AVT Sentinel™ can be installed in your vehicle at your home or office by our nationwide installation team. Simply select this option from our buy now page and you will be contacted to arrange installation within a few hours.

It is also available for DIY installation, or for you to have fitted by a friend or local garage. Fitting is really easy, whether you ask a garage or auto electrician to carry out the installation or are confident doing the work yourself. AVT Sentinel™ is supplied with detailed fitting instructions, but an overview is given here.

Begin by registering your system on the Sentinel™ website and set up your preferences, such as which mobile phone numbers should be allowed to communicate with your system. If you don't have access to the internet at the time of fitting, you can register using your mobile phone. Next, call Vodafone to link the Top Up swipe card supplied with the system to the mobile phone number of your Sentinel™ unit, which will also activate the £10 credit included with the system. In future, you can top up using the swipe card where you see the logo, on the Vodafone website, or at most bank ATMs.

Note that Sentinel™ will warn you when your credit gets low, and you can see the current balance on the Sentinel™ or Vodafone website.

Unlike other types of security, such as alarms and immobilisors, a potential thief should not know that Sentinel™ is fitted to your vehicle as they might attempt to remove it prior to stealing the vehicle. Therefore, Sentinel™ is fitted out of sight in a hidden location, such as behind a trim panel or within the dash assembly and there are no warning stickers or other evidence that it is protecting your vehicle.

The Sentinel™ main unit has small remote aerials for the mobile phone network and GPS system. This allows the GPS and mobile phone aerials to be positioned for best reception, up to 2.5 metres from the main unit, and makes installation considerably more flexible for all types of vehicle. In accordance with motor manufacturer guidelines, it is recommended that transmitting devices such as mobile phones are not positioned adjacent to airbags.

Only three wires need to be connected to suitable places in the vehicle wiring loom; a permanent 12V supply, a 12V supply that is only on when the vehicle ignition is on (for caravans, this would be the charging circuit from the towing vehicle) and a 0V or chassis connection.

Additionally, there is a wire that can connect to the alarm of the vehicle. This varies from vehicle to vehicle and alarm to alarm, but the input can be configured so that the presence or absence of 12V can be used to signal that the alarm has been triggered. Using this facility means that Sentinel™ will send you a text message if your alarm is set off, a feature usually only found on the most expensive and specialist vehicle alarms.

Finally, Sentinel™ is tested by sending some text messages to request diagnostic tests. These will report on the level of signal from the GSM and GPS networks and the results can be used to improve the position of the GPS aerial if necessary.

Now have a play with Sentinel™, starting and stopping tracking and looking at the position on the website. Sentinel™ is really easy to use, but if you're familiar with all of the functionality in advance, you'll know exactly what to do if you are unlucky enough to have your vehicle stolen.