rwadamsidaho
Member
My riding buddy Bill and I take annual 14 day riding tours around the pacific NW each spring-summer. This year it will include the BMW Rally in Redmond and then a trip up the oregon / washington coast. When not on the road our bikes are stored in a non-lockable barn in Idaho. I decided to try out a GPS tracker for each bike and settled on the Trak-4 built in Claremore OK. They come in two models, one attaches to the battery of the host vehicle the other has a long lasting LI battery. I went with the stand-a-lone version and ordered two, one for my F8550GSA and one for Bill's F750GS. I ordered them from Amazon and they arrived in a few days. The instructions tell you to charge them up with a standard UPS phone charger. To see what is going on with the units, you can use a WEB app or a smartphone app., I am using both. In both cases the app connects to a TRAK-4 website. You do not have a way to connect directly to the units themselves with wifi or bluetooth. I consider this a down side as they only way you know what is going on with the device is if it checks in. The device uses Sat for getting GPS positions and ATT cell to connect with the mothership. The unit has a sensor that detects movement and turns on and check in. You can set the frequency of pings with either the web or phone app. I chose 10 minutes. You can also set up a virtual fence called Geozones that will send text messages and/or emails if the unit leave the zone. So when I leave my driveway a text get sent. So if my bike was borrowed I get a text saying it is on the move and can check the app to see where it currently is, Plus or Minus 10 minutes. When it stops it keeps pinging for another 30 minutes.
This screen shows current status, where the device is and it battery status. Selecting history you can see the pings since the device started moving.
One of my units had a issue charging the battery, so I contacted the company service email address and got an almost instance response. They had be try a couple of things and then sent me a prepaid return label and I had a new unit in three days. I originally put the units under my seats but found I get better connectivity putting them in a small pocket on my soft bags. I have only had them active for a couple of weeks so the jury is still out on their effectiveness, they need cell connectivity to report in unlike my Garmin inReach Mini which works anywhere it can get a clear view of the sky, it should give me a heads up if my bikes take a walk-a-bout.
This screen shows current status, where the device is and it battery status. Selecting history you can see the pings since the device started moving.
One of my units had a issue charging the battery, so I contacted the company service email address and got an almost instance response. They had be try a couple of things and then sent me a prepaid return label and I had a new unit in three days. I originally put the units under my seats but found I get better connectivity putting them in a small pocket on my soft bags. I have only had them active for a couple of weeks so the jury is still out on their effectiveness, they need cell connectivity to report in unlike my Garmin inReach Mini which works anywhere it can get a clear view of the sky, it should give me a heads up if my bikes take a walk-a-bout.