Need of a Strong Mobile Tracking System?

[izzymem]

Does anybody know of any companies that can supply tracking systems that can be viewed live via the web and can be detected even in buildings & basements.

I need to be able to keep 24hours detection and the tracking device must be able to be detected and show it's where abouts through buildings and possibly basments.

Can anyone help. Anyprice range we cheaper the will do. The cheaper the better. thanks

[Buenchico]

You seem to be asking for the impossible. The only way that tracking systems can work (other than in very localised areas) is by using global positioning satellites. To provide an accurate location, the device being tracked has to be able to transmit a signal which can be received by several satellites at once.

Imagine, for example, the tracking devices installed into security vans. As the van drives along, buildings and other obstacles will screen it from some satellites but leave it 'in view' of others. As the van drives a few miles along the road, as many as 20 satellites might 'get a bearing on it' at some point in its journey but, for accurate positioning, a minimum of 5 satellites need to be 'in touch' with it at all times.

Now think about the device you wish to track. As soon as its inside a building the signal is significantly weakened. Once its down in the basement the signal is almost non-existent. The chances of the device being capable of communicating with 5 satellites at once are almost non-existent. (Just think about your mobile phone signal. It's probably the same strength, or stronger, than the transmissions from the detector device. Down in the basement of most buildings you'll be very lucky if your mobile phone can communicate with the local mobile phone mast just half a mile down the road. So what do you think the chances are of communicating with 5 separate satellites, all of which are about 22,000 miles away? !)

Sorry, but it can't be done!

Chris

[izzymem]

Thats not very helpfull Chirs!

Yeah well I thought that may be the case. I jsut wanted to know if there was somekind of US super transmission satellite that send an ultra signal which can even cause the development of cancer cells to near by customers. oh well. nothing that strong then i have to suck it up :(

if i was to put a device inside a fruit machine, which may then be stolen and put into a van will the satellite then be able to pick it up once its outside and mobile, even though its in a machine (metal) and in a van/car (metal)? once it is outside is it pretty much all ok?

[Ralph]

GPS signals are only just over the background radiation levels in order to keep the power requirements, launch weights and prices of the necessary satellites down. This means that the receiver or its antenna needs a clear view of the sky so it will not work in the back of a van or inside a machine.
I think it'd be easy enough to put a cheap PAYG mobile inside permanently attached to the charger which is wired into the machines power supply. Therefore, if the machine's stolen, the battery will last for a week or thereabouts, giving you time to track it using http://www.followus.co.uk/index.html or http://www.childlocate.co.uk/ or similar. It's not going to be millimetre accurate, but it'd work. The police might be interested and able to triangulate the phones position very quickly.

[izzymem]

that sounds like an excellent idea. why would it pick up a mobile in a machine and in a van but not a satellite?

is it because the phone gets it signels via the phone masts? its in a stronger signel environment i guess rarther than receiving them from space?

[Ralph]

Exactly. For mobile phones, areas are divided up into cells which have a few masts per cell. When a mobile enters a cell, it logs onto the network so that the central computers know where to direct a call to you. If the network knows you are south west of one mast, east of another and north east of a third, you can locate the phone easily. No satellites necessary!