If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#11
|
|||
|
|||
More on Delorme InReach Satellite Tracker
Hi Frank,
My experience so far had been that the tracking intervals was fixed at 10 minutes. They did seem to have custom options that would allow finer grained tracking updates, but I don't think they have been implemented yet. As a standalone device it is very comparable to spot devices. The two way messaging when paired with an android device has huge potential, but admittedly goes beyond our needs for xc tracking. We will just have to see what changes and features they launch the final version with. They have been pretty responsive to input so far, but I know that they need to draw a line and release it. So we will likely see more and more features opened up since they have built themselves a platform that will expand pretty easily. Pricing is going to be an interesting factor in adoption i think. Market it at a comparable price to spot, you will probably get some people to jump over because of the altitude, heading and velocity info. At the current price point, I don't think they will have as much luck. Morgan |
#12
|
|||
|
|||
More on Delorme InReach Satellite Tracker
On Oct 2, 10:53*am, Morgan Hall wrote:
Hi Frank, My experience so far had been that the tracking intervals was fixed at 10 minutes. They did seem to have custom options that would allow finer grained tracking updates, but I don't think they have been implemented yet. As a standalone device it is very comparable to spot devices. The two way messaging when paired with an android device has huge potential, but admittedly goes beyond our needs for xc tracking. We will just have to see what changes and features they launch the final version with. They have been pretty responsive to input so far, but I know that they need to draw a line and release it. So we will likely see more and more features opened up since they have built themselves a platform that will expand pretty easily. Pricing is going to be an interesting factor in adoption i think. Market it at a comparable price to spot, you will probably get some people to jump over because of the altitude, heading and velocity info. At the current price point, I don't think they will have as much luck. Morgan Morgan, Yes, I agree - at the present price point, with 10 minute minimum interval, they are probably not competitive in the XC tracking market (gliders, hang-gliders, parasails, etc). IMHO there are two main drivers for satellite trackers in XC competitions. The first and most important is the safety aspect - satellite trackers provide (almost) global coverage and work when all other communications links are unavailable. I have personally experienced a SPOT-only retrieve (2010 in Texas) where my cellphone didn't work and I couldn't contact a towplane, but my SPOT "Help" signal got through to my crew. Since then we have seen other similar occurrences. AFAIK, we haven't yet seen a SPOT "save" in XC soaring, but it is sure to happen. The second driver is for near-real-time display of glider positions on contest tasks, and SPOT 'sort of' works for this, and it is a heck of a lot better than anything we have had before SPOT and HawkeTracking (full disclosu I am co-owner of Hawke Tracking along with Mark Hawkins, and I foolishly spent all my profits from the last three years on a hamburger at McDonalds). The lack of more rapid updates, the lack of GPS altitude reporting, and some gratuitous data delays thrown in by the SPOT folks have hurt the display aspect significantly, but have not hindered or degraded the safety/outlanding notification performance at all. Bottom line on all this: SPOT wins over InReach until/unless InReach offers more rapid updates and/or more timely access to position/ altitude data. Even then, all SPOT would have to do is open up the pipe for GPS altitude and lower the minimum interval and they would be right back on top. If InReach were to gain some market traction in the XC community (gliders, hang-gliders, motorcycling, parasailers), it probably would not take much to integrate InReach data into current HawkeTracking maps (I'm speaking out of school here - Mark is the expert). Frank (TA) |
#13
|
|||
|
|||
More on Delorme InReach Satellite Tracker
On 10/7/11 4:48 PM, Frank Paynter wrote:
Yes, I agree - at the present price point, with 10 minute minimum interval, they are probably not competitive in the XC tracking market (gliders, hang-gliders, parasails, etc). Um, doesn't position, altitude, heading and speed every 10 provide the equivalent of a much better interval than just position every 10 minutes? I'm guessing the cost is tied to the more expensive Iridium service. But I'm hoping that as traffic increases, the cost may go down ...unless profits take precedence. -Tom |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Report on DeLorme PN-60w SPOT | Jet Pilot | Soaring | 4 | November 28th 10 06:55 PM |
B-17 and Tracker | Glenn[_2_] | Aviation Photos | 0 | February 12th 10 11:50 PM |
Tracker | Glenn[_2_] | Aviation Photos | 1 | September 23rd 09 03:52 AM |
Delorme Earthmate GPS for Aviation? | Andrew Sarangan | Piloting | 5 | January 22nd 06 10:42 AM |
GPS BlueTooth w datalogger (Earthmate Blue-Logger by DeLorme) | Jeffrey Banks | Soaring | 0 | November 17th 05 01:30 AM |