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We recieve a lot of good questions regarding what COBBLESTONE is and how it works. Below we have answered the most frequent ones. If you don’t find the answer you are looking for, please do not hesitate to use the contact form in the bottom.
A: The best conditions for a COBBLESTONE GPS tracker (and really GPS trackers of any type) is:
We understand that these can be conditions which are hard to meet – but less will do as well. COBBLESTONE GPS tracker will be able to receive and send positions from any angle even with nearby obstacles.
The worst way to install a GPS tracker would be inside, hidden inside a metal container or directly behind a metal plate. It is impossible to receive a GPS fix inside a metal container!
In either case it is worth noting that GPS trackers are developed for outdoor use.
A: When you’ve put in all of the required information regarding your tracker (ID, name and tracking profile) it’s time to shake the unit.
In order to preserve battery power, the unit comes from the factory with a high “accelerometer threshold”. This means that it requires heavy shaking to even register that someone is trying to wake it up from it’s deep, deep sleep. This is done to prevent it from opening by accident during production, transportation and storage, thus conserving energy and battery life. If you struggle to shake it, give it to someone who looks capable.
If that doesn’t work, send us an e-mail.
A: The above mentioned solutions are bluetooth based trackers without actual GPS and they are only able to communicate within 40 meters or so. In other words, if you use a bluetooth based solution and you lose something, you should be within 40 meters to find it. You will not be able to sit at home and receive a position. A bluetooth based tracker has a battery which typically lasts up to one year.
With COBBLESTONE GPS tracker you can (sit at home and receive a location). COBBLESTONE uses GSM and GPS: GSM basically means that it uses a cellular connection (like your phone) and GPS means that it receives positioning data from satellites in space. Think of COBBLESTONE as a cellphone without buttons or screen or microphone or speakers… Finally, COBBLESTONE has a battery which typically will last up to 4 years.
| COBBLESTONE | Bluetooth tracker | |
| GSM (get position at home?) | Yes | No |
| Does it have GPS? | Yes | No |
| Typical battery life | 4 years | 1 year |
A: No. One of the reasons why COBBLESTONE is able to keep it’s battery life if due to the fact that we are using batteries which aren’t rechargeable.
A: No. COBBLESTONE has been ultra sonically welded shut in order to ensure that the unit is water tight. You shouldn’t try to open the unit and you shouldn’t try to change the batteries.
A: “Wait a minute, you just told me that COBBLESTONE is basically a cellphone – why doesn’t it require a subscription?”.
Well, as for why there is no subscription, the answer is simple: no one likes subscriptions (except investors, they really love it). Would you pay to have internet in your shoes? Or in your toaster? Probably not. The “internet of things” has been a long time coming, and as long as companies insist on charging monthly fees, it will still be far, far away.
As to how we are able to do so – that is our secret sauce for you to enjoy.
A: Yes — and no.
Imagine you want to call your best friend – if her phones is turned off you she can’t answer.
You can turn on live tracking directly from our app, but it will only be put in to effect when your COBBLESTONE calls up the server. Battery life is so essential that the tracker is in sleep in between sending positions, and it is only when it is not in sleep that it will be able to switch to live tracking.
So yes, you can ask the tracker to send you regular positions, but it might not do so right away, depending on the profile you have chosen for it. However, once it starts live tracking, it will continue to do so until you ask it to stop – which you should when you locate your unit in order to avoid draining the battery.
A: No, unfortunately we can’t.
Battery life depends entirely on how and where you use your unit as well as weather conditions and temperature. 4 years battery life is the expected life time of a tracker under worst case conditions when using the “1 track / day” profile (exclusively).
The battery life calculation looks at parameters such as “how long will it take to receive a GPS fix?” and “how long will it take for the unit to transmit it’s data” and “what is the absolute maximum current that these component will draw from the battery” and several more. 4 years have been calculated by our battery supplier (in fact it’s not exactly 4 years but closer to 4,2), but it is no guarantee that your unit will last 4 years.
How you use the unit will also influence battery life. If you only want to track objects indoors, then the GPS will struggle to receive a fix far beyond what was calculated in the worst case scenario. If you use the “Movement” profile then battery life depends entirely on how often you move the unit – if you move it once a week it will last longer than if you move it twice a day. If you use live tracking, then the battery will be drained a lot faster than 1 track / day (96 times faster!).
In any dispute regarding battery life, we will be able (with the users consent) to look at the transmission history to asses if the batteries have failed or if the usage history has simply drained the battery in a natural way.
A: Live tracking will take some time to activate depending on which profile you used before triggering live tracking. If you are using the “1 track / week” profile it might take up to 1 week before your unit can switch to live tracking. If you are using the “1 track / day” profile it might take up to 24 hours and if you are using the “Movement” profile, the unit will switch to live tracking 1 hour after the next/current movement .
A: Sure you can share the tracker, but any tracker can only be assigned to 1 user. You will have to share a user in order to do so – which is just fine.
A: No. At the moment this is not possible, and we are not planning to making it possible.