Tracking Devices

[bloke]

BINGO !

No insurance company could locate anyone - other than me - who could do the particular sh!t that I've done to my instruments - to make them play the particular ways that they play - other than me...

...and I do NOT wish to go through all of that _ _ _-_ _ _ _ed sh!t again (with all of those instruments - or even with any one of them).

Insurance companies are about "money and how little of it, so we can move on".
That is NOT what my instruments are "about", to ME.

[retiredtuba]

My apologies if an AirTag hiding place suggestion is too late, but I'm new to the forum and just now reading the posts. An idea that occurred to me is to take advantage of the screw-on cap on the bottom of the rotary valves. It would not be difficult to duplicate the cap using a 3D printer and increase the depth enough to accommodate an AirTag. The bottom cap serves primarily to protect the disk that retains the valve body and is the lower bearing.

When the valve is serviced, there's a central cone shaped bump at the center that serves to register the bottom when the top valve stem is tapped to seat the unit after reassembly. It would be necessary to use the original bottom cap for that purpose whenever the valve is serviced, then remove and replace it with the appropriately painted plastic 3D replica with an AirTag.

I haven't actually tried this, but I will try to find time to work out a printable design in my CAD program and print it on my 3D FDM printer.

[bloke]

EDIT:
I should have read the recently-contributed post, because my idea is too similar to it to be worthy of posting.

I have several very talented machine shop owning friends who could make a tricky double rotor cap to substitute for one of the caps on each of my instruments, but it wouldn’t be cheap – even though they are my “buddies“.

Obviously, they wouldn’t be interchangeable.
Otherwise, nickel silver round threaded-lid boxes could be neatly lead-soldered to various rotor caps - the obvious obstacles (though not insurmountable) being the humps in the centers of the instruments’ own caps.

[the elephant]

I would not try to make a single-piece, extended rotor cap, whether plastic or metal. The AirTag would come into contact with the bearing. This would be a bad thing. The AirTag is aluminum or stainless on one side and plastic on the other. Contact between the raw brass bearing and the plastic will cause the valve to drag — a lot — and contact with metal could trigger galvanic corrosion. If that happens, the metal cover would be eaten through fairly fast and there is a watch battery on the other side, and no one wants a battery to leak onto our spendy tuba…

Also, the cap would have to be gigantic for the AirTag to fit.

I like Joe's idea about making a "box" to mount to a rear cap, though.

Here is a video where I take a look at the idea of a single-piece cap that houses the AT inside with the bearing. Uh, my cat was a distraction, but this was the best of three tries. Sorry…

[the elephant]

My life experience with stolen horns has shown that if you hide some identifying marks on a horn and it is stolen by a non-musician there is a good chance they will not find the marks. If it is stolen by a musician you likely will not be able to outsmart them with hidden marks as they will figure out where to look.

I think that a simpler and much less expensive way to mount one of these to a horn would be to make a two-piece cage for the AT that does not advertise what it is. Hide it in plain sight.

I want to make a cage with a base that is a ring from round rod stock that has four bosses silver soldered to it, and two half-round, curved "feet" each silver soldered to a pair of those bosses. These could be curved to fit the space where this base could be soft soldered to the horn. The cage would be "tall" enough to only contact the bell or bottom bow along the two narrow feet of the cage, so the cage would not create a big dead spot on the horn.

The bosses and feet could be masked off and the ring sprayed with Plasti-Dip to insulate and protect the AT.

The top would be a reverse of the base, except that the holes in the bosses would be non-threaded. The two would be held together with four hex-head cap bolts that use a 2 mm Allen key.

Something could be used to cover the AT to hide what it is. You could even put a plate over the ring to do that. Or a sort of stamped cap could be fashioned and fit over the ring, like a large coke bottle cap (without the crimpings on the edge). Again, if a musician robs you you are screwed, most likely, as they will know if something is not right with the horn. So why bother to make such an elaborate (and expensive) ruse as a false rotor cap? What I am suggesting here is likely to fool a non-musician, and will only be discovered by a musician thief a few minutes faster than a false cap.

I will post another video later outlining what I am describing with some drawings and such.

Keep up the discussion. I am sure this is nothing but good for us as a community. Thieves suck.

[bloke]

I posted the link to your video on the International Tuba Thieves fb page.

So far, it has 476 likes.

Another idea might be to place a Jimbo "dummy tuba" in the back seat that has some internet de+0n@+e-able expl0$!ve$ located past the bottom bow - along with one of your little disks. Once you determined where it was (and that the thief was located away from other people and others' property), it could be "activated".

[the elephant]

I have actually had a tuba stolen, and it was a financial disaster for me that took years to overcome. Just sayin'…

[bloke]

Theft isn't a laughing matter...

...My sarcasm demonstrated how I ACTUALLY feel about (today's equivalent of) horse thieves -
who all deserve a not-pc style of public execution, in my view.

=================================

this:
What the hell are people thinking who pick any color of bag other than black?
WHEN they find that they're stuck - and MUST put their huge instrument in their CAR in plain sight, which is going to show up (through mildly-tinted or heavily-tinted glass more easily?
- black
- anything else

I would LOVE to have some sort of main slide secretly-threaded round emblem that could contain one of those devices...

[bloke]

Once again (sorry), what is the o.d. of that tracking device, please?

[the elephant]

They are 32 x 8 millimeters @ 11 grams.

[kingrob76]

Because of this thread I bought an Apple Air Tag and had it placed into a vehicle I was having shipped via trailer from Orlando to Northern VA, roughly 850 miles. I mailed from VA to FL first, however, so it made a round trip.

It worked flawlessly. Whenever it was in range of a suitable Apple device I could see where it was in real time. I saw the breaks in the drive up, I saw the driver park at house on Thanksgiving Day (a known stopover). I was disappointed to see my vehicle progress up 95N without issue - part of me was hoping it ended up in Haiti or something. Said car will be driven by my teenager, so I can now track his phone AND his car. Peace of mind in the 21st Century I suppose, especially for a new driver. If anyone had any doubts about the effectiveness of these devices, well, just know that for ME it's been settled.

[York-aholic]

Because of this thread I bought an Apple Air Tag and had it placed into a vehicle I was having shipped via trailer from Orlando to Northern VA, roughly 850 miles. I mailed from VA to FL first, however, so it made a round trip.

It worked flawlessly. Whenever it was in range of a suitable Apple device I could see where it was in real time. I saw the breaks in the drive up, I saw the driver park at house on Thanksgiving Day (a known stopover). I was disappointed to see my vehicle progress up 95N without issue - part of me was hoping it ended up in Haiti or something. Said car will be driven by my teenager, so I can now track his phone AND his car. Peace of mind in the 21st Century I suppose, especially for a new driver. If anyone had any doubts about the effectiveness of these devices, well, just know that for ME it's been settled.

Yep, an AirTag worked perfectly for me to Greyhound ship a tuba from SoCal to NJ and to keep tabs on another horn to make the same trip back (with a totally different Greyhound route).

[Mark]

I still think the best idea is a trombone-style, hollow, weighted slide brace.

[bloke]

They are 32 x 8 millimeters @ 11 grams.

...then it might-or-might-not fit into that solid-silver antique pillbox, which could become to ornate center of a main slide brace assembly.

...but a similar nickel silver pillbox (with a friction-fit lid and no hinge) could be fabricated and incorporated into such a brace.

Line the inside back or front with a circle of shirt cardboard (re: possible concerns regarding the metal side of the device) and it would be go-ready.

One of three hidden-back-in-the-woods machine shops (within ten minutes of blokeplace) could fab up a box-full of those out of 1/1-2" nickel silver round bar-stock, and even include round indentations (9 and 3 o'clock) to help with brazing on the brace parts.

...as to engraving them...well...what other than this...??

ACME.jpg (50.61 KiB) Viewed 864 times

[tofu]

.

[the elephant]

I ain't no movie star, sho nuff.

[bloke]

@the elephant

Is this one smaller?
Is it any good?

' seems to take a wafer battery.

' seems to be $40...

https://www.ninerate.com/products/aceta ... wallet-etc

[the elephant]

I am no expert at this stuff. I have never seen these. I have four AirTags and one Tile that is flat like a credit card and lives in my wallet in a special compartment that hides it. If a pickpocket takes my wallet I do not want them to know I am hunting them like a deer.

Because I won't be calling the cops in such a case.



Outside of the Apple and Tile "ecosystems" I have no knowledge or experience. I *do* know that AirTags are four for a C-note or $29 each.

clicky

[the elephant]

Time for a big BUMP back into The Stream…

A fellow user has contacted me and we are working on this. He is experienced with 3-D printing and came up with a design based on some of the ongoing conversation that I started about these back when I first bought them.

I am not sure he wants me to reveal his name, so I will allow him to chime in if he chooses.

He made a nice set, then contacted me and we discussed them. He very kindly sent me a set and I am testing them out for him. I suggested one change that he liked enough to jump on right away. I managed to include one example of this version with the full set of four of the originals.

I like these.

They have some issues, but that is why you prototype things. He wants to make the plans available for free, but knowing how this community is not all that into 3-D printing, I am suggesting he make them on demand and sell them for whatever he deems to be appropriate to those here who just want one and do not want to invest in the technology. Note that the technology to print in good quality metal has been around for some years now but is very expensive. I am working on a way to incorporate the set screw (for myself, since so many here dislike them) and will look at machining one of nickel silver on my lathe — if I ever locate a usable tailstock for it. Or I may take it to a pro for that. Alternately, if I can draw up very precise plans using dimensions for metal (much thinner walls, etc.) I might see what Miraphone would charge me to make ten or 12 of them (with the pattern on the back, knurling, etc.). Then I can sell the ones I don't need to help offset the cost of having them made.

The fit is excellent. The AT is very snug in the case but comes out using my fingertip and some fiddling. There is no rattling. I will start to test it out on my tubas soon to see if the signal will penetrate the metal, the bag, the car, and/or the concert hall walls, and show up in the "Find My" app.

Again, I like these caps. I will see whether the maker is willing to come in here and discuss them with us.







This *IS* plastic, so it must be overly thick to be durable, and these threads are an issue as the sharp metal on the cap wants very badly to cross-thread, which in plastic will ruin the threads very quickly. But so far this is quite promising. Barring signal interference, I can use this right now on my horns as all use Miraphone rotors with the same size cap.

[bloke]

Is the preliminary idea to stick four (or more of them) on there (so everything appears uniform), or just one (assuming that thieves are dumb, and lack attention to detail) ?

I like it.

Most of my regularly-used instruments sport at least one rotary valve, and - if anyone steals my comp. E-flat or euphonium - the joke's on them.

point of order:
In particular, Miraphone rotor bearings had best be dressed down to actually fit, unless prototype II accommodates a way to install the those stop-gap center screws below the tracking device.

bloke "My Plan B would be to get @Schlepporello to tape one down (around the corner, in the bottom bow) with duct tape...so as to offer both tracking and improved 3rd partial intonation."