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Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners

theguardian.com

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Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners

#121

Post by Someone »

mikepurvis wrote: post #94
dpark wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to be honest. I'm seriously doubting that math you didn't do. In my experience GPS murders small batteries. And putting large batteries on bikes seems like a nonstarter for bikes that aren't electric assist.

But the GPS only needs to be active when the bike is a) moving, with b) the BLE phone connection absent. There are ultra low power motion sensor ICs that literally have a GPIO for "motion detected". Put that on the reset pin of your CC2541, and you'll be set for months of battery life.

You don't care where your bike went, you care where it is, and you want a way to get that data remotely. The GPS only needs to be on when you call your bike, and that's where the problem lies: you have to find a way to decrease power usage of the GSM part.

Switching it on for a minute or so every hour if outside BLE range could help, but would make it harder to locate your bike fast. Maybe, it should start at a 100% duty cycle, and drop off over time? (Clock drift shouldn't be a problem. The device has GPS, so it has an accurate clock)

And you need to filter that 'motion detected' thing, or your bike will keep resetting itself, even before it can check the BLE connection. Or is that something that the sensor ICs can do for you, too, nowadays?

Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners

#122

Post by magni- »

qq66 wrote: post #66
chrischen wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could implement a system like iPhones (all iPhones register with Apple servers and lock up if reported stolen). Mandatory serial numbers, and make it illegal to purchase or own a bike without a serial number, or to buy a stolen serial number.

Illegal to own a bike without a serial number? That sounds like overkill.

That's what it's like here in Japan: http://www.tokyobybike.com/2013/11/how-to-register-your-bicy...

Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners

#123

Post by [deleted] »

qq66 wrote: post #66
chrischen wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could implement a system like iPhones (all iPhones register with Apple servers and lock up if reported stolen). Mandatory serial numbers, and make it illegal to purchase or own a bike without a serial number, or to buy a stolen serial number.

Illegal to own a bike without a serial number? That sounds like overkill.

[deleted]

Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners

#124

Post by walrus01 »

marincounty wrote: post #89
ptaipale wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finding your bike is not helpful if the police is not interested. And they usually aren't where I live. Except if you're yourself willing to enforce your retrieval with violence... at which point the police will be interested if everything does not go easily.

I bet you live in the Bay Area? Specifically, the east bay? Near Berkeley? There's a two well known flea markets where bike thieves sell their stolen property. Even if you are at the flea market, with you bike's serial number in hand, the cops do not come out. A huge guy, who had his bike stolen once too many times advertises in CL. He will literally show up at the flea market, and take your bike back, after you show…

"A huge guy"...?

New service like uber: "rent a 350 pound Samoan"

VC money please!

Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners

#125

Post by walrus01 »

Someone wrote: post #121
mikepurvis wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the GPS only needs to be active when the bike is a) moving, with b) the BLE phone connection absent. There are ultra low power motion sensor ICs that literally have a GPIO for "motion detected". Put that on the reset pin of your CC2541, and you'll be set for months of battery life.

You don't care where your bike went, you care where it is, and you want a way to get that data remotely. The GPS only needs to be on when you call your bike, and that's where the problem lies: you have to find a way to decrease power usage of the GSM part. Switching it on for a minute or so every hour if outside BLE range could help, but would make it harder to locate your bike fast. Maybe, it should start at a 100%…

I am pretty sure you could make a very, very low power watchdog circuit that only wakes up a GPS receiver and 2G/3G modem when it detects 60+ seconds of continual motion. Otherwise it'd sleep at very low power. This would fit in a $50 CF seatpost.

Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners

#126

Post by walrus01 »

jdblair wrote: post #24
tlrobinson wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exploding bike seats? http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYlBT1d_GWo Seriously though, GPS receivers and GSM radios are a few dollars each these days. Seems like an easy thing to hide in the frame (of course a thief could still part out everything except the frame)

I've thought a lot about this. The problem with hiding the tracker in the frame is the GPS and GSM antenna will be blocked by the metal tube. There would have to be a way to get the antenna out (maybe a special bottle cage, with the antenna leads going through the lugs?). It would work for carbon fiber, though, and those are the most expensive bikes.

Most good GPS receivers will get a signal through an ordinary low cost generic Chinese carbon fiber seatpost. Careful not to get the very cheap ones which are Alu wrapped in a CF laminate.

Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners

#127

Post by walrus01 »

fian wrote: post #99
chrischen wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could implement a system like iPhones (all iPhones register with Apple servers and lock up if reported stolen). Mandatory serial numbers, and make it illegal to purchase or own a bike without a serial number, or to buy a stolen serial number.

Expensive carbon bike frames can't be stamped with serial number. I have had a few carbon frames, I think only one had a visible serial number on the outside...on a sticker. None of the bike shops could provide a serial number at time of purchase.

The metal insert for bottom bracket (BB30 or not) can have an SN. this is permanently glued to the frame.

Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners

#128

Post by walrus01 »

mc808 wrote: post #6

I wonder if there is more that bicycle manufacturers/dealers can do to prevent theft or help recover stolen bikes - not because they're obligated but just to improve sales. Especially as the price approaches four digits, "what if this gets stolen?" has to be near the top of most potential buyers' list of concerns and probably chills sales to some degree.

Really expensive bikes you just don't ever lock anywhere in public. I don't know anyone in Vancouver who would lock a $3500 road or mountain bike anywhere. You're either in possession of it or it's in your garage. There are B&E teams who break into garages in metro van looking for peoples' MTB collection, so this doesn't really solve the problem, but then you've got alarm systems, bars on windows, house insurance etc.

Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners

#129

Post by ptaipale »

marincounty wrote: post #89
ptaipale wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finding your bike is not helpful if the police is not interested. And they usually aren't where I live. Except if you're yourself willing to enforce your retrieval with violence... at which point the police will be interested if everything does not go easily.

I bet you live in the Bay Area? Specifically, the east bay? Near Berkeley? There's a two well known flea markets where bike thieves sell their stolen property. Even if you are at the flea market, with you bike's serial number in hand, the cops do not come out. A huge guy, who had his bike stolen once too many times advertises in CL. He will literally show up at the flea market, and take your bike back, after you show…

No, not Berkeley, not even the USA. This phenomenon is global.

Re: Seattle vigilante reuniting stolen bikes with their owners

#130

Post by ptaipale »

victorhooi wrote: post #92
Audiophilip wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The problem with hiding the tracker in the frame is the GPS and GSM antenna will be blocked by the metal tube. Not true, there are multiple battle-tested solutions out there, like these: www.spybike.com

I have one of their products. It's not a bad product - but the company seems to have gone bust. They've stopped answering any emails, and the last news was that their Seat Post Tracker was meant to launch in 2012/2013: http://www.bike-eu.com/sales-trends/nieuws/2012/8/spybike-se... Their current trackers are 3G only - and most countries are shutting down (or have already shut down) their 3G GSM networks. I'm definite…

Their current trackers are 3G only - and most countries are shutting down (or have already shut down) their 3G GSM networks.

What? Some operators are closing 3G networks, but not, I think, "most countries". Frequency allocation is moved to LTE, yes.

But 3G modems fall back to 2G (GSM) which is'nt going away any time soon in most places (yes, there are exceptions), and 2G is quite enough to send location info.

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