Using the G3X as a Tracker

Hello,

Thinking of security of my aircraft avionics and thought of the possibility of the G3X with its inbuilt GPS to be used as a tracker if the unit was stolen.

The idea is that if the G3X unit is stolen and whenever the unit is powered up by the NEW owner it's location would be available to the ACTUAL owner.

Sounds simple to me - but what mod or addition would be required?

Any comments would be most welcome.

John

Hate to have to ask this... but WHY?

Thats what insurance is for. Let them and the police worry about tracking it down.

not to mention

Not to mention you would likely void any warranties by messing with it...

Oh, and why, again?

Interesting idea, but the architecture/design of the G3X would have to be changed.

There's no mechanism to get the unit ID/serial # to the outside world. There is no functionality to handle the broadcast of the data, and nothing currently that listens for this data.

You have to hope that Garmin can flag the unit so in case that it gets registered for a database update after it's gone missing someone will call the cops...

It would be good to track it...

The attitude, why should I secure my valuables? It is the insurance companies problem- is one of the reasons insurance costs what it does. I applaud John?s effort, though doubt it?s practicality without Garmin leading the effort.

Early on I asked uAvionics to talk about what keeps their 30 min install ads-b beacons from becoming a 2 min theft. I was impressed with the answer. Iirc, the buyer can set up a unique password for programming changes. Without that password, it is a brick to a thief and it sounded like they had a system in place to avoid helping a stolen unit become usable.

I don?t know much about the G3X, but if it had a burned in MAC address, and had to provide that to get updated software and/or nav data say over a WiFi link in the hangar, it isn?t hard to imagine Garmin knowing where it is or has been recently. Worth putting it in as a request, imo.