BATTERY LIFE: How long does the NEW 3BO.mobi tracker last?

More than just a bicycle tracker…

I love a local success story and this looks like one in the making. But first things first: What is the 3BO tracker? 3BO is a micromobility-focused Assure-Tech company based in Stellenbosch, South Africa. They build theft prevention and detection, live tracking, and coordinated recovery workflows for people and organizations that own or manage bikes and bike fleets.

I have been testing the 3BO.mobi tracker and have written about it before. First, in comparison to an Apple Airtag. Second, an overview of what it is and how it works on my bicycle. And last time about how you could find them on the GIRO and the TDF.

This time I want to find out what the battery life is on the updated product. Let’s find out.

Out and about: This is what it looks like when you get a message from someone using a 3BO bike tracker that shared their ride with you - in fact, the whole ecosystem is WhatsApp-driven for ease of use. — Out and about: This is what it looks like when you get a message from someone using a 3BO bike tracker that shared their ride with you – in fact, the whole ecosystem is WhatsApp-driven for ease of use.

And this is what it looks like when you click through and follow the rider. Now you can see where they are, in real time, every second of the way. Unless they increase the update interval to say 1, 2, 3, minutes between updates in order to save battery life.

UPDATED: What is the battery life of the new 3BO tracker?

This morning I got the wonderful beep on WhatsApp that Carinus is out and about on another ride. This time up one of my favourite passes around Stellenbosch: Old Helshoogte. On the feature image above you can see the sleek layout of the 3BO map feature so you can follow your rider. Which got me thinking, how long does the battery last?

25 hours at 1 second intervals.

But those are a lot of pings. In fact 60 seconds times 60 minutes times 25 hours give you 90,000 pings. So what if you set the interval to update only every 5 mintues, will it last 7500 hours? Or for 10 minutes intervals, can it last 15000 hours? While we know the result will not be linear, some real-world testing is required. Which is why you will see the 3BO.mobi trackers in testing at the FNB Wines2Whales starting this weekend. And may even en route to BFN and back for the MUNGA at the end of the month. Standing by.

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