Installing a microchip in my violin

[violins88]

It appears that it is inexpensive to put a microchip in a dog. What about a violin?

 

Thanks.

[Dr. Ludwig]

Where would you put it?

It would have to be hidden, at the least, to be of any value. Otherwise, it can always be removed. Seems impractical and I think photo ID might be enough.

[jezzupe]

I would put it in one of the blocks for it to not be transient, as it would be easy to put it in a endpin, tailpiece or peg

with some serious precautions and drill extensions, special tweezers you might be able to put one in the neck root under the over stand

or you could pop off the saddle and make a recess there and then re install , same with the nut

or maybe the very back of the pegbox 

to the best of my knowledge they are down to the size of a grain of rice, at least the ones they put in dogs and cats are 

if you go to amazon and search for "home again microchip implant kit" {located next to the home dentistry made easy kit } they have them for sale for like 13.72 usd, of course I suppose the "network" and the ability to access and track is what it comes down to, but it is a very tiny pellet that has a syringe injector that you could stick in an appropriate sized drilled hole, inject it, and "spackle" it over to hide and keep it in place.

They also have these for firearms, my friend had them installed in his rifles, he pulled up home {in a very nice neighborhood} and got out of his truck for 5 minutes and some guy in that short amount of time managed to steal his 3 rifles, 2 of which had been chipped. In less than 35 minutes the Sonoma county sheriffs/Petaluma PD had located the guy, the guns and a bunch of other peoples stolen merchandise, so I know that they do work if you get on a good location network.

As this tech moves forward you will see it "standard" to have virtually everything chipped, for many reasons, not all good.

 

[Mark Norfleet]

Great, just another source of possible buzzing...

 

[jezzupe]

6 minutes ago, Mark Norfleet said:

Great, just another source of possible buzzing...

 

I'd feel pretty confident that you could completely bed it in glue, maybe a foam sleeve and that it wouldn't be a problem, but who knows, they do have little discs that stick on too, again, I'm not sure how all these location networks work in that maybe you can't use ones for animals in objects because "they" don't do that? I don't know the answer to that, but Ido know that they can locate lost pets and guns and "stuff" so I suppose that it just comes down to perfecting and installation method that doesn't allow for a "buzz"

As time goes by I'm looking into it being a "standard" thing for my instruments, I think having the ability to pinpoint the location of a stolen or lost instrument is an insurance policy that many people would be willing to pay for.

Again to me it's all about the location network and their ability to locate objects and that they would specialize in such things. I know with guns the PD's are very keen on them and I was surprised how fast "things" can be located if there is enough of a serious effort put into finding it, as I suppose you can't kill someone with a violin, the PD would not take a stolen instrument so seriously, like a firearm, but it certainly gives them information to start an investigation.

[Wood Butcher]

Just think of the damage caused, when the crooks rip it apart, to try and find the chip inside the instrument.
Much like they do with vehicle trackers.

[FiddleDoug]

The tiny chips that they put into dogs and such, can't be used to locate things. They can only identify things when they are scanned up close. Anything GPS or networked. has to have a power source. This works fine for bigger equipment like phones, trucks, etc., but not this.

[jezzupe]

2 minutes ago, FiddleDoug said:

The tiny chips that they put into dogs and such, can't be used to locate things. They can only identify things when they are scanned up close. Anything GPS or networked. has to have a power source. This works fine for bigger equipment like phones, trucks, etc., but not this.

I know the ones my friend used worked great, but I think you right in that there were more like battery's and bigger than a grain of rice. 

Like I said, in the future, when they get it down I'd install them, but right now I don't think the tech is "there" enough yet.

We've had these discussions in the past, someone posted something about some dot thing, I forgot how it worked. All I know is when it becomes cheap, effective and easy enough to use ,I'll be trying to use them.

 

[FiddleDoug]

I think that the Government has some tiny secret ones that will track. I've heard rumors about ones being injected with the Covid vaccines. (I hardly felt the chips going in!)

Oh wait, they don't need chips to track us. Everyone is carrying around a smart phone with a tracker built in!

[Violadamore]

1 hour ago, jezzupe said:

I suppose you can't kill someone with a violin............

IMHO, that depends on technique and determination.   

[PhilipKT]

I thought about this often, there may still be, in Oak Cliff, a pawnshop called “24 hour pawn“ where you could pawn anything except Yesterdays newspaper at any time of the day. I can’t imagine a Violin being stolen and ending up anywhere but at such a place. Just reading the descriptions of instruments at auctions, where the auctioneer should have at least a little bit of knowledge about string instruments, it becomes clear that ignorance  is our friend in this instance.

I would have one in the case somewhere and I would have one stuck under the tail piece, or under the fingerboard. 

Edited August 24, 2021 by PhilipKT

[Dr. Ludwig]

Trackers would invite damage. Chips would only be useful for identification. So first they'd have to find the violin, recover it and then you'd need to show up with Gov. ID to prove just exactly who you are. Surely a cellphone isn't enough.

 

[rudall]

Who knows whether future technology will read today’s chips?

[jezzupe]

5 hours ago, Violadamore said:

IMHO, that depends on technique and determination.   

Somehow I have a feeling you could "I have no idea how that scroll got lodged that deep into his nose?" 

[Violadamore]

16 hours ago, jezzupe said:

Somehow I have a feeling you could "I have no idea how that scroll got lodged that deep into his nose?" 

It's interesting that you and I reached similar conclusions.  Maybe even a trifle disquieting.......     

[Wood Butcher]

23 hours ago, FiddleDoug said:

I think that the Government has some tiny secret ones that will track. I've heard rumors about ones being injected with the Covid vaccines. (I hardly felt the chips going in!)

Oh wait, they don't need chips to track us. Everyone is carrying around a smart phone with a tracker built in!

The chips still work in outer space. That’s how the Government knows which planet you were taken to for probing and experiments.

[jezzupe]

2 hours ago, Violadamore said:

It's interesting that you and I reached similar conclusions.  Maybe even a trifle disquieting.......     

disquieting, exhilarating, you know, it's all the same to me  

[jezzupe]

1 hour ago, Wood Butcher said:

The chips still work in outer space. That’s how the Government knows which planet you were taken to for probing and experiments.

Yup, that's what the voices in your head are telling me, so we're on the same page

[Omobono]

A favorite topic of mine .......violin tracking devices.

I have talked to defence security people ( a friend) and we concluded the nano-technology is not there yet as far as size of GPS transmitter & power source. Bluetooth is limited in use.

At the moment I think the only option would be under a fingerboard or in the case.

If that issue was solved economically there would be a commercial market for it.

[l33tplaya]

There is/was an Aussie project on kickstarter to create a very small long lifed (battery) GPS tracker.  Likely still too big for a violin, unless one were to hollow out a larger chin rest, but easily concealable in a case...  From what I have seen, better than all the other solutions extant. Still waiting for mine.  Project delayed considerably because of COVID, shipping restrictions, and esp. the "chip shortage."

There are the blue tooth trackers (trackR, Apple's entry, etc.) that have a limited range, used to be ~ 30', now IIRC, some can go to ~ 120', and are small enough to be concealed under a finger board or under a chinrest, and resonably negligible weight.  These devices rely on crowd sourcing for tracking, so perhaps not immediately useful in the case of theft, but the batteries usually last 6 months to a year, so a reasonable chance the location could be found eventually, unless someone discovered the hidden device.  My guess is most thieves wouldn't check.  Maybe later, when the violin passes to an intermediary? 

[Omobono]

Thanks, l33tplaya.

Any idea of the name of the product to which you refer on kickstarter?

I have used TrackR but not really convinced with either crowd sourcing not battery (needs to be checked almost weekly)

Cello might be a bit more manageable.......

 

[Andro]

Microchips for pets are just tiny RFID devices. They respond to radio frequency with a unique number. That's all. The number can show it's your dog or cat, and there are registries of numbers so a found animal can be returned to its owner. They are not trackers. I cant see any value in that for a violin - a set of photos and documentation would equally prove it is yours.

If, as others have assumed, you are referring to a location tracker, the power requirements are too high, battery life to short, and the devices too bulky to consider. There are trackers for cases that alos have temperature and humidity remote sensors, but they are indeed bulky and in the case of theft I cant see the point as you can just open the case and dispose of the unit.

There's also a thread over here on this topic:

https://www.violinist.com/discussion/archive/24612/