ADVrider.com
There are worse things in life but few are more crushing than discovering your beloved motorbike (or car or bicycle or motorized bar stool) has been stolen by some lowlife you would not hesitate to go full Cobra Kai on if you could just track them down. That terrible sinking feeling has given rise to an entire industry of tracking tech, from OG tracker LoJack to Apple AirTags to those little Tile thingies on Mr. Moto’s kitty collar.
One of the latest entries into the tracking tech market is Invoxia, and the French company has recently begun offering its services in the US, expanding from its markets in the EU. Earlier this year, the company sent me an Invoxia tracker (and an optional $15 watertight soft case) to try out as they were spooling up their US operations. The US version of the device is $129.99 with one year of cellular coverage, or $159.99 with a two-year plan. Re-upping the plan is $39.99 per year at this time. Invoxia also offers a unit that works on the Helium-based LongFi wireless blockchain network, which is in operation in the US and the EU, along with several other countries. That plan includes three years of coverage for $129.99.
Invoxia Overview and Technology
The Invoxia device itself is intentionally innocuous: A small, featureless 4-inch long black plastic bar (top photo) with a lanyard but no display, buttons or other techiness, just a USB micro port for charging. But that’s on point: this is a tech tool you don’t want calling attention to itself when it’s doing its job. Of course, the real magic is inside the mini monolith, which contains motion sensors, a 4G cellular radio, Bluetooth radio and a relatively large battery. It weighs a couple of ounces at most.
The device works through 4G cellular service and the Invoxia GPS smartphone app, naturally, and sends users a notification if your scoot (or whatever it’s attached to) moves while you aren’t nearby. If the user is within Bluetooth range, it can be set to not notify you (unless it moves out of range). You can also set up “no notification zones” (like your home, a secure work parking area, etc.) as well as geofencing for notifications if the vehicle you are tracking goes somewhere you didn’t expect it to, like that big party your teenager said they were absolutely not going to attend. It can also be tracked (and exactly located) at short range using Bluetooth.
Because it has that big battery, the Invoxia tracker can work for months at a time without a charge, depending on how you set it up in the app. The more you have it report in, the more power it requires and vice-versa, but that flexibility is key to its usefulness.
How It Works
You set up the Invoxia tracker with the app, specifying what kind of alerts you wish to receive and how often—from occasional updates if you’re tracking, say, a teen driver, up to nearly real-time tracking if your wheels start rolling away without your permission. Since those settings can be changed on the fly and transmitted over the cellular network, I set it to send notifications only if my Vespa scooter (and later my Royal Enfield INT650) moved while I wasn’t nearby. If it did move, I could then pop it into near real-time mode, called Real Time Boost, which sends location data every 30 seconds when the chase is on. No matter the setting, the Invoxia device discreetly feeds you location data without making a sound or blinking a light. The location, with GPS coordinates, and movement of the device is shown on a GPS map on your phone’s screen, along with salient data points and the battery level of the tracker.
The app can also show if the tracking target is stationary, in motion, and can also display a movement history, both recent or in the past by date. Invoxia really hasn’t missed a trick with their excellent app.
Real-World Use
I downloaded the Invoxia GPS app and set up the test tracker in a few minutes as the app is quite easy to use. I then taped it to the bottom of the underseat cargo carrier on my Vespa (photo below), which are a hot property with thieves these days it seems. The Invoxia GPS app pops a notification if the vehicle is moved in any way, but also if you walk away from it out of Bluetooth range, in which case is sends a “last known position” notice, which is also handy when parking in a big lot.
By the time a thief figures out where and what it is, myself and some law enforcement friends will be in very close proximity. Photo: Bill Roberson
At first I was overwhelmed by the number of notifications I received from the Invoxia GPS app, but after setting some safe zones and more diligently setting up notifications, it would only alert me when my motorbikes (and later, the family car) essentially moved without me in it (or on it).
Fortunately, no one tried to jack my Vespa while I was shooting pool nearby with some outlaw scooter friends, but I did learn the Invoxia device is very sensitive, and if the scooter moved at all, got bumped or tilted in even the slightest way, I instantly got a notification.
Invoxia’s app is easy to use, thankfully. Setting up the tracker is easy and there are many tracking options. Photo: Bill Roberson
While it was in the family car, which my teen is allowed to use, I was able to track his movements without a problem, including some experiments with the Boost mode for near real-time tracking. Because it uses a lot of power, the Real Time Boost setting will revert to your regularly selected mode in 30 minutes if you forget to dial it back. And true to their promise, the Invoxia rarely needed a charge, running for several months while installed in my scooter, motorcycle and car.
Conclusions
The Invoxia device and system absolutely performed as advertised. If anything, it over-delivers in terms of notifications and updates, so be prepared to tweak the settings and set up safe zones so you don’t train yourself to ignore its notifications. Another valuable aspect of the Invoxia device is that it is relatively small and easily hideable, so it’s a snap to move it to another vehicle (or person or ?) as needed since it’s not hardwired to a power supply connection.
Showing the system to a friend, his immediate reaction was “well, what if it gets stolen where there’s no cellular coverage?” Fair enough, but at this point in our world, what are the chances of someone stealing my Vespa (or DR650 or INT650) in an area without cell phone coverage? Answer: Very low, and getting lower. You have to go pretty deep into the hinterlands of the US or Europe to escape cell phone coverage these days, and the Invoxia will keep pinging away until it reconnects, so while that is a valid point, I’d gamble that the incidence of vehicles getting pinched in literal off-grid areas is very low to non-existent, and they’ll likely be back into a coverage area before they realize what that little apparently inert black stick thing is doing, if they even find it all. I’d also wager that the Invoxia will work just fine in 99.9% of the places most buyers interested in this tech are living, so unless your local vehicle theft ring has built themselves a car or bike-sized mobile Faraday cage, you’re going to be able to track them just fine.
Yes, $40 per year is yet another expense to add onto your streaming bill, cell phone bill, car payment, mortgage, gym membership and so on, but really, what’s the value of peace of mind? I’ll happily pay the equivalent of $3.25 a month to be able to track down the dirtbag who stole my ride, track my kid’s adventures or even keep tabs on my forgetful elderly parents’ movements. Seems like a bargain to me. And of note: Pet trackers with biometrics are coming soon from Invoxia.
Highly recommended by this reviewer.
What has your experience with tracker tech been like? Do you have a favorite service or device? Let us know in comments.
The post Invoxia’s GPS Tracker Tracks… Anything, Battery Lasts For Months appeared first on Adventure Rider.
