye, and while it looks stock, it's not 100% fool proof.

 

[ajt86]

Re: Installed A GPS Tracker on the Typhoon

I love the remote starts that you have to leave a key in a box under the dash for the anti theft system to bypass, all you need to do is crack the box open and pop the key out and start the car with it, even if the installer is smart enough and cuts the key off and just leaves the chip in it, you can press the chip agenst the cylinder and start it with a screw driver.

ive seen dozens of cars with the key box under the dash go through my shop

 

[Baythan]

Re: Installed A GPS Tracker on the Typhoon

The secret with any Security System, including Remote Starters, is that they can not be found easily or quickly by a thief. I

Exactly. Which is why I would remove all references to your module location, Nate, from this thread. It's now on the internet for everyone to see (not that petty thieves are that sophisticated, but still...)

 

[TNPhoon]

Re: Installed A GPS Tracker on the Typhoon

Exactly. Which is why I would remove all references to your module location, Nate, from this thread. It's now on the internet for everyone to see (not that petty thieves are that sophisticated, but still...)

Good advice. I just moved it to under the passenger seat.

 

[Quickstop [UK]]

Re: Installed A GPS Tracker on the Typhoon

With my unit, you can text commands like you say.