The Great Big SPOT Thread

[TomW]

Originally Posted by TouringGuy

...Would you buy it again?

Yes. Just be aware of its limitations, and limit your expectations accordingly. It's not foolproof, or 100% reliable, but -- in my opinion -- offers reasonable performance for the money. If you've kept up with this thread you probably have a pretty good feel for its strengths and weaknesses.

Cheers.

[TouringGuy]

Originally Posted by TomW

Yes. Just be aware of its limitations, and limit your expectations accordingly. It's not foolproof, or 100% reliable, but -- in my opinion -- offers reasonable performance for the money. If you've kept up with this thread you probably have a pretty good feel for its strengths and weaknesses.

Cheers.

Thanks, now I need to find one of the newer units in stock so I can buy it today. Thanks.

[brad21]

Mine has worked really well. On the dirtbike I have it in a mesh pocket facing out and just the other day I used the belt clip and clipped it over a strap on my streetbike's fairing. Punched it 5 times on the way home from a 170 mile trip and it worked every time.

[BuellDualSport]

We have been getting between 97 and 99% accuracy for the past thirty (30) days.

Doing a BB 1000 this weekend, will report after that

Ride Em

[daveg]

Originally Posted by emerson.biguns

Wife regularly had problems accessing the tracking page. It appears it would show no progress for a the last 24 hours and then at the end of the day she would check again and all of the tracks would be there.

I've had the same problem several times. It is really confusing to those not on the trip.

[TouringGuy]

Originally Posted by daveg

I've had the same problem several times. It is really confusing to those not on the trip.

It sounds like they are batch processing and not tracking in real time?

[spicychili]

Originally Posted by TouringGuy

It sounds like they are batch processing and not tracking in real time?

They are not batch processing. It has happened to me and my wife a couple times.

When I got home from a ride, I checked her computer and refreshed the page. no tracks for several hours. I opened up my computer and brought up the page. tracks as recent as 15 minutes ago. refreshed her page again and still no tracks for past several hours.

It has something to do with the caching on the browser and the session that is created when the end user accesses the web page.

I wish they would create an API so that I can capture the points myself and build my own map on the fly. while their page is useful it is still pretty lacking.

[BMWRC]

Over the last 5 days I completed a 3000km (~1,900 miles) ride throught New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario Vermont, New Hamshire and Maine without any problems.

Note: I do not use the tracking option. I prefer to press the I'm OK button when I want to report.

[Codewheeney]

I've now had my Spot for a little more than a month, and I've used it on two moto trips and one kayak trip. I'm not doing the tracking feature, but the checking in has worked really well.

I ordered the RAM mount, but haven't received it yet. On the bike, I've been keeping it clipped to the tank bag (not facing up as recommended) and out here in the big open of the Southwest, it seems to work fine. I will unclip it and rest it on the tank bag when I send OK messages, if I've stopped for a few minutes.

mounted as pictured here:



With a little lanyard I made.

So far, I haven't had to use it for an emergency, but friends and family (and most especially Codewife) are very happy for the check-in messages.

JC

[dougprintz]

The SPOT documentation says that pressing the "911" or "Help" buttons will cancel any unsent "Check-in" messages. My question is if I've requested help by pressing "911" or "Help", will pressing the "OK" button cancel the help request?

I recently had to press the "911" button when one of our group was severely injured. I wanted to let my wife know that I was OK and it was someone else in trouble, but I was afraid to push the "OK" button for fear of cancelling the "911" call. My wife spent a couple of anxious hours.

[smiller]

Originally Posted by dougprintz

I recently had to press the "911" button when one of our group was severely injured. I wanted to let my wife know that I was OK and it was someone else in trouble, but I was afraid to push the "OK" button for fear of cancelling the "911" call. My wife spent a couple of anxious hours.

The best way to do this would be to first send the 911 call to get a message out (if you have a clear view of the sky 15 minutes should be OK), then power cycle the unit (this will reset it without cancelling the 911 call) and send an 'OK' message. After the OK message is sent put the unit back into 911 mode until help arrives.

And BTW sending an 'OK' message will not cancel a 911 call... the GEOS center doesn't even see your 'OK' messages. The only way to cancel a 911 call is to press and hold the 911 button for at least 3 seconds while in 911 mode. This will send a 'cancel 911' message to the response center.

.

[innovathinker]

Originally Posted by smiller

The best way to do this would be to first send the 911 call to get a message out (if you have a clear view of the sky 15 minutes should be OK), then power cycle the unit (this will reset it without cancelling the 911 call) and send an 'OK' message. After the OK message is sent put the unit back into 911 mode until help arrives.

And BTW sending an 'OK' message will not cancel a 911 call... the GEOS center doesn't even see your 'OK' messages. The only way to cancel a 911 call is to press and hold the 911 button for at least 3 seconds while in 911 mode. This will send a 'cancel 911' message to the response center.

.

I belive that once 911 is activated, the only way to turn tracking (not just checking in) on is to log on and re-set the device.

SPOT saved my ass up on the dempster.

[wdeTA]

I just rode my Transalp to Alaska (4.5 days from Boulder CO to Fairbanks), then joined some friends running the Kongakut river in ANWR from the Brooks range to the Arctic ocean, then west along the ocean to Kaktovik. Spot worked very well. Yes there were some missed tracking messages, but more than enough went through to mapo the route. All the OK messages appear to have gone through. Pretty good considering we were on the edge of the Spot coverage. More tracking messages got missed while still in the mountains, but once we hit the tundra and coast, tracking was really good (absolutely nothing to get in the way). I had the Spot clipped to the top of a bag in the front of my kayak.

Dale

[TouringGuy]

Originally Posted by wdeTA

I just rode my Transalp to Alaska (4.5 days from Boulder CO to Fairbanks), then joined some friends running the Kongakut river in ANWR from the Brooks range to the Arctic ocean, then west along the ocean to Kaktovik. Spot worked very well. Yes there were some missed tracking messages, but more than enough went through to mapo the route. All the OK messages appear to have gone through. Pretty good considering we were on the edge of the Spot coverage. More tracking messages got missed while still in the mountains, but once we hit the tundra and coast, tracking was really good (absolutely nothing to get in the way). I had the Spot clipped to the top of a bag in the front of my kayak.

Dale

Sounds like a great trip. I am looking forward to using it our our ride from Southern CA to Alberta, Canada and back.

[SpotMaker]

Originally Posted by dougprintz

The SPOT documentation says that pressing the "911" or "Help" buttons will cancel any unsent "Check-in" messages. My question is if I've requested help by pressing "911" or "Help", will pressing the "OK" button cancel the help request?

911 is the highest priority. No other message type will cancel it, except "Cancel 911".

There are two ways to get the unit out of 911 mode.

One way is to "cancel" the 911 request.

You do this by pressing the 911 button for 3 seconds while in the 911 mode. You will know you've pressed it long enough when the 911 button switches from flashing green to flashing red.

The unit will then be sending a "cancel 911" message. This is a message cycle with the same timings of a "Check in" message. It will send 3 redundant messages over the course of about 20 minutes.

NOTE: The GEOS 911 center interprets the "cancel 911" message as meaning "Never mind, there's not really an emergency." or "Help has arrived, the emergency is over."

So: Don't send a "cancel 911" message unless the emergency is really over!

The other way to stop 911 mode is to turn the unit off: Simply hold down the power button until the LEDs stop flashing. Then, turn the unit on again and send your Check In message.

Again, don't turn the unit off until help has arrived. Since the SPoT is "one way". The only feedback that you have to be positive that the 911 message has been received is rescue personnel actually arriving or making contact with you, by some means, to tell you they've gotten your 911 message.

So, always leave the SPoT in 911 mode until rescue personnel have made contact with you, so you know your message has been heard!

"Help" is the second highest priority message. Everything above about "911" applies to "help" also (e. g. a "Cancel Help" message also exists). Unlike 911 that transmits forever until you stop it (or until the batteries are dead), help only goes for 1 hour, and then stops.

Originally Posted by innovathinker

I belive that once 911 is activated, the only way to turn tracking (not just checking in) on is to log on and re-set the device.

SPOT saved my ass up on the dempster.

No "logging on" is necessary to reset anything. Get the SPoT out of 911 mode via one of the methods outlined above (sending a "cancel 911" sequence or power-cycling the SPoT) and then you can send any other message type (track, check in, or help).