GPS bike tracker

cornelius blackfoot A problem I can see is that I think the two original (ebay) gps units weren't real time units, they record information and download it to your computer. If your bike was stolen, how would you get the info from the unit to yourself, computer/pda/mobile to find out where it was? Who would run the service? would it be automated? would you have to flag the fact that your bike had been stolen before you could track where it was? or where it was going?

yes, it needs to actually send out a signal so that something else can receive it and know where the device is.
Stop me if I'm wrong but a GPS unit knows where it is, but the GPS satellites don't know where each GPS receiver is.

We already carry devices that can be tracked externally - the phone companies know where our mobiles are all the time they're on. If you could jam some mobile phone innards in the seat tube, that ought to do it. You could program it to power up and connect to the network every hour or whatever to conserve power. You could have a special number you could call to make it detonate the high explosives in the... (sorry, just my exploding criminals obsession again.)

... just thought - getting a signal inside a metal tube might be bit tricky! Would need to turn the whole frame into an aerial.