TRAAKiT - How It Works

The Concept

The concept is straightforward. The TRAAKiT Service keeps watch over whatever you want, (well almost whatever you want), and we alert you when the situation changes.

To help explain, let us call whatever you want us to watch your ‘prized possession’ whether it be your business asset, your personal possession or your friend or family. You decide the boundaries where you want your ‘prized possession’ to be and tell us. We set up an Invisible Fence on our servers and we then watch your ‘prized possession’ periodically. If your ‘prized possession’ strays outside the Invisible Fence, then we let you know. You set the parameters and we take care of the rest.

The Technology

The TRAAKiT Service uses tried and proven technology. The TRAAKiT monitor houses a Global Positioning (GPS) module and a GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) module. The GPS module talks to the GPS satellites that orbit the earth and, using clever mathematics, calculates its position based upon information it receives from the satellites.

The GPRS module connects the TRAAKiT monitor to the mobile telephone networks and enables the TRAAKiT monitor to talk to our servers that host the TRAAKiT Service.

An Overview of how the TRAAKiT Service works

You attach the TRAAKiT monitor to your ‘prized possession’ and decide the boundaries that you want your ‘prized possession’ to stay within. Once you set these boundaries on your PC, we create an Invisible Fence in our servers and pass the information to the TRAAKiT monitor.

The TRAAKiT monitor sleeps for periods of time, but wakes up at preset times. It also includes some movement sensors that are set to trigger on movement of your ‘prized possession’. The effect of the trigger is to wake up the TRAAKiT monitor ahead of schedule.

When awake, the TRAAKiT monitor calculates its position, compares it to the Invisible Fence and sends it to our servers, which plot it on map.

If the position is within the Invisible Fence, the TRAAKiT monitor goes back to sleep and the host computer plots the position on the map.

If the position is outside the Invisible Fence, our servers send you and your nominated contacts a text message and an email advising you of this. You then decide what to do - ignore it, call the Police, go and look yourself, or whatever else you choose. Our involvement is limited to continuing to let you know where the TRAAKiT monitor attached to your ‘prized possession’ is by keeping it awake and sending its position to our servers. You can then see where it is going and take appropriate action.

You can also ask the TRAAKiT monitor to report its position at any time.

In addition to telling you when you ‘prized possession’ has left the Invisible Fence, we also alert you when the battery needs recharging and when it is about to die. You can recharge the battery by connecting either the mains charger or the in-car charger that are supplied with the TRAAKiT monitor.

Commanding the TRAAKiT Service via your PC

You use your PC to:

defining and allocating the people to whom alerts are to be sent

You can set up a library of Invisible Fences so when you come to assign an Invisible Fence to the TRAAKiT monitor you can choose from your library or, in you prefer, create a custom Invisible Fence. Creating Invisible Fences is easy but you do need access to your PC. You click your cursor to the top left corner of where you want your Invisible Fence to start and you drag your cursor across the screen to the bottom right corner of where you want your Invisible Fence to end.

allocating a name and a picture of your choice to the TRAAKiT monitor

Each TRAAKiT monitor comes with a default name and picture to identify it. It is easy to change these. You can assign a name of your choice to the TRAAKiT monitor and you can upload your own picture or symbol to depict the TRAAKiT monitor.

viewing the history of where the TRAAKiT monitor has been

You can see where your TRAAKiT monitor has been over the past 6 months in windows of up to 5 days. This can be displayed either as positions on the map or in a report that includes additional data on the performance of the TRAAKiT monitor. The Report also can be downloaded as a csv file.

choosing which operating setting is needed at any time

You will need to choose how you wish your TRAAKiT monitor to work. We have defined two main operating settings that enable you to balance regularity of reporting with battery life. We have named these settings:

Sleep	where the TRAAKiT monitor wakes once per day or if moved. The TRAAKiT monitor talks to our host computer when it wakes on schedule or if woken on movement and it is outside the Invisible Fence. These are the only times that settings can be changed.
Snooze	This setting is similar to Sleep but the host computer can talk to the TRAAKiT monitor at any time. It does not have to wait for the TRAAKiT monitor to be awake.

The expected battery life for these scenarios ranges from over two weeks to over 4 weeks depending upon which settings you choose.

We have also defined a special setting for ‘prized possessions’ that are in use on estates or farms where the movement sensor is deactivated but the TRAAKiT monitor wakes on an hourly basis and we have also defined two additional operating settings that are used when the TRAAKiT monitor is out on hire.

asking the TRAAKiT monitor ‘Where are you now?’

You can also ask the TRAAKiT monitor to report its position at any time.

defining and allocating the Invisible Fences

You can set up a library of Invisible Fences so when you come to assign an Invisible Fence to the TRAAKiT monitor you can choose from your library or, in you prefer, create a custom Invisible Fence. You can have as many Invisible Fences in your library as you like but only one allocated to the TRAAKiT monitor at any time.

Creating Invisible Fences is easy. You click your cursor to the top left corner of where you want your Invisible Fence to start and you drag your cursor across the screen to the bottom right corner of where you want your Invisible Fence to end. Alternatively, you simply set an automatic Invisible Fence of 100m by 100m around the TRAAKiT monitor’s current position.

Once you have made your selections, your TRAAKiT Service is ready to start. You are not tied to what you have chosen. You can change the settings at any time.

Commanding the TRAAKiT Service via your Mobile Phone

Once you have set up the TRAAKiT monitor via the PC, you can also command it by using your mobile phone.

	setting an automatic Invisible Fence You can send us a simple text message and our servers will set an automatic Invisible Fence of 100m by 100m around the TRAAKiT monitor’s current position.
	asking the TRAAKiT monitor ‘Where are you now?’ You can send us a simple text message and our servers will reply with the TRAAKiT monitor’s current position together with a URL which will allow you to see the position on your phone, provided that you have a mobile that allows you access to the internet.

Only Contacts can use these functions as our servers will only accept commands from mobiles phones that are registered with the TRAAKiT monitor.

Getting Started in 3 Easy Steps

Once you have received your TRAAKiT monitor, you can launch your TRAAKiT Service in three easy steps.

Step 1 - Charge you TRAAKiT

charge your TRAAKiT monitor over night;

Step 2 – Customise Your TRAAKiT

when your TRAAKiT is fully charged, log in to your account on the TRAAKiT website www.traakit.co.uk - which you will have created when you ordered your TRAAKiT;
enter the Tracking Site – there is a link for you to do this.
give your TRAAKiT a name – this is important if you want to use your mobile phone to command your TRAAKiT. You can also change the symbol to one of your choice.
allocate your Contacts to receive alerts. These Contacts will also be able to command the TRAAKiT via their mobile phone.

Step 3 – Test Your TRAAKiT Is Working

set an Invisible Fence – we teach you how to do this
take your TRAAKiT outside the Invisible Fence, and wait until you receive a text message saying that your TRAAKiT is outside the Invisible Fence
bring the TRAAKiT back inside the Invisible Fence and rearm it by selecting the Reset button.

Your TRAAKiT Service is now operational.