TKSTAR GPS Tracker Review
The TKSTAR Real Time
Vehicle GPS tracker is a
powerful vehicle tracking
solution for keeping an eye on
your fleet and assets. We've
reviewed the product and the
results are in. Find out why
investors are turning to this
innovative device.
Driving around has never
been so convenient. With
mobile apps and even
dedicated connected cars, technology has made it easier than
ever to stay connected to your vehicles, office furniture, and
more.
However, there is still a huge drawback to using these connected
EV products. The hitch? They are expensive to buy and could
add hundreds of dollars to the cost of your vehicle in an
unfamiliar yet expensive location. Another drawback, these
products are not accurate enough to let you know if your car is
ok.
In order to solve these issues, companies are now turning to
trackers that can be mounted literally anywhere on the vehicle to
provide the same functionality. Examples include the TKSTAR
GT-81W connected car GPS tracker. This innovative product
shows how battlefield-relevant technology has started to trickle
into the home.

To develop this unique product,
my team and I analyzed over 40
different smart products from
startups, big players, all-in-ones,
and legacy brands. Based on our
findings, we determined the
magic combination that has
successfully evolved into the
TKSTAR tracked vehicle tracker.
True to its name and design, the
TKSTAR GT-81W is an
exploration in functional
expansion. According to Harpreet
Singh, Co-Founder and
Managing Director at Spatialtech,
an Israeli company offering
connected location solutions,
“GT-81W brings to the market a
sophisticated Bluetooth Low
Energy (BLE) equipped camera
which allows you to monitor your undivided attention. It provides
a comprehensive solution to track your personal vehicle with
everything included — your camera, vehicle data, and routes.”
With a simple twist of the thumbscrew, you can connect your GT-
81W to your smartphone over USB. Designed to work out of the
box, the device not only manages to connect to your smartphone
but allows you to conveniently search and store any vehicle data
it acquires. Within seconds of connecting, information such as
the previous time and location of your vehicle are displayed on
the touchscreen for you to view and manage. It is important to
note that when records are searched, you do not necessarily
need to locate it yourself. With GPS on board, if you can’t find it,
it will send a notification.

You only need to swipe down on the screen to display icons for
Traversal Mode, Vehicle Info, Start/Stop, Numeric Display, and
Show My Dashboard. The dashboard display lets you view your
driving stats such as speed, time, distance, etc. It also contains
an editable battery level meter for you to check the current
remaining battery life. If your battery is low or depleted, it will
slowly drain until it reaches 50% or more.
Short for TikTok Star Trek
Tricorder, the TKSTAR
device is an Arduino
based device that can
stream real-time GPS
data from its onboard
sensors to the Dashcam
platform on iOS or
Android. The data
appears on your mobile
device in real-time as a
RevPAR stream, which
can be analyzed to help
you track your fleet or an
asset.
I was introduced to the
product while on
assignment for a 360 video project. Using the real-time tracking
feature, the Dashcam team was able to place an RC car within a
container, stream the vehicle’s video file directly to RevPAR, and
link that data to local FAA RFID data and location.
While the software sits on the Dashcam, you can install the
device using the included SDK. Installs are simple and just
require downloading some files and adding the device to your
dashboard.

Next, you’ll have to download a required tool from the Dashcam
website. This will allow you to start recording, but once the
stream starts it will start to drop frames. This is expected
behavior which is involved with how the communication between
the Arduino and GPS modules works.
Once you have an app up and running in your mobile device,
simply locate the device on your dashboard and click the Start
streaming button. Many app developers have created Dashcam
streamer based apps that are iOS or Android apps with different
looking user interfaces, but the interface is the same.
As you can see in the picture above, the first time you start
streaming data, you won’t see data streaming directly from the
unit itself. Dashcam does its best to attempt to stream from the
unit itself, but it may not be able to get enough data nor keep up
as the compass unit travels around your house. That is until now,
as you can see from the second image, there is a blue cylinder
that will begin to appear and slowly drift to the right before finally
disappearing. This is the CICD module — the central chip that
the Dashcam uses to communicate. On its own, the unit will
explicitly state that there is no data streaming, but it starts to
come through when your app starts streaming. After the CICD
starts streaming, you can begin to see frames as the vehicle
moves. Many apps will prompt you to update the CICD if it isn’t
displaying a valid frame, but this simple solution is a cheaper
alternative to an active Zigbee network.
As it stops drifting to the right, the CICD starts to fill the screen
with data indicating that the Stream input signal has been
received.
TKSTAR is a company best known for tracking smartphones. Its
technology manages fleets of autonomous electric vehicles and
mobile robots for various industrial applications, allowing owners
to monitor what’s happening with their vehicles from a distance.

The company’s vehicles use the same hardware, software, and
cloud services as smartphones, allowing you to use the same
product on your fleet. You can even use the TKSTAR tracker on
your own fleet, or client’s miles away.
There are other vehicle products on the market for tracking
applications, like the popular Towstar. The Triang’s technology is
similar to that of TKSTAR. But it also ships with a base station,
allowing you to monitor a fleet from the comfort of your own
vehicle. Another competitor in the GPS tracking space is the
Open Control wireless system, which has similar features, and is
more expensive.
Rather than focus on its clients’ fleets, Teal Space acquired the
bankrupt Kivy Inc in 2017. The acquisition ramped up TKSTAR’s
ability to serve industry clients and expand worldwide. Databank
reports that the company now has 700 clients.
A few major challenges exist in effectively using TKSTAR. One is
consistency. How do you ensure that the device is always
sending the correct information? Two, tracking multiple vehicles
at the same time is a challenge. And that becomes challenging if
you want to verify alerts in real-time. A service like Crowdstrike
makes it possible to store data as comes in, but those are only
available in a limited number of data centers around the world,
and aren’t always available on-demand.
You can’t control when the industry partners need your
information, and the GPS and battery technology in a
smartphone might not be available when you need it.
Fleets come in many flavors. Some fleets are managed by an
app on a smartphone, a mobile operator, or your internet
provider. Others are directly managed by a fleet management
company or by a manufacturer.

Most fleets also have fleet managers, who might have a specific
region where they manage their fleet. Depending on your
location, you might need a different set of services. GPS isn’t
available everywhere, and it also isn’t installed on every car in a
fleet. Waiting for an update is expensive and is often the
bottleneck stopping fleet owners from using their devices to track
and manage vehicles in real-time.
Similarly, there are various ways fleet managers can manage
alerts in real-time. There’s the standard Intermodes facility the
majority of fleets have. This is just like sending SMS messages
to alert the fleet of an impending situation. Another option is a
long-delayed _CONSOL alerts telematics feature used for
industrial applications.