Lojack for Calculators?

Question

So I go to a school that tends to have a lot of theft, and i need a really expensive calculator for a class, but I am a little apprehensive about taking it, anyone know of some calculator lojack?

Answer 1

Don't I wish!  My son's $189 calculator he uses for Calculus got stolen mid-school year...we had even engraved his name and driver's license number into it...(cops say to do that, because it if is ever found, they can trace by the #, especially if you put your state abbreviation by it)

Advice I can give:  Never let it out of your sight...keep it in a zip-case, preferably with a keyring or hook attached where you can attach it to the inside of your book bag.  If possible, borrow one from your school so you can keep yours at home only.

Good luck--thieves lurk everywhere...

Answer 2

The operating system can be password protected, but this can be broken because this is an external program and it wont trace the calculator.

Make sure you write down the unit's operating system which is located in the operating system.

Also, embed a transmitter in it.

A key finder will work, especially if its radio coded so that it will not pick up from other systems and other transmitters. You will have to ask around and embed the device inside the calculator....this means you have to taka apart the calculator and take apart the locator. Solder the battery leads of the locator to the calculator's power source, so if the calculator runs out of juice, the thief will just replace the batteries and thus keep powering the transmitter.

Another way is to embed a gps locator in much the same way as the radio transmitter, soldering it to the calculator's power supply....

I found the brick house child locator, which will probably be coded, since its made for finding children and the reader is more intutive then some cheap key finder. I would actually try this first, because the beacons are small enought to easily place inside the calculator....

Make sure you get a soldering station - Weller brand and temperature controlled, tweezers, anti-static band, and oscilloscope with a multimeter and a set of screwdriver, probably torx.

I would actually try the brickhouse solution myself, but I went to a school in the suburbs and plan to send my kids to some private magnet school....

I would also try the PetSafe or Zoombak gps locators.

From the pictures online, the PetSafe:

http://www.backyardstyle.com/shop/index....

Looks like its just a circuit board and a AA battery, which can be implanted in a calculator.

Well, anyways, you will have to get the voltage of the locator, and solder enough resistors to get the calculator's voltage down to the locator's voltage and then solder that to the calculator power supply.

The battery pack will power the calculator and the locator.

It would reduce the calculators battery life, but it will reduce the chance of it getting stolen and get the crooks caught.

The gps locator will obviously track it to the home of the thief, but I would still install a secondary radio locator so you can confront him\her like the brickhouse, which is small enough.

The Ti-89 and 84 have casing big enough to house both.....

The brickhouse is about 200, and so the petsafe.....

You may not need an oscilloscope, but you will definitely need a good....$100 multimeter and at least a $100 soldering station from Weller that's temperature controlled. Torx set is about $20. Resistors, solder, flux are about $30. You may need an antistatic bag and electrical tape to mount the circuit boards inside the calculator....and don't forget to test them......

Good luck....o yeah...you will need at least an A in a high school physics class to complete this project...