About

The project idea comes from this Video Game Console Tracker created by Wayne Truchsess. It has moved from an Arduino DIY system to a crowd funding project for a dedicated hardware on a single board.

The idea is to hide a motion detector linked to a GPS and a SMS sender into an empty video game console shell case. If any thief try to get away with your fake precious, you will be alarmed and the vilain will be tracked.

Both projects hardware is composed of a GPS receiver, a GSM module, an accelerometer, a microcontroller, an USB battery charger, and other chips stuff. As you can see, all theses components are typically found in any smartphone, especially in Android smartphones. You can buy this kind of phone for a cheap price now. I found a used Sony Ericsson XPeria X8 for 35 € (about $50) running Android 1.6.

How does it work ?

Just run the ThiefTracker app. Then send text messages to control the device. Here is the command list (case insensitive) :

• forReal {on|off} : switch from/to debug mode
• config : send back the current configuration
• call {phone number} : call back this number (useful if you want to hear what's happening around the device)
• HeartBeat url {address} : set the heartbeat url. The ?deviceId=... parameter will be added.
• HeartBeat period {nb seconds}
• HeartBeat start
• HeartBeat stop
• Preference phone1 {value}
• Preference phone2 {value}
• MotionDetection start
• MotionDetection stop
• MotionDetection sensitivity {value}
• MotionDetection delayBeforeReset {nb seconds} : when a movement is detected, the motion detector does not react until the device has stopped to move. After nb seconds it will be ready to react again.
• Location quick
• Location accurate
• Location startTracking
• Location stopTracking
• Alarm start
• Alarm stop