the kid Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 We have got a bunch of usb keys, and as with most usb keys they are crazy expensive, they go to various locations and are not personal items. What do people do for tracking small tiny things like these. I have seen the bluetooth tracker things they look good but its a case of someone hitting the item if it gets lost, not actually TRACKING it. I was thinking a GPS thing, or similar but does anyone have a good experience of any?. The alternative is attaching the key to an 8x4 , hard to handle but it wont get lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 We attach them to a plastic key ring tag and they're barcoded in our asset management system. Not perfect but works kinda... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Edwards Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 You are probably going to have to look at the car tracking market for something that is active with GPS. IIRC there is one of the bluetooth ones that can ping gps back but it relies on crowd tracking. i.e. if someone else using their service is near your tracker with their phone on, it will be picked up by the system. A good idea in principal but probably only works in very high population areas like NYC or similar... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurzweil_dude Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 https://www.thetileapp.com/ Not used it personally, but heard good things Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddproduction Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 The car/bike gps trackers have several drawbacks:1) They use a lot of power, so you'll need a bulky & heavy battery attached (for this application it would need to be on / in low power mode at all times).2) They also need a sim card, so you'll be paying for credit.3) They need a reasonable line of sight to the sky, and become rather useless indoors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the kid Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 You are probably going to have to look at the car tracking market for something that is active with GPS. IIRC there is one of the bluetooth ones that can ping gps back but it relies on crowd tracking. i.e. if someone else using their service is near your tracker with their phone on, it will be picked up by the system. A good idea in principal but probably only works in very high population areas like NYC or similar... https://www.thetileapp.com/ Not used it personally, but heard good things Tile is what I think I have seen in a few places. This was my thought, how many people have the app and are going to be in bluetooth range at a venue. I might be wrong. Having the items barcoded is fine its more... there will be a point (as I found not THAT long ago) where someone lost a key, no one has a clue where it could be, this key was / is the size of a logitec dongle so freaking TINY. It may have been left on a case and dropped, maybe it ended up in a pocket, maybe a client forgot to return it. In this case I would almost rather have a small something that means it is -A) seen B) easy to not forget Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave m Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 There are pet trackers that only need a charge once a week.But as said, they are really intended for outdoor use, my theatre is effectively a faraday cage and I can't. Get a signal on my phone unless I am in one specific spot, near the roof. So I imagine that any tracker would be blocked ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Oh for Logitech clicker dongles we heatshrink the dongle to a 1m usb extension and label the heck outta it. Makes it look less like a flash drive. Then clicker and Cable travel in a baby pelican case. or hot glue to a hub- anythjng to make it less pocketable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djw1981 Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 sailing people have giant ###### balls so their boat keys float. It doesnlt helo with tracking but may help make them easier to find in the 'is it in flight case or not' scenarios. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the kid Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 Oh for Logitech clicker dongles we heatshrink the dongle to a 1m usb extension and label the heck outta it. Makes it look less like a flash drive. Then clicker and Cable travel in a baby pelican case. or hot glue to a hub- anythjng to make it less pocketable That is a great idea actually. A 1 - 2 m USB in a colour would be good. I was thinking about hotglue but it seemed a bit risky if something else failed. - Not QUITE the same but I did have someone mastic cables in to a sounddesk to stop people fiddling with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave m Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 A ball ###### is used on a lot of boats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Hot glue is easy as pie to remove. Squirt with canned isopropyl alcohol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the kid Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 Using a ball male chicken would be good as well. However I can see that at some point a key will end up in a place where its at the front of a venue or something where having a massive ball male chicken is not going to be great. Thus I have a ball male chicken and no key. ###### Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallumP93 Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Wouldn't deal with people stealing items, but what about mounting in a project box of some kind with the Neutrik D size reversible USB A- B? It would give you a USB B to plug a cable into between dongle and PC reducing the strain on the dongles' USB port plus gives you an easier way to label the unit with company branding etc. Shouldn't cost more than £6 or 7 a unit to knock up! Going further you could fit security screws etc to make it harder to remove the dongle from the box if anyone was to ever take a unit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 RFID tags are available in several ranges with several detectors. You could attach an RFID tag then look for it with a hand held scanner. BigClive has some ideas on tracking on his youtube channel I'm amazed that 1TB flash drives are available -just think how much data you could lose at once! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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