Unlike cars, bikes are difficult to track if they are stolen. If you don’t mind putting in the work, Instructables user stbennet shows you how to build your own tracking system with an Arduino.
The system here costs about $US225, so it’s really only worth it if you have a nicer bike. That said, it’s pretty easy to build using an Arduino, a GSM shield, a GPS system and a handful of other components. The whole system is strapped and locked to the bottom of the saddle. Of course, if the thief has any brains, they could remove it pretty easily to disable the tracking, but chances are it will take a little while before they figure that out, because it looks like a boring toolkit. And make sure your bike is locked up properly. Head over to Instructables for the full guide.
DIY GPS Tracked Bike Lock [Instructables]
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One response to “Build An Arduino-Powered DIY Tracking System To Track A Stolen Bike”
I did the same thing with a second-hand $25 android phone, a cheap external battery pack (6000mah from memory), free phone tracking app (preyproject) and a prepay sim.
The phone can be very underpowered and half broken as long as it turns on and gps/3g work, so total cost was about $50 plus the ongoing sim charges. I weatherproofed it with a ziplock bag. It goes at least a couple of weeks between charges.
Things to do one day:
-Mount it in a more secure way, since the last thing I need is to lose it mid-transit
-inductive charging. At the moment I have a 30c usb cable poking out of the bag to charge with, if I could just slap a pad onto the side of the bag it’d make things a bit easier and the whole setup slightly more weatherproof.