Looking forward something I can hang on keys that, if I lost them, I can locate. BT not what I’m after as if I lose them it’s unlikely to be home. I used to work in telematics so have reasonable understanding of what’s needed but they all demand some kind of power. Had a quick look at pet ones, think they’d do the job, but the sales bullshit is hard to cut thru and can’t really tell if it’s long range BT Really
The better tags use Community Find. If you lose the item then the phone app allows another’s phone to anonymously locate the item. If you use Apple then you have all iPhones to locate it. The limiting factor is range but the proliferation of iPhones out there is to your advantage. BT is the way to go because of battery life. A true GPS tracker would need a GSM data connection and thus a power supply. It would be bulkier than a BT tag.
I’m sure you already know this but true GPS tracking requires a GPS receiver and mobile connectivity - some devices use gprs data and others send regular SMS giving location updates. Power is the issue here as anything portable enough to be a keychain isn’t big enough to package the required electronics and a battery with a decent life. There are pet and child trackers out there that purport to do the job which often require an expensive subscription but if you read the reviews you will find the battery life is so short that people soon get fed up. You literally need to charge them every day. It’s not quite the same as proper GPS but the most practical solution is a Bluetooth finder with an app that records the location that it loses connectivity with the device - the idea being is that if you return to that location you should be able to reconnect to the device and then set off an alarm to help you zero in on it. https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-key-finders,review-2657.html
I have bought some Airtags for this purpose, and so far so good. I am overseas and can track my rucksack locally if it goes missing, and also my bikes/caravan have one hidden just incase something happens with them..
