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I've never used them so not sure if they'd work for this. Back story.
I'm a serial key loser/misplacer. Usually somewhere in or around the house. We have a detached garage/workshop/office and I lost the bunch of keys to it about a week ago. I turned the house upside down looking for them to no avail. Mrs Bloke V unimpressed. She runs a small business and all her stock lives in there.
We have a spare set thankfully, but knowing what I'm like, Mrs B warned me to be exceptionally careful with them until we can get some more cut.
She's out working today. I used them to get my bike out and go for a lovely ride. I got back early afternoon, full of joie de vivre after a nice sunny cycle, coffee and cake. When I went to the put the bike away, I couldn't find them. The only remaining set of keys. I am in deep shit!
After a increasingly frantic and panicked search I just found the original set I lost a week ago (back of sofa) but not the spares. So I am now in slightly shallower doo doo and wondering if she will notice that these are not the same keys. Whether or not to tell her is a moral conundrum I am yet to resolve.
How good are the tags? Good enough to precisely locate lost keys? There are only 2 of us and 2 (android) phones in the house. We are very rural with no near neighbours and a not particularly good mobile signal. Our phones are set for WiFi calling at home if that makes a difference.
We use apple tags and find them effective and helpful. Especially my wife. Can't comment on different brands etc.
You can make them beep so long as the signal works etc (which seems a bit flaky at times, but we've not had any complete failures).
Similar to "find my phone" etc
Just FYI: there's a relatively new Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology which some "new" phones have which allows a very precise location to be found for tags. So, this would (possibly) help in items-down-the-back-of-the-sofa scenario...
I need to investigate further myself as MrsVlad is forever "misplacing" her keys/phone/glasses/purse/etc....
(Oh. And as far away I am aware, these tags use Bluetooth so phone signal or Wi-Fi are irrelevant in your scenarios)
Add something big, bright and shiny as the key fob, half a number plate works well.
Tell her that you've found the original set, there isn't a need to comment on the spares 😜
Found them! After another solid 40 mins of searching since the others turned up. She's not home yet. Much harrumphing and lose-shaming avoided. I'm actually in credit now in the find/lose stakes. Deep joy.
Seems I'd put them in the little Faraday cage box thingy where the car keys live. I never, ever put them in there and I've absolutely no idea why I did this time 🤷♂️
Will tags help me find the plot? I seem to have misplaced that too.
I'm definitely going to get some tags.
I have Life360 Pro tags in my keys and wallet. Around £20 each. Works fine on my Samsung A25. Pings them from the phone and the tag rings. Also work to find phone. Press button on tag and phone rings.
Also shows map location but I have no idea whether it needs an Android phone with the Life360 app installed to do this. For finding keys in the house though - great.
Seems I'd put them in the little Faraday cage box thingy where the car keys live. I never, ever put them in there and I've absolutely no idea why I did this time
Why not just adopt that as "the key place" and always put your keys there?
Why not just adopt that as "the key place" and always put your keys there?
That's an option. They normally live in a drawer near the back door.
I use the Samsung Tags and they work for me, including finding my car key when it was in the bottom of my mtb backpack, not in the usual pocket with the red clip .. .. for keys 🤷♂️
Edit: I have an old cheap Samsung A series phone.
If it's around the house you tend to misplace them, you might be better going old school and getting one of those keyrings that beeps when you whistle.
Turns out they're still a thing. 😊
I use Air Tags for this purpose. They work extremely well. In fact No 1 Skipperlet lost the AirTag out of his rucksack but not the rucksack (the irony is not lost) and we managed to find it. Someone had picked it up on the off chance we would track it which we did. She was literally delighted when we knocked on her door. Came to the door with it in her hand and I could see it getting closer in the app..🤣 They have a “lost mode” feature whereby you can get it to display a phone number if someone presents a phone to it as well.
Perfect scenario for tracking tags. If you have a relatively recent Samsung phone go for the Samsung Smartag 2, if not Ugreen do some android ones that are usb-c rechargeable.
Thanks all, some useful info. I've just ordered a 4 pack of the Life360 tags.
Is it still the case that the Android ones are much less effective if lost outside Bluetooth range of the phone than the Apple ones?
Two things.
1: this
Why not just adopt that as "the key place" and always put your keys there?
Have a home for things. "I put my keys with my other keys and then couldn't find them" is insane. Doesn't matter where that home is, just choose somewhere and stick to it.
I fitted a hook next to the front door, my thinking was that if someone broke in I'd rather they took the car rather than appeared in the bedroom with weaponry. Both my keys and my partner's now live on that hook and as regular readers will know she's a pathological mentalist for ramming shit randomly in drawers and cupboards.
2: the last time I looked at tags there were two worth a damn. The Apple ones and, randomly, Motorola. Everything else was garbage. Someone ☝ mentioned a new technology, first I've heard of that so might be worth a look also?
UWB is a few years old. iPhone 11 and Pixel 6 pro and subsequent premium models plus some Samsung's
I only mentioned it in case the OP so he can Google to check whether his phone has it...
Pixel 9a x 2. A quick check tells me they don't have UWB.
"I put my keys with my other keys and then couldn't find them" is insane.
I don't want to bore everyone with my domestic arrangements, but it's a little more complex than that.
We have to keep 2 sets of car keys in the Faraday box because a. General security, key cloning concerns and b. We have a Skoda Octavia beset with a host of electrical gremlins. One of which is the radio turning on at random times and flattening the battery if the keys are within 15m, unless they are in the box.
We have LOTS of other keys, which wouldn't fit in the car key box. We do have a key press for most of them but the garage keys, for reasons, live in the aforementioned drawer.
The thing about a place for everything is valid, and I do try, but my brain is not wired like that. I'm fairly easily distracted and misplace stuff. I always have and now being the wrong side of 60 isn't helping.
usb-c rechargeable
Worth noting that if you cannot find the tag once you've set it up, either the battery has gone flat... or you've put your keys in the Faraday cage again!
Worth noting that if you cannot find the tag once you've set it up, either the battery has gone flat... or you've put your keys in the Faraday cage again!
😂
Just FYI: there's a relatively new Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology which some "new" phones have which allows a very precise location to be found for tags
Not relevant for you, but for iFolk (how cheesy is that?), I think that only real Apple AirTags have UWB, not the myriad of 3rd party ones that are advertised on my social media feeds.
I'm fairly easily distracted and misplace stuff. I always have and now being the wrong side of 60 isn't helping.
I’ve got that T shirt, when I can find it 🤔
Get a bigger box? How many keys do you really need?
Your security concerns are misplaced because a) if someone is going to be that bothered about an Octy then they are going to steal it regardless and an overpriced box isn't going to dissuade them one jot, and b) if it's that unfixably wonky then it needs stealing anyway, you'll be better off.
Worth noting that if you cannot find the tag once you've set it up, either the battery has gone flat... or you've put your keys in the Faraday cage again!
Also, this. If you're hiding your keys in a Faraday Cage then wireless solutions aren't going to work because that's what a Faraday Cage does.
I think my OP has been answered, keys located and tags purchased. Attempts to help organise my home security and other aspects of my shambolic life are noted, but this will become a long and very weird thread if we continue down that road.
Side note. I fessed up about the whole loss/find saga. It started with "good news, I found the lost keys" which is where I'd hoped to leave it, but clearly I was giving off sheepish vibes as I got the "and....." look. So I spilled my guts. I got away lightly with a "what are you like". I'd be rubbish in a proper interrogation. They'd never shut me up.
I have the Apple version, but I've found the ugreen versions to also be pretty good. They do Android versions too
I used to lose my wallet, usually pay with watch/phone and the actual wallet is tiny so I wouldn't realise it's in my pocket when I take shorts/trousers off, or I'd put it in a bag pocket and forget. I put the wallet tracker in which is slightly thicker than a credit card, has really helped. Also have tags on my Brompton and airport luggage, works well
I am exceptionally forgetful and so is my partner ("I don't know where they keys are you must have put them somewhere" .. ring on the app, ah yes, in her coat pocket), the bluetooth trackers work well for us.
Once out of bluetooth range they can still be useful if you know roughly where you dropped them. it only takes on person to go near them and it'll ping and you can and find it with your bluetooth to do the last bit of finding.
You could put more than one tracker on there if you lose them often outside the house. Might be cheaper than new set of keys or even replacing all locks on the car!
I wish I could put a tracker on my glasses !
Seems I'd put them in the little Faraday cage box thingy where the car keys live. I never, ever put them in there and I've absolutely no idea why I did this time
Will tags help me find the plot? I seem to have misplaced that too.
Not if you put them in a box designed to prevent wireless signals from being transmitted.
I was forever misplacing my car keys; I’d come home from work, be greeted by Jo, we’d then have a conversation about how our days had been, I’d go and change, we’d have dinner, etc, then the following morning I wouldn’t be able to find my car keys because I’d absent mindedly put them down somewhere and couldn’t recall where!
Both sets now have an AirTag in an Elevation Labs fob attached, although now I’m not working and being on my own I rarely put them anywhere I can’t find them!
Whoops, double post.
I wish I could put a tracker on my glasses !
Get yourself a cheap 2nd pair to help find the lost pair, that's what I did.
Get yourself a cheap 2nd pair to help find the lost pair, that's what I did.
Doesn't work. I buy them in bulk from Amazon, distribute them all over the house, garage, etc.
I have a pair in my riding kit, because I'd struggle to change a puncture or read my phone screen without. A pair in each of 2 cars and a pair in my motorbike tank bag.
I still manage to lose or break them. Or my wife borrows them and doesn't put them back.
Those are reading glasses. I also have distance glasses for driving, TV etc. I lose those too. Keys have got no bloody chance!
