{"id":12679,"date":"2024-03-13T01:27:28","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T01:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ben.akrin.com\/?p=12679"},"modified":"2024-03-13T01:27:28","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T01:27:28","slug":"quiet-airtags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ben.akrin.com\/?p=12679","title":{"rendered":"Quiet Airtags"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I didn’t post several years ago about the GPSes I installed on our farm vehicles. It felt like painting a target on my back. It took quite a bit of figuring out to set up Particle.io<\/a>‘s early asset trackers. They’ve since created a dedicated preprogrammed and well polished device, seeing an opportunity in the success of the early hobbyist version I suppose. I never posted my setup, code, or experience but let’s just say it worked well for a few years, for very cheap. Unfortunately, the 2G network they relied on was eventually retired, and that forced me reconsider options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And well, an obvious contender these days are Airtags. I bought a few for testing, and they quickly became the obvious choice. I replaced bulky cellular GPSes with them and folded them into home monitoring. Watching for geofences, battery status, and last contact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While I can’t wire them directly to the vehicle’s battery, their battery does seem to last a good year (Vermont winters wear them down faster). And they come with several huge advantages over GPSes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n