Customer Reviews

LandAirSea LAS-1505 Tracking Key Vehicle GPS Tracking System

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I was really suspicious when I went GPS shopping, because I'd heard so many problems about metal blocking signals and so forth. I put the tracking key through all kinds of tests in my van, hiding it upside down under the seat, inside the dash, stashing it back inside the compartment for the jack, surrounding it with metal and pointing it in all different directions (it recommends you keep it upright, but I found it doesn't make a difference, this thing still works perfectly!). It's only disadvantage is that as a data logger, you have to retrieve it before you get the tracking info to download to your computer. The battery lasted me about two weeks of regular driving, though, so it more than compensated. But yeah, as a first time buyer of a tracking device and thorough tester, I was highly impressed. It shows on an overhead map (adjustable to satellite images with Google Earth!) the exact path the vehicle took, or an animated time-clocked journey, showing where it went, how long it stopped, when it took off again. No matter how deeply I hid it in the car, it never lost my signal once. Shop around a little bit to avoid overcharging companies, and you might want to wrap a piece of black electrical tape on the green battery light on the outside of the case for better hiding. Definitely an excellent buy, I'd recommend it to anyone with covert tracking needs.

First, let me identify my goals for this Tracking Key. We run a service business. We have a need to recapture the routes the vehicles have traveled for the day, what stops were made(addresses), how long those stops lasted, and the exact time of the arrivals and departures.

Also, we wanted to view the route on a map to identify instances of getting lost, and have a printed report of the stops and times for the day.

On the first day we clipped this unit under the seat of the car. When we downloaded the data for that day, it only showed 3 of the 6 stops made, and there was no accounting at all for about 3 hours of time.

Thinking it might be a placement issue, the next day we placed it on top of the dash, in plain sight, where the instructions said it would get it's optimum satellite signal. It still took almost 10 minutes to acquire a GPS signal to begin tracking once movement began.

The unit is not sensitive enough to awaken within the first few feet of movement, and takes much too much time to acquire a GPS signal, making it impossible to recapture continuous data.

Other design issues are lack of an on/off switch so the unit is always on, draining the batteries. The manufacturer says the unit goes to low power mode when not moving but see my comment about that feature. Also, to change the batteries, you must remove 4 super small screws. This will lead to stripped screws in short order. There needs to be a latch device instead.

We are sending it back for a refund.

I received this Tracking device 2 weeks ago. I wanted something that was inexpensive and I did not have the need for a subscription based product. I have access to the device daily. I put it inside the vehicle where it does not have metal overhead as indicated for best reception. On one of the reviews I read that the batteries are not lasting but one or two days for the reviewer. My experience over the last two weeks is very different. I am using a cheap alkaline Walgreens brand battery and just changed it today after 13 days. The low battery indicator was not activated but I felt it was time to change it just in case. The Past Track software that comes with it is not the greatest but it works. It also works well with Google Earth. There are a few different settings that can be customized for viewing and individual dates of tracking. As stated by the other review it does not show a brief stop as a listed stop, but once you see it in action it is easy to know if a stop was made. You also know for how long it was even though brief. You can even play a moving diagram of the vehicles movement and watch the clock at the same time. Over all if you need a device that you are able to access for downloading this is the one to get. I did a lot of research and reading for the different passive devices and this one comes out to be the best for the job it does. I have seen the prices are all over the board at retailers and the internet and 199.00 seems the lowest so far. I hope this is helpful to someone.

Although I plan to use this device to keep track of my soon-to-be-driving teenager's whereabouts, my first crack at it was during my own storm chasing activities -- deliberate self-surveillance. Outside our "day" jobs, my wife and I are professional photographers (www.insojourn.com) as well as storm observers, and have desired for years to have a simple and easy way to mark very specifically the locations and times of all our storm intercept activities, as well as our photography stops. This does the trick.

It seems you will need to be still for more than about 5-7 minutes for the output to show a stop, but because of two factors, we still get useful output, even for quick "pull-outs" to photograph a storm under potentially dangerous conditions:

1. High spatial resolution: Pulling safely off the highway, as storm chasers are supposed to do when performing photography, shows up on the tracking at highest (2.5 m) resolution as a knob or bump on the path.

2. High temporal resolution: The raw (.las) log file shows the times and locations, so one can see when one was stopped even for brief "stop-n-shoot-fast" situations.

The same concept can apply if you're monitoring your fleet drivers, and one goes through the liquor store drive-through when on the job. Zoom in far enough in Google-Earth, and you will see his track into that parking lot or off the road. I mag-mounted the tracker to the inner top/back window frame of my sedan, and its reception was almost flawless. I can't speak for its reception when placed in more surreptitious locations in a vehicle; but others here have posted glowing reviews.

My favorite aspect of the LAS Tracker is that its output uploads directly into Google-Earth, so we can use the latter to match all our photo locations to the landmarks around the shoot. A photographer can derive very precise directional and positioning info this way, in combination with the EXIF data from the camera that shows the lens' focal length, to better locate a distant subject, in addition to himself. Outstanding!

LAS Tracker has three minor nuisances, all involving the batteries.

1. One has to unscrew the battery compartment and pull the batteries to turn it on and off. I realize this was designed deliberately, so the subject of surveillance can't just switch it off. [My subject will be threatened with loss of driving privileges if any harm comes to the device, or its signal is interrupted for any reason, whether his fault or not.] But the battery compartment's screws are *tiny*, and therefore, easily fumbled, dropped and lost by someone like me with large hands.

2. The battery compartment is too deep for the batteries, which on rough and shaky roads, may pop loose from the terminals while still within the compartment. I jerry-rigged a solution by folding up a piece of #2 plastic between the compartment door and the battery slots, to hold them in place.

3. Battery life is far below what's advertised. When using Ni-metal hydride (rechargeable) batteries, I had to change them out every day. When I tried to leave them in two days, the batteries (new Energizers, BTW) ran out during the evening of day-2.

I don't use its own mapping software, just Google-Earth. So I can't comment one way or another about the software.

All in all, I do recommend the device, as long as you are willing to change/charge batteries daily, and to build that into your surveillance routine as habit.

This is a great little device. We were looking for a way to easily monitor employees when necessary and have been thoroughly impressed. I can mount it under a vehicle in a few seconds. I've mounted it to the frame, inside a bumper, etc. I was sure the unit would have difficulty getting a signal in many of the places I've tried but this amazing little device seems to work just about anywhere. It has also rained several days that the unit has been mounted under vehicles and it had no effect on performance. I agree with the last review that it would be nice if the gaskets were glued in place but it works great as is.

The LAS software is a little clunky. Maps are very outdated - not showing some major roads in my city that have been there more than 15 years, it would be nice to be able to jump to a specific time within on open file, and when a road has been traveled multiple times, you can't just click on a path as the software just decides on one of the paths rather than the one your curser is over. When trying to follow where they were going on a specific trip, this can be annoying. These are pretty minor annoyances though as the incorporated use of Google Earth remedies the outdated maps and being able to watch the exact paths traveled is great. The reports are informative as well.

In the two weeks we've been testing our unit, it hasn't lost a signal yet unless it's in sleep mode. Once moving it locks on again very quickly. For the price I don't think you could ask for more. I would highly recommend this unit.

Wow. I researched this for a long time and settled on this one. The consistent cons I read were that it has no on/off switch and the software is difficult. Well, true no on off switch, but one of the other reviews had a great idea. you fold over black tape on itself and put it between the battery and contact, then extend the tape outside of the device. When you pull the tape, it turns on. It's helpful to store the device and have it ready to go on a moment's notice. I had a little problem installing the software, but not bad. Just keep restarting the computer till it takes.
Pros are amazing. It realy works well. It has a narative report, a google earth overlay or a city map with a playback feature. You can watch a little car run the route and in the upper left corner of the screen, you see a clock and speedometer. You can tell exactly where the car was, when and how fast it was moving. I have a chevy silverado and tested it under the rear wheelwell. It was surrounded by metal and worked fine. I understand that when the batteries run down, accuracy depletes. I've not run them down yet so I can't attest to that. I'd suggest buying the absolute best AAA batteries you can find to put in it.
I've researched Louisiana law regarding this item. There was infact a GPS tracking law passed in this last session in 2010, but it was for the active type. It speciffically states that it is illegal to place a GPS tracking device on someone else's car that transmits their location. This one is passive and simply records, not transmits. It is completely legal. I'm going to use it on my teens and my drivers at work that take 2 hours to run a very simple route. The device is pretty small and has a very powerful magnet. It locks on very securely. It clearly says it's water resistant but advises to put in a sandwitch bag. I did so and it still sticks very well. It has 2 green lights on the side. One tells you it's operating and the other blinks when it gets satellite lock. The data is stored on your computer under the date it was downloaded. When you click on the saved file, the report options come up. The city map is the best one by far. I don't usually write reviews, let alone this long, but this thing kicks ass. It was incredibly cheap compared to the others and that gave me reason for hesitation, but it pulls it's weight. Perhaps the others work even better, but this one does everything I wanted and more. I would highly recommend it to everyone.

The unit picks up very well, "sensitivity" is better than a (slightly older) military grade GPS. The ACCURACY did float around a little on testing when signal was locked into what is considered a "2D Lock". All & all, it is absolutely amazing for being so small...
And it uses very little current- long runtimes. I just wish it had a switch, but if it did I would probably forget the batteries in it to leak out, so that is not really a con. It works great to know where that darn cat goes at night...

If you have a cat, or a person/vehicle you want to track where it has been, this is for you.

NOTE: Do not mistake this type of unit for a "lowjacking" system wheras you can find out where the unit is at any time. This system ONLY records where it goes, it does not report to anything! So if you put it on a car expecting to find the car when it is stolen- not going to happen... BUT if you ever get the car back, you could find out where the thieves drove it (and how fast!)...
Most systems which offer live tracking have SERVICE costs (monthly charges of some sort, usually data carriers to bring that data to you from the mobile unit.) Albeit this device is slightly more expensive than some of the live-trackers as far as hardware is concerned.
BUT: Why pay for services to find out where your teenager, or cat is at, when you know she's coming home, and you can find out where the pussy(cat) has been roaming when it comes home!!! (hmmm... I just thought of another use for this thing!)

harhar...

Pros: Does a really good job at tracking. Small, can hide just about anywhere. The software is great!
Cons: Likes to feed on Lithium batteries. If the track is important, do not use rechargables. When I used rechargables it showed the tracked vehicles top speed at 103 MPH in a small parking lot. Not as accurate as the mfg claims, but close enough. I'm only talking 100ft or less and the 100ft mark was very rare.

With all of the metal in a car, I don't see why anyone would place this item underneath the car. Seriously, how often do you do a full search of your vehicle. Coupe, place it under the rear deck lid away from any other electrical source. Hatchback, remove the tail light access cover and place it there. There's more line of site in these places than underneath the car.

First let me say that I have used all types of GPS units for almost 10 years, I currently own 3 LAS units including one of the Tracking Keys. I like the units, they work well, they track very well and allthough they are not "live" type units they work great as data loggers. My only grip is the bad software that comes with the units. It is hard to download the data, sometimes it does, sometimes it does not. I use the units on three different computers using Windows XP, but each time it takes numerous attempts to download the data. Once downloaded the tracking data is very good, very accurate. The problem with all three units (all different units) is the bad software! If the company would fix the software they would have a winning combination. Nothing more fustrating than trying over and over to download data.

I have to whole heartedly agree with the last review. I too was careful before selecting a GPS tracking device for the first time and read information on several different products before making a purchase. Considering that identical looking devices received some pretty negative feedback from users, I can only assume that there may be a few if not several devices out there with a nearly identical appearance. In other words, they must not all be created equal despite their look. The device has a durable look and feel. The magnet on the back is quite strong (you'll feel it might be too strong, but that is great!). The only thing to be careful of are the tiny little screws that hold the battery compartment shut. They are tricky, tiny screws and are easy to lose. Despite that, the engineers were smart and made the screw holes such that weather and elements won't be able to find their way into the unit should you lose a screw. There is a very thin rubber gasket to seal the battery compartment as well, but be careful not to lose it! This gasket is very good and seals out elements from the inside parts, but you really need to be sure its in place before sealing the device shut. Thanks to the gasket, it really only takes two screws to hold the compartment tightly shut - and because of the design feature I just pointed out, you don't have to worry about the empty screw holes! There is also another rubber gasket to seal the USB end of the device. My only suggestion to the maker of the unit on this subject would be to glue the gaskets down for us! As it is now, the gaskets can freely pop in and out of their places and you have to be really mindful of this fact when you use it. You do not want to lose a gasket, and believe me, the USB end gasket on mine fell on the floor and I almost missed it. These points are not real complaints however. The gaskets do exactly what they are supposed to and give the unit real weatherproofing. The software included is great also. The first time I imported the data and viewed it on the map, I was impressed. The options they give you to view the map are wonderful. Now I can track my personal driving wherever I go and see exactly how far I have traveled. Now when I figure out my average gas mileage, I have more accurate figures on my distances. God knows every penny counts these days! Also I can compare and find the best and fastest routes wherever I might travel. By comparing past travels, I can tweak my routes and maximize efficiency. I can vouch for the LAS model that it must be the best out of its look-alikes and similar types. I'm glad I picked this one instead of something else. Best of all, the price and service I received from the seller I bought from were great. People are reselling this thing all over the place and if your not careful, you can wind up getting gouged a bit. I hope that this review helped you out!