How to track the movement of their parcels Bashny.Net

An interesting overview of the different ways in which you can keep track of all their movements sending mail.






The idea

To see how moving parcels from abroad in Moscow, more than the official track. To do this, send a device that can communicate their position.

Implementation

You must select a device that can communicate their coordinates on a schedule and having an independent power supply at least a month of such work.

Smartphone

The most obvious solution.
Pros: You can program almost any behavior, for example, to use the precise positioning of satellites to measure the acceleration at the same time, lighting, temperature, so who knows what else, and immediately report to the tweeter.
Cons: no external battery will not live and delivery of international mail and with add-on a lot of weight and attracts attention. And suddenly delayed in transit?

Homemade "smartphone"

What if you take the battery from the notebook (or car, depending on the projected delivery time), GSM-module, ARM-processor, GPS-chip, but to put to the nose of Ivan Kuzmich ... This device has all the advantages of a smartphone, but from minuses only unusual appearance (in the mail you will?) and probable price development and manufacturing. Perhaps it will be the next experiment, and now we have decided to restrict ourselves to a simpler option.

Pros: all the advantages of a smartphone, the long lifetime of the battery, the ability to camouflage, for example, under a brick.
Cons: unusual appearance (whether to accept the mail?) And is likely to price + development time and manufacturing.

It should be noted that in general are reluctant to accept delivery included devices with inserted batteries. While all tablets iPhones and other such devices, and it is.

Special trackers

Same as the previous point, but someone designed and constructed.

Pros: preparing a special device.
Cons: price bites. If the parcel does not reach, it is useless.

UPD: There is an option for less: dx.com/p/168496.

+ Small + Can connect an external source, and will run forever
+ Receive SMS directly referring to Google maps

The best option

How much lower the requirements for the battery capacity? Seldom get in touch (being in a deep sleep most of the trip), and the use of less accurate positioning (on the network, without using satellite GPS / GLONASS).

Pros: geolocation, even within the honeycomb iron wagon or hangar unavailable for GPS, long-term work at a small battery. Cons: low positioning accuracy in comparison with GPS, a low frequency measurements.

And this device does not attract too much attention, there is!

On your marks!

The table found a "camp" phone Philips E102, honored for a long time does not work, but meets all requirements: Ultra-Capacity battery at 650mA * h, the ability to work with a SIM card and turn on or off up to four times a day on a schedule. This key feature rarely found in the description of the device.

Mode is selected, two session a day for fifteen minutes (with a margin on the search network.) If a mobile phone in standby five working days, then one might expect a maximum of 48 times greater, or eight months. These figures will be different due to poor reception, the costs of inclusion and the search network, the possible frosts, as well as self-discharge of the battery (according to Wikipedia about 3% per month). In general, there was a good chance that the battery will last for time path.

In preparation for the launch of the phone, it was dismantled and resuscitated - it was cleaned contacts the power button, which is oxidized and did not give him included.

If the phone was able to write in the logs the LAC and Cell ID to connect to then process and obtain the location of cells by their identifiers, then it would be a grandfather we could build a map of movements after arrival (if that happens). Phone do not know how, and it was decided to use an external service to monitor its location. Yes, and tracking in-line adds interest.

At the station was bought SIM card, which is added to the trusted list of MTS find another number from which happened tracking. MTS-locator is able to determine the location of the subscriber schedule - something that is necessary for this project! The only negative effect the service only in Russia, so the overseas part of the path to follow will not work.



Just before sending the phone charged and checked silent on and off schedule twice a day. Also included are the most economical mode. All settings:

inclusion at 7:50 and 19:50
off at 8:05 and 20:05
lowest ringer volume level, vibration-free
the minimum brightness of the screen
backlight time - five seconds
disabled sounds greeting

Unmask the phone in an opaque box could only come nevovremya SMS or call (assuming that the enemy can not pelengovat us on the radio). This phone model is not able to disable all signals remains or vibration, or melody, but there are several ways:

Administrative: include a ban SMS and incoming operator pofigistichno submit without disconnecting signals, and that was done Normal: upload on wap silent mp3 or midi signal zhelezyachnye: unsolder the vibrate mode or pull the speaker (at this Philips he did not soldered and can be easily removed during disassembly)

One day (hereinafter - Day 1) in a resort town telephone was packed in a box, postal workers to the request to remove the battery received assurances that it is turned off (the truth) and empty (not true), and sent by airmail to Moscow.

Travel

Arrival in Sheremetyevo

Three days after sending the package disappeared from the Ukrainian tracking (s vіdpravlene mіstsya mіzhnarodnogo Poshtova obmіnu mezhі Ukraine for Ukraine. Dyakuєmo scho skoristalis our Hotel), and soon appeared on the radar!



After posting the Kazan railway station was on the grading in the south of Moscow (Moscow, the intersection of Rd. And Warsaw Street. Road, District of st.m.Yuzhnaya geokodingu MTS). From there, she would finally head to the right post office, but the postman, it seems, on the way to sleep in the subway:

Day 40 Location South
43 South
44 Altufievo
45 Altufievo
46 South
47 South

In each place there were at least five points, so that the error does not. Moreover, both places are in the official track: 111948 Moscow MSP-3-Mpko North and 111,987 SMEs Moscow-3 Mpko-South.

Arrived!

On the morning of the forty-eighth day of long-awaited event happened, parcel left the South and came to the place of delivery. For the purity of the experiment, we waited for the notification (bringing the delivery time of 50 days before the anniversary) and got the Steadfast Tin Soldier:



During the way to send almost flew over the bar code, so that the woman on the issue had to drive his hands. Seeing the end of the UA, she chuckled and said, "Ukraine ..." So began a dialogue about how it was that was sending airmail almost 2 months. The woman said that thanks should be primarily the recent changes in the customs, which now can not cope with the flow of parcels and they are orderly travel to distant cities, there to lie in warehouses waiting for customs to go through customs, and then in most cases, return back to Moscow.

Some statistics: the phone spent 48 days on the road, having more than seven thousand kilometers of the necessary 1300km with an average speed of no less than six kilometers per hour. True, if you count 48 days to 1,300 kilometers, generally 1.3 km / h.





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