The Great Big SPOT Thread

[250senuf]

Might be a major flash of the units that they feel is better left to a tech.

[LongCliff]

Originally Posted by mtguy

We expect to have all customer returned product out our doors by the first week of March.

Awesome! Hopefully the snow melts, I get my xt225 back together from the winter projects, and the spot arrives on the same day! If so, all is forgiven.

[mtguy]

[Iced Tea]

Purchased a spot 1 setup up my account activated everything, went outside turned on unit pushed the OK button still waiting for the unit to find itself. Not impressed, are these things abilities at tracking a hit or miss? It seems like within 30 minutes or actually within 10 minutes it should know where ever its at and sending back good tracks. Maybe Spot is what I have a suspicion it might be, a POS. There web site doesn't even offer their product for sale it says on backorder! IDK just kind of aggravated that the unit isn't performing out of the box, not confidence inspiring.

[dacrazyrn]

Originally Posted by Iced Tea

Purchased a spot 1 setup...confidence inspiring.

never had a single miss or problem with mine. Did you see both lights come on red for a few seconds? There is usually about a ten minute lag from transmit to it coming up on the Internet site

[TravellingStrom]

It should not be coming up red at all, that indicates low power, the LEDs should be flashing Green

Turn it off and try again making sure you have a clear view of the sky to the south

Cheers
TravellingStrom

[BlueLghtning]

Originally Posted by Iced Tea

Purchased a spot 1 setup up my account activated everything, went outside turned on unit pushed the OK button still waiting for the unit to find itself. Not impressed, are these things abilities at tracking a hit or miss? It seems like within 30 minutes or actually within 10 minutes it should know where ever its at and sending back good tracks. Maybe Spot is what I have a suspicion it might be, a POS. There web site doesn't even offer their product for sale it says on backorder! IDK just kind of aggravated that the unit isn't performing out of the box, not confidence inspiring.

The first time firing up any GPS based product out of the box can take up to 15+ minutes for it to find satellites and get a lock. Its the same thing if you leave a GPS for a long time or carry it more then 50+ miles without it on. It basically has to go through a cold start to figure out where its at.

Now once it acquires the Sats and those batteries stay in the unit, it should be much quicker to get its location from this point forward if you use it on a regular basis. The normal operating procedures anyways assumes at the very least the unit will be on and had a chance to get its sat location. Then when you press OK, it isn't waiting to get a location first.

As far as it showing up on the website, there is a delay. It shows up on your page that you personally log into well before it shows up on your shared map that you share with others. I've easily seen a 10minute delay between the time it first appears on my main site before it hits my shared map.

[TavisB]

Spot GPS Rescue Gadget Tested By Getting Lost In Snow Country:

http://gizmodo.com/5477478/spot-gps-...n-snow-country

[LI LT Owner]

FYI, the computer geeks at Wired recently tested the SPOT Locator.



A Wired writer wanted to test just how effectively the Spot GPS Messenger could save his life. So, in the dark of night, he walked for 8 aimless hours into Tahoe National Forest. Then he pressed Spot's emergency button.

Having covered his tracks carefully and inserted himself as deeply into the forest as he could, it took only 30 minutes for a squad of rescuers, including snowmobiles, skiiers and a snowcat, to find him.

[tarzan77]

Just got an e-mail saying my replacement SPOT has been shipped and should be at my door in 7-10 business days. Woohoo, there is hope!!

Stacey

[rhicks]

Originally Posted by tarzan77

Just got an e-mail saying my replacement SPOT has been shipped and should be at my door in 7-10 business days. Woohoo, there is hope!!

Stacey

Was this a personalized e-mail? You'll have to keep us informed on how long it takes, shipper, and condition of the replacement.

[tarzan77]

Originally Posted by rhicks

Was this a personalized e-mail? You'll have to keep us informed on how long it takes, shipper, and condition of the replacement.

Yeah, it had my ESN# from the old unit and mentioned something about transferring it to the new unit, had my name at the top. I'm curious to see what the condition of the replacement unit is (better be new).

[dad2bike]

Originally Posted by tarzan77

Yeah, it had my ESN# from the old unit and mentioned something about transferring it to the new unit, had my name at the top. I'm curious to see what the condition of the replacement unit is (better be new).

Exactly why I waited on my new in the box unit. I'm taking it back to REI for swap. IF they ever get any in.

[Becktastic]

I got my SPOT back today! Perfect timing as I have a big weekend planned.

It's in new or like new condition. I activated it (mine was brand new, never used and instantly recalled when I tried to activate) seems to be working perfectly!

I hope you all get yours soon!

[Stovebolt]

TravellingStrom,

Allow me to genuinely applaud your effort on coming up with a solution to the SPOT tethering conundrum - very innovative on your part.

I am of both schools - bike mounting for the most part; but if I want to have the rescue unit available on my person should I crash and burn, I would much rather decide to just keep the unit on my person 24/7 and not try to have a "crew eject" system whereby the SPOT leaves the cockpit, and tries to follow me.

For me, for now, it's either in the cockpit in the RAM cradle (which I like better than many RAM cradles - use it myself, and I'm making cradles for a living just now,) or in a pocket in my jacket sleeve. My Gen 1 fits and functions perfectly inside my Acerbis Rally jacket right arm sleeved pocket, but I bet there is a more elegant universal solution around, much like they use for ski passes and such. Something that the SPOT goes into, a cordura sleeve or something, with an elastic wrap-around, or other more secure closure. Of course, will the unit be ground down to a melted puddle from my crash? It's a trade-off, yes?

What say you?

Sincere,

Stovebolt

Originally Posted by TravellingStrom

Hi

OK, this is what I did. I used some snare wire, which is what I had with me and wrapped 3 turns around the unit near the top and used a stainless steel quick release snap lock for the connection to the stainless steel lanyard.


The other end is a spring clip as used on boats, also stainless steel and this is clipped to the zipper on my jacket, that ended up breaking, so I used a cable tie for the zipper instead :) This is not exactly ideal, but until I can think of a better anchor on my body, this will do and it does work as I have accidentally tested it ;)

Now, this is the way the SPOT normally sits in the cradle and yes it is hard to get it to release properly.

But, what I do is sit the unit in the cradle, but with the roller latch only half engaged as this photo shows.

This seems to work nearly everywhere, but not with corrugations, that is when it ends up back inside the cradle. This has not bothered me as yet, but I was going to cut a small bit of the rubber away so the roller would settle into a bit of a groove, but still be looser than it normally is.

I hope that is of some help.

Cheers
TravellingStrom



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