Hi guys,

Anyone used the latest version of the xensr jump and GPS tracker ? Looks like it plots position and speed, so may see polar app launched from the developer ? Useful for kiteracing?

I don't think the latest version is available yet. Reading the press release though, the hardware seems largely the same with a more readable LED display.

I have the older xensr air. The file format is a bit odd (gps, sensor data, height), all sections output contiguously in the file (as opposed to being interleaved). Their support channels have indicated a change to the format of the files in the future to make session saving faster so not worth developing something to spit out the gps data into the approved speed software packages.

What I like about it is the roll/pitch sensors and the gopro integration. The pitch sensors are good as you can see exactly what your board was doing. Think you are too tail heavy and slowing the board - you can compare it to other runs to see if putting more weight forwards makes any difference.
The gopro sync is theoretically pretty cool (iphone only so haven't been able to test it yet) as you can use the gps trace to skip to the position in your gopro footage of your fastest run/ highest jump. I suspect its gopro who need to upgrade their android app rather than xensr to bring feature parity.

The potential for the hardware is good. They process the files on their own servers based on the type of activity you select - hopefully removing weird data outlyers. Ultimately it works best where your mates all have the same device. There is always going to be a level of suspicion otherwise. I'm happy with mine although you do have to be careful in usage as they still have a couple of gotchas that can wipe your session data (which they are slowly fixing in firmware releases)

These sensors cost the same as a bottom of the line SLR. Better off just giving a kid or a backpacker fifty bucks to take some photos when it's 30 knots.

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wishy said..
These sensors cost the same as a bottom of the line SLR. Better off just giving a kid or a backpacker fifty bucks to take some photos when it's 30 knots.

Because....you can calculate the speed you are travelling at by the distance you travel inbetween photos by knowing the frame rate on the SLR??

Seems a complicated way of monitoring how fast you are going to me.

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weebitbreezy said..

wishy said..
These sensors cost the same as a bottom of the line SLR. Better off just giving a kid or a backpacker fifty bucks to take some photos when it's 30 knots.

Because....you can calculate the speed you are travelling at by the distance you travel inbetween photos by knowing the frame rate on the SLR??

Seems a complicated way of monitoring how fast you are going to me.

Yes but isn't the point to froth over how high you went? I would much rather see a lovely sunset photo of someone 60 foot in the air at Coronations than a bloody spreadsheet of their statistics.

(or, if it's speed you're into - a video of someone hauling arse through flat water with a 60 foot rooster tail flying out the back)

:)

So book a professional photographer every time I kite, or just put the puck on the board, and it does it for me.

What's a going rate for photo's these day $100 an hour ?

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dachopper said..
:)

So book a professional photographer every time I kite, or just put the puck on the board, and it does it for me.

What's a going rate for photo's these day $100 an hour ?

I would've thought just one photo, from one session would do the trick.
Just enough so your grandkids know you used to be awesome.

The other option is to push one of your mates really hard to do kiteloops so he's injured and can come down and take some photos!

That's not really the point, you go kiting with 5 or 6 mates for 10 years, and now you can put a puck on and actually know who is boosting the highest, and go in competitions etc.... and do something that you haven't done before.

the North Pic looks ok, but it appears to only have jump data, and no speed data at all, which I think is a bummer as a lot of the kite racing guys / board accross / long distance race guys I'm sure would be interested in this data.

The Xensr has the GPS and a nice google earth playback feature with speed readout, which is nice.

If they keep updating their App - which it looks like they are, then you could easily generate a polar diagram, which would be useful to see the effects of speed and angles using different kites / fins / boards - requiring you to do nothing but ride, and download the data and look at the picture.

For example - there is a Windrace App in the playstore - you just take your phone kiting, and this app splurts out some really nice data - almost everything except jump data, the Xensr should be able to output the same stuff

windrace.pro/

I have an inexpensive (online about $80) GPS Navig(8)r Sports Watch GPS Tracking S10 sold by Laser in Australia.
Had it for a couple of years now and still works.

Plug it in to your pc when you get home and it gives you an overlay on GEarth of your path and it gives you speed / height etc with little bar graphs showing the spikes and it is water resistant to 100m which equates to waterproof for swimmers.

Great cheap toy as long at you like yellow.