Simple GPS tracker (USA) for under $100?

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Why can't I find a simple GPS tracker that will work in the US for under $100?

Every time I sit down and say "ok, today I will order a tracker"... Two hours of research later and I'm more confused than ever. And wait another month before trying again. Help!

Seems like there are many trackers for $20-$40 but they are 2g and I read 2g is phased out in the US now. And all the 3G ones seem to be $100 - $150.

All I want is a simple "send an SMS to the tracker to trigger an SMS back with its location." I don't need fancy apps or constant location updates, just super cheap.

I just want someone to say "this is $40, will work in the USA, and get this pay-as-you-go sim chip for $10 to send the sms messages". Does that exist? Or am I stuck paying $150?

Thanks all!


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Maybe I'm being unreasonable but $100 for Ping still seems unnecessarily pricey.

There are many decent 2g based trackers out there for $20-$40... Why can't someone swap in 3G friendly hardware and keep selling those 'simple' versions for that same cheap price?

Ping looks wonderful and higher chance... But way more features than I need. I'm happy to pay less to get less.



Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
Why can't I find a simple GPS tracker that will work in the US for under $100?

Every time I sit down and say "ok, today I will order a tracker"... Two hours of research later and I'm more confused than ever. And wait another month before trying again. Help!

Seems like there are many trackers for $20-$40 but they are 2g and I read 2g is phased out in the US now. And all the 3G ones seem to be $100 - $150.

All I want is a simple "send an SMS to the tracker to trigger an SMS back with its location." I don't need fancy apps or constant location updates, just super cheap.

I just want someone to say "this is $40, will work in the USA, and get this pay-as-you-go sim chip for $10 to send the sms messages". Does that exist? Or am I stuck paying $150?

Thanks all!


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
Good luck. I have been looking for the same thing to no avail. Let me know what you find. My P4 is worth a considerable amount and have actually come to the realization that maybe I shouldn't go cheap if I am trying to protect my P4. Most cheap ones require a subscription. The best one I think is Marco Polo, but ka-ching!

Paul
 
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Jus
You do not need a tracker, save your money.
Jus curious as to why you would say this? On Christmas Day my P3P decided it wasn't coming back. Lot's of stories on here about updates causing people to lose their Phantom. I know for a fact it was within 3 miles. I had a 128GB memory card with lots of pictures on it. Yeah, that was my bad, but still would have been nice to recover, if only for parts to sell to recover at least a little bit of money to put towards a replacement.

Paul
 
Im looking at this.. NEW **3G**Trackimo Travel Tracker GPS - TRK133 3G. ....$139

Trackimo is an intelligent, 3G GPS-GSM tiny device allowing you to see on your mobile phone exactly every move and where your precious things are with automatic alerts as needed. Device is including SIM card loaded with 1 year international cellular service and working out of the box. Device is using GPS satellites and Cellular tower triangulation as second choice to compute the location of your device and report its location via the GSM cellular worldwide network straight to our servers and than to Trackimo web and phone app..
GPS service for the first year included – Only $5 per month after the first 12 month, the lowest monthly service cost of any tracking device worldwide. The worldwide SIM card using the cellular network to report the real time positioning of the device Free App iPhone & Android. THIS IS 3G not the 2G SUNSET Version that won't work on AT&T as 2017.


$139 with 12 months service.... then $5/month after... Not too bad?

Trackimo® Universal GPS Tracker - Free US Shipping & 1 Year GSM service included - at $60 off
Trackimo Drone GPS Tracker with Drone attachment kit
 
Depending on how much data the tracker uses, a freedompop GSM sim, international (tmobile or att at 3g) or LTE (att lte), might work for this purpose. Turn off all the pay-for 'features' and get the max amount of 'freedom friends', 700 megs a month for free.
 
Im looking at this.. NEW **3G**Trackimo Travel Tracker GPS - TRK133 3G. ....$139

Trackimo is an intelligent, 3G GPS-GSM tiny device allowing you to see on your mobile phone exactly every move and where your precious things are with automatic alerts as needed. Device is including SIM card loaded with 1 year international cellular service and working out of the box. Device is using GPS satellites and Cellular tower triangulation as second choice to compute the location of your device and report its location via the GSM cellular worldwide network straight to our servers and than to Trackimo web and phone app..
GPS service for the first year included – Only $5 per month after the first 12 month, the lowest monthly service cost of any tracking device worldwide. The worldwide SIM card using the cellular network to report the real time positioning of the device Free App iPhone & Android. THIS IS 3G not the 2G SUNSET Version that won't work on AT&T as 2017.


$139 with 12 months service.... then $5/month after... Not too bad?

Trackimo® Universal GPS Tracker - Free US Shipping & 1 Year GSM service included - at $60 off
Trackimo Drone GPS Tracker with Drone attachment kit
Thanks for letting me know about your research. I did no about this one, but hesitated to recommend it because I've heard on here that the coverage area is not reliable because it is 3G and a lot of carriers don't offer 3G in a lot of areas. Just research it on this forum.

Paul
 
We sell the Trackimo for under $100.00 with 1 year free service. I have one on my DJI P3P.
 
Actually is $109.99 with free 1 year service, works anywhere there is a cell tower. Only thing needed is a way to mount to your drone. There are some made for dji and others or Velcro. These work great and have had one on my drone for a year and know I could find it, should something happen. Link is

TRACKIMO TRK120 [TRK120]

Let me know if you have any trouble buying on line as this is the company I have been with for 35 years.
 
Maybe I'm being unreasonable but $100 for Ping still seems unnecessarily pricey.

There are many decent 2g based trackers out there for $20-$40... Why can't someone swap in 3G friendly hardware and keep selling those 'simple' versions for that same cheap price?

Ping looks wonderful and higher chance... But way more features than I need. I'm happy to pay less to get less.



Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

Yes, you are being unreasonable. :)

We live in a great time and things are more connected than they've ever been. And there will be a day GPS/Cellular devices will drop drastically, but we are not there yet.
Example; I was amazed a few years ago when McDonald's had kid's digital watches in Happy Meals, they were $1000 not that very long ago.

For a company to include a GPS receiver and a cellular radio with the associated antennas and battery in a unit the size of a silver dollar, that is light enough to be FLOWN by radio control for $100 !!! Come-on man . . . .

The other thing is granularity of position reporting, anything that reports position is going to fly though batteries I don't care what the color brochure says.
These small devices cannot be reporting position that very often and if they are it won't be for long. Whatever the manufacturer says the battery life is, cut that in less than half as they are reporting "laboratory test times",

I hope you don't loose for Phantom until the prices come down !!
 
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My drone P3P is worth the $110.00 piece of mind to know I could find it should it go away and loose contact. You just need to decide if you want something that will work or spend less and have NO peace of mind. After all we are talking about $9.17 per month, if you can't afford that maybe you don't need a quality drone! Just saying!
 
Drone-Mods.com sells a UAV Locator for $149.99 which seams high but the monthly subscription is only $5.00

You call a phone number and in a few minutes you get the lat-long of where your drone is at, and Google Maps picture of the location. There is also an international version.

I am happy with my unit. A Velcro strap lets me move it from drone to drone.
 

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