1agswitchin4lanes said:

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That looks like the factory connector.

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Do you know whether these devices have SIM cards that might be removed/repurposed?

Would be interesting to slam one in a USB modem and download a ton of data

txyaloo said:

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1agswitchin4lanes said:

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That looks like the factory connector.

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Do you know whether these devices have SIM cards that might be removed/repurposed?

Would be interesting to slam one in a USB modem and download a ton of data

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Good question. I'm gonna crack one of these open. Standby.

As we thought, This is basically a cell phone without a screen.

Has a little capacitor /battery too it looks like.

I wonder if you can plug that sim card into a Hotspot and use the data plan its on.

uncover&humpit said:

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I wonder if you can plug that sim card into a Hotspot and use the data plan its on.

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Nope

Capacitor battery... so if a deadbeat unplugs it, they have a few hours to locate the car.

Deadbeat in this case referring to folks who buy at tote the note type lots who expect to be tracked

CanyonAg77 said:

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Capacitor battery... so if a deadbeat unplugs it, they have a few hours to locate the car.

Deadbeat in this case referring to folks who buy at tote the note type lots who expect to be tracked

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Yup. For comparison, here's a Geotab device.

It's apparently on the Verizon network.

txyaloo said:

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1agswitchin4lanes said:

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uncover&humpit said:

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I wonder if you can plug that sim card into a Hotspot and use the data plan its on.

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Nope

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Interesting. Is your iphone carrier unlocked? That message normally pops up when the carrier has locked the device to their network/SIM

I have a feeling that card would work in desktop based modem with the correct APN

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Tell me more.

I tried both iPhone and unlock android

1agswitchin4lanes said:

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uncover&humpit said:

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I wonder if you can plug that sim card into a Hotspot and use the data plan its on.

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Nope

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Oh man, I wish I could run up huge data bills with that sim card and stick the dealer with it.

Quote:

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Except for OnStar on my Silverado so basically the same thing except it's factory.

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So you are paying to be tracked!

1agswitchin4lanes said:

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As we thought, This is basically a cell phone without a screen.

Has a little capacitor /battery too it looks like.

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Mercury Topaz

Mac Haik pushes their "anti-theft" devices. I didn't pay for mine but had the app to monitor it anyway. It ran in sprint network and worked about half the time.

I had geotabs installed in hundreds of vehicles for an oil & gas company. We used the data to monitor seatbelt compliance, speeding, and aggressive driving. More than once we used the geotab data to get us OUT of traffic citations and lawsuits...so the gps data isn't always bad.

I myself used GPS Data to challenge a state trooper that pulled me over for speeding. He was certain he had the right vehicle. I submitted the geotab data to his corporal and received an apology phone call. Upon closer look at the trooper's dash cam, it was the vehicle behind me that was speeding. I could have told them that...

love this thread

The Fife said:

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Would personal dashcam video do the same thing with regards to a ticket since it records your speed?

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Maybe. In my situation, the corporal first tried "well I don't know what the speed source is on your GPS, it could be wrong." With GeoTab, I had GPS speed and ECM speed off the vehicle. I produced both data sets before I received the apology call.

With my oil and gas fleet of vehicles, we found GPS speed to be surprisingly misleading. A split second of GPS loss and then GPS reconnects and the vehicle went further than it thought it should have caused spikes in speed. We found ECM speed to more representative of the driver's behavior. GPS speed was generally unreliable.

I spoke at a safety conference about the work I did with geotab gps in the oil and gas fleet. With the data, we improved seatbelt compliance by 93%. Reduced posted speed violations by 60 something percent. Limited top speeds of vehicles with Ford's MyKey. During the two solid years of carefully studying the data and placing scrutiny on the drivers, there was only 1 legit injury accident in a fleet of 275 light vehicles and 770 heavy vehicles. We did have lawsuit/injury claims from fender benders. In two instances, the Geotab data helped prove our vehicle's speed and impact was either not enough to cause Injury or wasn't were the claimant said the vehicle was at the time of the supposed accident