August 6, 2010 at 18:29I sit high, I look far, I follow through the Internet
Surely many of you have seen such scenes in films - someone hooks a bug on someone’s car, then chases the villains down to the hiding place on a beautiful interactive map, at the last moment they save the tied goodie, shooting-explosions-bloodthirsty-dissected ... Well, you understand) Everything is in the best traditions of one-time films, I watched and forgot.
However, such “spy things” were always of interest, which could very well find application in our everyday life. Are there devices like in the movies? I offer my new review.
The hero of today's review cannot be called spyware - it can easily betray itself at least in size, not to mention the explicit GPS inscription on the case. However, you won’t understand right away that this is actually - if they hadn’t told me, then I would have been lost even in my wildest guesses.
It's about the GPS tracker MamaGPS . The manufacturer’s website provides examples of the use of the device - for children , the elderly and for pets . I will not pull the cat by the tail and list its main features, according to the documentation:
- Determining the location at any time
- Viewing the location, speed at any time on GoogleMaps
- View the history of movements on the map
- 4 channels for voice communication
- SOS signal transmission
- Information transfer both by SMS and E-mail (in the format "street, house")
- Message about exceeding the set speed
- Message on entry / exit outside a certain territory
- Managing the service on a personal page on the Internet
Inside the box is the tracker itself, charging from the network and from the cigarette lighter of the car, as well as USB-miniUSB wiring - unfortunately, there is no software disk, not even instructions. The fact is that the roots of the device grow from the Netherlands, where the existence of Russia is not even suspected. Therefore, maybe the manual is meant to be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website, but I didn’t dare to rummage there - all the same, nothing is clear.
But then Ukrainian craftsmen who are developing a service for these trackers are doing a good job - they have everything in a more understandable language. Including the manual.
The dimensions are very compact - a little more than the Zippo lighter; tracker easily fits in your fist. Weight with battery less than 100 grams.
The front side of the device is made of glossy black plastic, it has a speaker, a power button and a 5-position “circle” about which a little later.
On the sides you can find the SOS buttons ... Why two identical buttons? It’s true that the alarm signal should not be sent randomly; two buttons must be pressed simultaneously.
On the right, you can connect an external antenna behind the rubber plug, and on the left is a microSD port, where you can additionally record data. The SOS button on the left side is combined with another button - together they are responsible for the volume level.
It’s good that the device’s connectors are protected by rubber plugs - practical. And another nice little thing - holes for attaching the lace.
The back cover is almost matte and there is a latch on one of its ends:
Inside there is a 750mAh lithium-ion battery - given that there are no color displays, wifi and other goodies, one charge lasts almost a day for transmitting GPS data.
Under the battery there is an IMEI code and a SIM card slot, thanks to which data will be sent to the network and which will open access to other interesting functions.
Despite the fact that some examples of the use of the device were presented on the site, I didn’t even have a thought to “attach” the tracker to a child, a cat or grandmother - first of all I wanted to beat the script ... with the car. Recently I did a review of the rather expensive MINI Cooper S , on which it was decided to try out the spy stuff.
Imagine - you bought a car, and in the cabin you still imposed the installation of an alarm system, even the most incredible one, with "satellite tracking". A dishonest employee of the cabin (or insurer) reports to the side all the information about the car and the security system, which greatly facilitates the hijackers work. They leave in your car, take over the full-time system, not even suspecting that ... without violating any guarantees, interfering with the design of the car, or without other troubles, you put your little “plug-in)) This can be done within a minute after leaving the passenger compartment, no one informing. No, upon arrival to a quiet place, it will not be difficult for the craftsmen to find the tracker, turn it off and throw it in the window, but all the information will already be in the network.
The minicar has a nice bonus in the luggage compartment - there was a second “cigarette lighter” inconspicuously hidden in which you can stick anything (for example, an inverter or a pump) - it was a sin not to stick the charging from the device there; The tracker itself was hidden in a small cutout designed for a first-aid kit. As a result, almost nothing betrayed the presence of an extraneous device, while the tracker itself became completely self-powered (excluding the Internet). Pale, yes, but it is unlikely that the hijackers will first climb under the hood or in the trunk - of course, they will leave first, and only then ... But the whole charm is that you can leave behind in hot pursuit of your car yourself and right away, don’t waiting for slow workers in the alarm service - unless, of course, the GPS signal of the tracker is muffled. In general, the whole script for the film, but as it turned out,
In the case of me, I left 700 km from Moscow, in the legendary city of Uryupinsk, in the Volgograd Region. The trip was about 8 hours - all this time the tracker silently worked autonomously in the glove compartment (given that the device can work autonomously up to 20 hours, you could find a car not only in Uryupinsk, but also in a more distant sub-Moscow region, for example, somewhere in Yekaterinburg or even Omsk). Without noise and dust, the tracker “burned” our route with fairly high accuracy - at least in some places the trajectory of our movement coincided to a meter. But that's better than nothing at all, right?
There are some inaccuracies along the track itself - perhaps this is due to the speed and the fact that the tracker was hidden in the interior of the cabin (this can be solved by installing an external antenna). When the tracker was in your pocket, the signal was transmitted much more accurately, as evidenced by the trajectory of movement in the park:
Or another “test” - I asked a friend to drive away in any direction (with the tracker in the glove compartment) and stop. Armed with a netbook and an egg from an iota, I found a cunning and contented face in neighboring yards - after 10 minutes, walking on foot.
All these are screenshots of the map in GoogleMaps, where the tracker can export its data in a couple of clicks. If you wish, you can independently see the route . Everything is convenient and very visual - almost like in movies :)
Here is a video for clarity:
If you throw away all the bad thoughts, then this device can still come in handy. For cyclists (remembering the route and sharing it with friends), for photographers (overlay geo-data on photos), just for travelers ... but there are many. And, of course, to control children and older people who periodically tickle their nerves - as you can see, the tracker will greatly facilitate their search. The only strange thing is that the kit does not include any case with a carbine or something else - now the only reliable option is to put the device in your pocket with a zipper.
As for the other functions, in my opinion, less useful.
On board the device there is a slot for a microSD card - there, if you insert a card, the tracker will write the GPS data that it sends to the server. It is useful if the SIM card runs out of network access money - the data will not be lost, later it can be exported to the system. For a thousand kilometers, the tracker recorded data at 48kb and another 500kb of some kind of system data, such as “Fasten your belt, send data to the server!”.
There are 4 buttons on the front - to them in the admin panel of the tracker you can bind 4 numbers for an “emergency”. By pressing two SOS buttons at the same time, an SMS with the coordinates of the tracker (street, home address) is sent to the phone first on the SOS list, and at the same time a voice call is sent. Incoming calls are accompanied by a funny ringtone.
In addition to SMS, you can call preset phones - just press the desired button and click OK. For conversation, there is an external speaker, volume control buttons, and even a connector for a wired headset - it is hidden on top behind a rubber plug.
There is a small undocumented ability to fine-tune the device. So, for example, one of the commands (they are sent by SMS) allows you to make sure that every time a connection is lost, the tracker does not start a new GPRS session - this will lead to good money savings, and the operator will not round off the smallest session until the numbers are favorable to him (in this case, the tracker has a cache so that the data does not disappear). After a trip to Uryupinsk and back, the balance on the SIM card amounted to 191.48 rubles - when buying a SIM card (Megaphone Login), I put 200 rubles on it with a margin.
As for the web interface, it is good enough. The map on which the path of the selected tracker is applied (there may be several registered trackers on the account).
Above is a menu with various settings.
The time and coordinates of movement are shown on the right - you can select any period of time and see the trajectory for this period. All coordinates can be exported to GoogleMaps.
If desired, you can set “green zones”, upon exiting from which (or upon entering which) the tracker will send an alarm SMS message to the phone specified in the settings.
Very cool in general. I thought that everything would be much more deplorable, but it turned out that it works the way I imagined it to myself.
General specification
- GSM 900/1800/1900
- GPRS class 12
- Built-in GSM and GPS antenna
- Sensitivity: -159 dBm
- Replaceable, rechargeable battery 750 mA / h Li-Ion
- GPS + GSM / GPRS total operating time up to 5.5 hours
- GPS standby time up to 8.5 hours
- Size: 88.5 mm x 40 mm x 19.95 mm
- Weight: without battery 57g / with battery 72g
- Working conditions: from -10 ° C to + 50 ° C
- Mini USB port for charging the
GPS battery
- GPS chipset: SiRF Star III
- Channels: 20
- Sensitivity: -159 dBm in tracking mode
- Update: 0.1 sec., average
- Hot start: 1 sec., average
- Cold start: 42 seconds, average
- Cold start (AGPS): 8 seconds, average
Pros and cons
Package
contents Compact size, low weight
Good assembly, rubber plugs
GPS and GRPS modules in one bottle; MicroSD slot.
Decent battery life.
SOS function and smart stuffing.
Convenient and functional WEB interface.
Only 10 free SMS every month; if you need more, you have to pay.
No lanyard included.
Price The
price is quite biting - about $ 245. Whether the “protected” object is worth this money - let everyone decide for himself.
Is it a bad tracker or a good one, I don’t know - at least because it’s the first GPS tracker that I have tested and I don’t know what its competitors have. But I liked it. And in my opinion, this “toy” beats its value one hundred percent - in addition to the main task (which the tracker does very well), there are many different non-core chips that may also be useful to someone. Small size and weight, practical housing, long battery life and good service - all in order to provide all possible assistance in problems that can happen to any of us.
I foresee comments like “ On such things like $ 5 with delivery ” - happy owners, please unsubscribe if there is at least export to GoogleMaps;)
Thank you for your attention.
Good luck!
However, such “spy things” were always of interest, which could very well find application in our everyday life. Are there devices like in the movies? I offer my new review.
The hero of today's review cannot be called spyware - it can easily betray itself at least in size, not to mention the explicit GPS inscription on the case. However, you won’t understand right away that this is actually - if they hadn’t told me, then I would have been lost even in my wildest guesses.
It's about the GPS tracker MamaGPS . The manufacturer’s website provides examples of the use of the device - for children , the elderly and for pets . I will not pull the cat by the tail and list its main features, according to the documentation:
- Determining the location at any time
- Viewing the location, speed at any time on GoogleMaps
- View the history of movements on the map
- 4 channels for voice communication
- SOS signal transmission
- Information transfer both by SMS and E-mail (in the format "street, house")
- Message about exceeding the set speed
- Message on entry / exit outside a certain territory
- Managing the service on a personal page on the Internet
Inside the box is the tracker itself, charging from the network and from the cigarette lighter of the car, as well as USB-miniUSB wiring - unfortunately, there is no software disk, not even instructions. The fact is that the roots of the device grow from the Netherlands, where the existence of Russia is not even suspected. Therefore, maybe the manual is meant to be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website, but I didn’t dare to rummage there - all the same, nothing is clear.
But then Ukrainian craftsmen who are developing a service for these trackers are doing a good job - they have everything in a more understandable language. Including the manual.
Appearance
The dimensions are very compact - a little more than the Zippo lighter; tracker easily fits in your fist. Weight with battery less than 100 grams.
The front side of the device is made of glossy black plastic, it has a speaker, a power button and a 5-position “circle” about which a little later.
On the sides you can find the SOS buttons ... Why two identical buttons? It’s true that the alarm signal should not be sent randomly; two buttons must be pressed simultaneously.
On the right, you can connect an external antenna behind the rubber plug, and on the left is a microSD port, where you can additionally record data. The SOS button on the left side is combined with another button - together they are responsible for the volume level.
It’s good that the device’s connectors are protected by rubber plugs - practical. And another nice little thing - holes for attaching the lace.
The back cover is almost matte and there is a latch on one of its ends:
Inside there is a 750mAh lithium-ion battery - given that there are no color displays, wifi and other goodies, one charge lasts almost a day for transmitting GPS data.
Under the battery there is an IMEI code and a SIM card slot, thanks to which data will be sent to the network and which will open access to other interesting functions.
Inclusion and work
Despite the fact that some examples of the use of the device were presented on the site, I didn’t even have a thought to “attach” the tracker to a child, a cat or grandmother - first of all I wanted to beat the script ... with the car. Recently I did a review of the rather expensive MINI Cooper S , on which it was decided to try out the spy stuff.
Imagine - you bought a car, and in the cabin you still imposed the installation of an alarm system, even the most incredible one, with "satellite tracking". A dishonest employee of the cabin (or insurer) reports to the side all the information about the car and the security system, which greatly facilitates the hijackers work. They leave in your car, take over the full-time system, not even suspecting that ... without violating any guarantees, interfering with the design of the car, or without other troubles, you put your little “plug-in)) This can be done within a minute after leaving the passenger compartment, no one informing. No, upon arrival to a quiet place, it will not be difficult for the craftsmen to find the tracker, turn it off and throw it in the window, but all the information will already be in the network.
The minicar has a nice bonus in the luggage compartment - there was a second “cigarette lighter” inconspicuously hidden in which you can stick anything (for example, an inverter or a pump) - it was a sin not to stick the charging from the device there; The tracker itself was hidden in a small cutout designed for a first-aid kit. As a result, almost nothing betrayed the presence of an extraneous device, while the tracker itself became completely self-powered (excluding the Internet). Pale, yes, but it is unlikely that the hijackers will first climb under the hood or in the trunk - of course, they will leave first, and only then ... But the whole charm is that you can leave behind in hot pursuit of your car yourself and right away, don’t waiting for slow workers in the alarm service - unless, of course, the GPS signal of the tracker is muffled. In general, the whole script for the film, but as it turned out,
In the case of me, I left 700 km from Moscow, in the legendary city of Uryupinsk, in the Volgograd Region. The trip was about 8 hours - all this time the tracker silently worked autonomously in the glove compartment (given that the device can work autonomously up to 20 hours, you could find a car not only in Uryupinsk, but also in a more distant sub-Moscow region, for example, somewhere in Yekaterinburg or even Omsk). Without noise and dust, the tracker “burned” our route with fairly high accuracy - at least in some places the trajectory of our movement coincided to a meter. But that's better than nothing at all, right?
There are some inaccuracies along the track itself - perhaps this is due to the speed and the fact that the tracker was hidden in the interior of the cabin (this can be solved by installing an external antenna). When the tracker was in your pocket, the signal was transmitted much more accurately, as evidenced by the trajectory of movement in the park:
Or another “test” - I asked a friend to drive away in any direction (with the tracker in the glove compartment) and stop. Armed with a netbook and an egg from an iota, I found a cunning and contented face in neighboring yards - after 10 minutes, walking on foot.
All these are screenshots of the map in GoogleMaps, where the tracker can export its data in a couple of clicks. If you wish, you can independently see the route . Everything is convenient and very visual - almost like in movies :)
Here is a video for clarity:
If you throw away all the bad thoughts, then this device can still come in handy. For cyclists (remembering the route and sharing it with friends), for photographers (overlay geo-data on photos), just for travelers ... but there are many. And, of course, to control children and older people who periodically tickle their nerves - as you can see, the tracker will greatly facilitate their search. The only strange thing is that the kit does not include any case with a carbine or something else - now the only reliable option is to put the device in your pocket with a zipper.
As for the other functions, in my opinion, less useful.
On board the device there is a slot for a microSD card - there, if you insert a card, the tracker will write the GPS data that it sends to the server. It is useful if the SIM card runs out of network access money - the data will not be lost, later it can be exported to the system. For a thousand kilometers, the tracker recorded data at 48kb and another 500kb of some kind of system data, such as “Fasten your belt, send data to the server!”.
There are 4 buttons on the front - to them in the admin panel of the tracker you can bind 4 numbers for an “emergency”. By pressing two SOS buttons at the same time, an SMS with the coordinates of the tracker (street, home address) is sent to the phone first on the SOS list, and at the same time a voice call is sent. Incoming calls are accompanied by a funny ringtone.
In addition to SMS, you can call preset phones - just press the desired button and click OK. For conversation, there is an external speaker, volume control buttons, and even a connector for a wired headset - it is hidden on top behind a rubber plug.
There is a small undocumented ability to fine-tune the device. So, for example, one of the commands (they are sent by SMS) allows you to make sure that every time a connection is lost, the tracker does not start a new GPRS session - this will lead to good money savings, and the operator will not round off the smallest session until the numbers are favorable to him (in this case, the tracker has a cache so that the data does not disappear). After a trip to Uryupinsk and back, the balance on the SIM card amounted to 191.48 rubles - when buying a SIM card (Megaphone Login), I put 200 rubles on it with a margin.
As for the web interface, it is good enough. The map on which the path of the selected tracker is applied (there may be several registered trackers on the account).
Above is a menu with various settings.
The time and coordinates of movement are shown on the right - you can select any period of time and see the trajectory for this period. All coordinates can be exported to GoogleMaps.
If desired, you can set “green zones”, upon exiting from which (or upon entering which) the tracker will send an alarm SMS message to the phone specified in the settings.
Very cool in general. I thought that everything would be much more deplorable, but it turned out that it works the way I imagined it to myself.
Specifications
General specification
- GSM 900/1800/1900
- GPRS class 12
- Built-in GSM and GPS antenna
- Sensitivity: -159 dBm
- Replaceable, rechargeable battery 750 mA / h Li-Ion
- GPS + GSM / GPRS total operating time up to 5.5 hours
- GPS standby time up to 8.5 hours
- Size: 88.5 mm x 40 mm x 19.95 mm
- Weight: without battery 57g / with battery 72g
- Working conditions: from -10 ° C to + 50 ° C
- Mini USB port for charging the
GPS battery
- GPS chipset: SiRF Star III
- Channels: 20
- Sensitivity: -159 dBm in tracking mode
- Update: 0.1 sec., average
- Hot start: 1 sec., average
- Cold start: 42 seconds, average
- Cold start (AGPS): 8 seconds, average
Pros and cons Package contents Compact size, low weight Good assembly, rubber plugs GPS and GRPS modules in one bottle; MicroSD slot. Decent battery life. SOS function and smart stuffing. Convenient and functional WEB interface. Only 10 free SMS every month; if you need more, you have to pay. No lanyard included. Price The price is quite biting - about $ 245. Whether the “protected” object is worth this money - let everyone decide for himself.
The end
Is it a bad tracker or a good one, I don’t know - at least because it’s the first GPS tracker that I have tested and I don’t know what its competitors have. But I liked it. And in my opinion, this “toy” beats its value one hundred percent - in addition to the main task (which the tracker does very well), there are many different non-core chips that may also be useful to someone. Small size and weight, practical housing, long battery life and good service - all in order to provide all possible assistance in problems that can happen to any of us.
I foresee comments like “ On such things like $ 5 with delivery ” - happy owners, please unsubscribe if there is at least export to GoogleMaps;)
Thank you for your attention.
Good luck!