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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

ALERT! Please read.

I think that the new idea of you "actually" being in control of your goods as per the iPhone Find my Phone program has shown is a wonderful thing. Insurance is lovely, it calms the fear and exchnages it with the knowledge that someone else can replace it.

What I see in the new technology of personalised GPS tracking is that maybe, just maybe, within minutes or at worst, hours, you couuld have located your goods. Get the local police onto it and problem solved.

They may be novel news stories, but within 1 year of the option being available on the iPhone, news stories were abound of the average joe tracking his/her property within an a few yards.

With the impending release of RED's Scarlet models, putting serious equipment into the rooms and houses of indie film crusaders, such as myself :), the added reassurance that I have ways of tracking my equipment would be an added bonus to the lock and key on my house.
 
Wade Cordts said:
Being that the EPIC is a modular system... why not design a gps tracking module that would lock onto the camera between the battery pack and camera. Then the users who would want to subscribe to RED's tracking service could do so for a monthly fee + the cost of the module.
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Wouldn't work! GPS is a one way system so to get the long/lat back to RED you would need a data package to send these details. Yes fair enough but I film out in the middle of nowhere with no mobile phone reception so what would I do?

GPS would not work.

Firmware updates blocking the stolen RED cameras seems like the only good idea, having the camera to update once every 6 months. But this isn’t fool proof either, if the buyer (unknown that this camera is stolen) knows about this feature then he or she will still purchase a stolen product only to find out later than this camera was stolen.

Still its probably the best/cheapest/easiest solution.
 
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David Dwyer said:
Wouldn't work! GPS is a one way system so to get the long/lat back to RED you would need a data package to send these details. Yes fair enough but I film out in the middle of nowhere with no mobile phone reception so what would I do?
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It's not so much where you film but where the camera ends up after it has been stolen..
 
David Dwyer said:
Yes I agree but I'm in the UK on a different network to anyone in the USA, whats happens then? We are on GSM which requires a SIM card. What about CDMA networks?

Its all too messy for RED to do.
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In the USA, AT&T and T-Mobile are on GSM, and use SIM cards.

If you could just hide that new Garmin unit (that's been discussed earlier on this thread) inside a RED module, and let it stay hooked up to the battery, that might work well.

D
 
So far the best systems are multiband no voice cell modules.
It will work in Europe and US, do not have voice capability and it is using only the registration channel on cell networks. It will send its registration number every 1 or 10 minutes or so to the network.

It is similar circuitry that most cellphones have now for 911 locators except that you do not have to use GPS.

Once the module will register with the network, cellphone towers will triangulate the location of the module. Remember you need just to turn your cellphone on without making even single phonecall in order for cellphone company to know where you are located.

Now cellphone companies sell triangulation service access to ‘location operators’ at nominal price.
RED could subscribe to such service and if RED owner will want to be activated for this service RED may keep log of camera movement. There are independent companies that offer these services as well.


Try to turn on your cell and use google maps with disabled GPS.
You will see that google maps will still show your position with 100 (3 towers) or 300 meters accuracy.

Module should have independent chargeable batteries that are recharged each time you connect REDbrick or REDVolt or REDHandle to the main unit. Even small battery will last a few months with module registering every 10 minutes.

Few years ago we had generator stolen during extended city wide power outage with similar module installed. We recovered genset few hours later from the poor farmer that his cows were starving without electricity, and he was in urgent need of one.

Yes, we left the genset till next morning there to give him a chance to “arrange” another one:-)
 
Wade Cordts said:
My macbook pro was stolen twice by two different people. Once from the airport, and once from my house.

I recovered it both times. :)
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Then I would say you are either exceptional... or the exception.:thumbsup:
 
You could put a shortwave transceiver in it, it constantly broadcasts it's GPS coordinates, you just have to tune into the encrypted signal. That way you could track it pretty easily as long as it's relatively close by.

Some kind of radio transmitter or high-powered RFID tag should be cheap/small enough to fit into a module without too much extra expense. You could probably find something that does just this, paint it black, and bolt it on the bottom of your camera before you put it in the case, by the time they figure out what they took and try to do something with it, you'll maybe have been able to tune into it, write down the co-ordinates and give those to the Police.
 
It also goes to show you the power of oversharing on the internet if they know ever bit about what your doing you leave yourself open to theft.

EPICs need LoJack.

a friend mentioned this to me recently. http://pleaserobme.com/

Hope its found soon.
 
Wesley Scoggins said:
You could put a shortwave transceiver in it, it constantly broadcasts it's GPS coordinates, you just have to tune into the encrypted signal. That way you could track it pretty easily as long as it's relatively close by.

Some kind of radio transmitter or high-powered RFID tag should be cheap/small enough to fit into a module without too much extra expense. You could probably find something that does just this, paint it black, and bolt it on the bottom of your camera before you put it in the case, by the time they figure out what they took and try to do something with it, you'll maybe have been able to tune into it, write down the co-ordinates and give those to the Police.
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They already make this. It's called a Breitling watch. They use an emergency signaling mechanism in the watch to find hurt hikers and people in avalanches. From the wikipedia site:

The Breitling Emergency version contains a radio transmitter for civil aviation use which broadcasts on the 121.5 MHz distress frequency and serves as a back-up for ELT-type airborne beacons. (For military users, Breitling has equipped the Emergency with a miniaturized transmitter operating on the 243.0 MHz military frequency.) Under normal conditions—flat terrain or calm seas—the signal can be picked up at a range of up to 90 nautical miles (167 km) by search aircraft flying at 20,000 feet (6,000 m).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breitling
 
There you go. It's already been developed, and small enough to fit inside of a watch. Think of what you could fit inside one the size of a Epic module, make it higher powered with a bigger internal antennae and a GPS unit.

Think about it, how often are thieves going to be rushing to get 100 miles from a robbery right after it's committed? If you're able to tap into it, and give it to the Police they'd be able to follow it long before it gets out of range.
 
Has anyone checked out this service?

PLASA - Missing Equipment List
na.plasa.org
PLASA members and non-members can list missing items on this site and, if you have had any losses, we urge you to do so. Should you encounter equipment of questionable origin you can easily check to see if it appears on the list.
 
GPS based solutions require ability to receive GPS signals, which can be problematic for receivers that are indoors, particularly where multiple floors or metal roofs are involved. The cell triangulation approach provides varying amounts of accuracy but in my recent tests was only reliable to ca. half a km. The computer lojack approach uses IP address reporting, so if you can locate a wireless network and ping a central server that might work, but you have to be able to access the network, or force the camera to be connected to the Internet at some point. Remote deactivation might be an option, where a small pager receiver listens for a command to disable the camera. An APRS type approach with transmit and receive of messages on the commercial radio frequencies (can't use amateur frequencies for commercial use) to provide a triangulation signal similar to radio based lojack might work. Just be careful not to introduce points of failure for a production unit in a remote location.
 
Stephen Williams said:
Hi,

It wont help much if your caught in an avalanche, if your not rescued within 15 minutes, your chnaces of survivel fall very rapidly.
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Right, and they've stopped satellite monitoring of 121.5. The new technology is something along the lines of Spot.
 
two topics that should be off limits in polite conversation is religion and politics....
 
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