The Great Big SPOT Thread

[markgsnw]

Originally Posted by JimC

If you buy a good GPS and learn how to use it, it will proably keep you from getting into situations where you need the SPOT.

unless the GPS comes with a Common Sense Enhancer, I'd disagree here.

[UK Jimbo]

Originally Posted by markgsnw

unless the GPS comes with a Common Sense Enhancer, I'd disagree here.

Likewise. I can see how using the GPS as a navigation aid could help you getting lost or too far out of contact but for the worst case of falling from the bike and ending up in a situation where you, the bike or both are unable to move anywhere then the spot or other PLB would be a great asset.

[12bnkd]

Originally Posted by markgsnw

unless the GPS comes with a Common Sense Enhancer, I'd disagree here.

I guess the question I would have, is how would a GPS keep you from being in a non-cell phone coverage area, where you may need to call for help!

I picked up one on the 21st, and found a good location to put it, in the netting of my jacket pocket of my chest. If for some reason I get thrown from the bike or something else Dramatic should happen, I would have it handy thinking I may not be able to place a cell phone call, I would be able to push a button, 911 or help

I left Dallas on the 22nd, snaked over to Birmingham, then down to Tallahassee, Panama City, New Orleans and then back up to Dallas on the 29th. When I arrived at my mother's house in Florida. She wanted to know how much it was, for she wanted to write me a check right and therefore it. As she stated. It made her feel much better knowing I could check if I could.

[k7]

Great thread. If it's good enough for Jonz, it's good enough for me. Got a trip for SOE (south of the equator) this summer and this will be perfect esp. since there are no roads into the area.

[UK Jimbo]

This thread might be of interest to anyone thinking about buying one but in no particular rush.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=296200

[k7]

Originally Posted by UK Jimbo

This thread might be of interest to anyone thinking about buying one but in no particular rush.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=296200

Thanks Jimbo - despite the misgivings of several folks who thinks that this takes the adventure out of a trip, I'm interested.

[Squeaky]

Originally Posted by martydallas

When I arrived at my mother's house in Florida. She wanted to know how much it was, for she wanted to write me a check right and therefore it. As she stated. It made her feel much better knowing I could check if I could.

This is the reason I'm interested, and will likely have one wrapped and waiting for me the next time I visit my family. I have a worrysome mother and sister, and they freaked out on me when I called from Big Bend to say hi and they didn't previously know I was taking a trip. Once the guest login feature is added, mom says she's buying it "for herself, not for me" because she's tired of worrying when I'm out on the roads alone. I don't like having to check in as often as she'd like, and cell phone coverage can be sketchy in some areas.

I don't intend to ever NEED the help/911 features (knocking on wood) but they certainly don't hurt to have along.

[12bnkd]

Originally Posted by Squeaky

This is the reason I'm interested, and will likely have one wrapped and waiting for me the next time I visit my family. I have a worrysome mother and sister, and they freaked out on me when I called from Big Bend to say hi and they didn't previously know I was taking a trip. Once the guest login feature is added, mom says she's buying it "for herself, not for me" because she's tired of worrying when I'm out on the roads alone. I don't like having to check in as often as she'd like, and cell phone coverage can be sketchy in some areas.

I don't intend to ever NEED the help/911 features (knocking on wood) but they certainly don't hurt to have along.

Well, on the Help I have my Help list with people that will call each other, so they are not all doing the samething, but as I told them If I am calling for help, I most likely need a BMW Tow, and I will not have access to a Cell Phone or maynot have coverage.

BTW here is an list of Items I would like to see them add after I used it for a week and was thinking about it on my bike.
1. I know it is waterproof but I think it should "FLOAT" as well
2. on the log-in it should have a to remember me so If I want it to I could check a box to say remember me and I don't have to type in my username and password in each time
3. I have heard your working on this but an log-in for friends to use, I think you would then a lot less "OK" pushes that way
4. On the messanger list, it reads default, well, I see you want to limit the number of emails that are going out and that is ok but I would like different list. Like "Default 1" which may have one list and "Default 2" maybe another list, and so on, this way I am not having to delete and add people to the list, or you could have a list like you have on "Messages" and I can check 10 people on that list and I could have 20+ names in that list but only 10 can be checked.
5. I would like to see an easy way to take all my tracks out of findmespost and put it in google earth if I want. That way I can keep my own map and send that to friends or family
6. on the 911, I think I would like the ability to have my help people notify that I have pushed 911.
7. once log-in there is not a contact us on there I had to go back to the first page to find this email address
8. I did not know you were limited to only 10 on the "OK" button, it would be nice to have that on the page were you are putting in the list. what is the number for help? the error was so subtile that it took a while for me to see it.
9. I understand your working on this as well, but a better way to track time? Local time? not (GMT) maybe when it displayed on Google maps it show (GMT) and say local time is ???

[aciurczak]

Hi Marty -

You can accomplish #5 right now, check out my post earlier in this thread: click here

For #6, it's my understanding that you can press both the 911 and the Help button, and both are then sent; they aren't mutually exclusive.

[rocketbunny]

I picked up a SPOT in mid-December. I'm happy so far, but like many others would love to have a guest login option for close friends and family.

However, as a solo female traveler, I can't imagine ever wanting my realtime location information to be on a publicly viewable (ie non-login required) website. I'm a rabid trip reporter who always carries a laptop on multi-day trips, but I don't like people to know where I've stayed a night until I'm about to leave.

I do understand that lots of people are fine with being tracked without a login required, but there will also be people like me that don't want that. There will need to be at least 3 layers of authentication levels for viewing tracking info.

[Lucky_Devil]

Originally Posted by martydallas

1. I know it is waterproof but I think it should "FLOAT" as well

It does float...

[dougprintz]

I have been generally having pretty good luck with mine. Tracking, however, seems a little spotty and several times there have been unexplained gaps in receiving track messages.

I put my device on a table in my back yard, set it to tracking mode, and left it there for about 26 hours. Less than 60% of the tracking messages went through. Most of the time it would miss one or two here and there, however, there were two occasions where nothing was received (sent?) for an hour.

Click Here to see a spreadsheet - data was copied from the web site and pasted into the spreadsheet. Note the right columns which show the elapsed time between messages and messages not received.

This seems pretty lame to me.

[Geezerider]

Originally Posted by UK Jimbo

This thread might be of interest to anyone thinking about buying one but in no particular rush.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=296200

Offroute also has them for sale in his web store www.offroute.com for $147 and free shipping. He was one of the early posters in this thread.

No connection just thinking about buying one myself.

[TomW]

Originally Posted by dougprintz

...I put my device on a table in my back yard, set it to tracking mode, and left it there for about 26 hours. Less than 60% of the tracking messages went through. Most of the time it would miss one or two here and there, however, there were two occasions where nothing was received (sent?) for an hour.

I presume the antenna was facing up. Where do you live? (I also presume you're in the SPoT coverage area.) Without knowing anything more, I can guess at two explanations: as luck would have it, satellite coverage in your area may not have been good during the times you had gaps, and/or there happened to be a lot of traffic on GlobalStar's simplex uplink frequency (when several devices transmit at the same time, these collisions become problematic to decode without errors and I assume packets with errors are rejected).

Cheers.

[k7]

Originally Posted by rocketbunny

I picked up a SPOT in mid-December. I'm happy so far, but like many others would love to have a guest login option for close friends and family.

However, as a solo female traveler, I can't imagine ever wanting my realtime location information to be on a publicly viewable (ie non-login required) website. I'm a rabid trip reporter who always carries a laptop on multi-day trips, but I don't like people to know where I've stayed a night until I'm about to leave.

I do understand that lots of people are fine with being tracked without a login required, but there will also be people like me that don't want that. There will need to be at least 3 layers of authentication levels for viewing tracking info.

I don't think that anyone has suggested making the tracking available to the viewing public.... every suggestion has been for a quest login that you would control.

I suspect that the company may have to factor this into their pricing... it'll drive up their costs slightly to provide this service. Sorry - the businessman in me says it's a possibility.