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Lojack alternatives

7K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  beezee 
#1 ·
#7 ·
Sorry, can't post links yet, so I've spelled them out.

I know this is an old thread, but if I found it through Google I'm sure others do too...

Long story short, I did this same thing using www dot instamapper dot com - they provide an API and I'm a web developer so I built myself an alert service, and now I get a text within 5 minutes if my car is supposed to be parked but it's moving.

I'm opening the notification service to signups and need some beta testers. More details below:

I followed the instructions under the HOWTO section of the Instamapper site to wire an IDEN phone to my car battery and keep full time monitoring on the car.

I'm pretty paranoid about theft, having gone through it once before, and I'm also a web developer, so I used the InstaMapper API to build myself an app that knows if my car is parked, and if it is, checks every 5 minutes to see if it's moved.

If my car moves while it's supposed to be parked, I get a text message within 5 minutes, with a link to a map of the current location compared to the parked location, so I can see the trajectory.

This means if someone steals my car, I'll know where they are within 5 minutes of them stepping on the gas, and they won't get very far.

A few weeks later I had a new development framework to test out for my job, so I figured I'd build out my InstaMapper notification service to allow people to sign up.

I'm just one guy, and this is only a side project for me, so I'm going to charge $5 a month to cover the expenses of being able to send notifications, but right now I'd love to have a couple of people who want to help me with early stage testing sign up for free. If you do, of course you'll get to keep free membership as long as I keep the app online.

Anyone interested in helping me test the app in exchange for a lifetime free membership, please head over to cartrackr dot com and wait a few seconds for the beta signup box to pop up. Shoot me your email address and I'll get you set up.

Thanks!

Brian
 
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