Hi guys,

Despite me knowing that the replacement unit to the GT-31 will be out sometime this year, can anyone recommend a suitable (and affordable) alternative? I contacted Johnny Appleseed today and they recommended the Holux M-241 Bluetooth Logger.

www.ja-gps.com.au/Holux/m-241-bluetooth-data-logger/

I'm keen to start logging data in the GPSTC but am not sure whether this unit will 'cut the mustard'.

Any advice on a GPS device to achieve this is greatly appreciated.

Tony

A very basic and cheap unit is the Canmore, plenty of info in a previous thread. It has been approved by GPS Team Challenge and some sailors are already posting with it.

Ah yep - good call. Thanks mate.

Where can we find a Canmore other than online? Anyone ?

The rumour mill thinks the GT replacement will be out this month. I hope we're not too disappointed.

I see that the GPSSS have been involved in the development of a GPS unit called "thingsee" and are in testing mode. About the same size as the GT31
m.facebook.com/GPSSpeedsurfing

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sausage said..
I see that the GPSSS have been involved in the development of a GPS unit called "thingsee" and are in testing mode. About the same size as the GT31
m.facebook.com/GPSSpeedsurfing

....... not much info their yet other than pickies

Yes but the inside gossip is that it might just be what we are after.

There are alot of us hoping to see a good replacement for the GT31 in the very near future. It seems all stocks of the 31 have now gone, today I was asked if the Canmore is the go or wait for the 51? It would be great to know how far off the Tinggsee is plus capabiltiy and price. I would hate to see prople jump and get the 51, be disappointe and the thingsee miss out on sales it needs to be financially secure if it is the product we need.
Please post if you have knowledge about the Thingsee.

It's amazing that there has been only one approved GPS unit for so long. The replacement should have been ready at time of running out the old model. The Thingsee might be the best Thingsee since sliced bread but we don't know if it's GF, multi, whole grain, white or a bit of everything! For a company to have the market cornered (Locosys) you'd think they'd want to retain existing customers and get the new ones. Not to mention actually improving the product. If the Thingsee is approved and a similar price point and same or better features (read water PROOF) I'll take one and get a team going. But please hurry up.

I suspect the market is a maybe two thousand or so units, so there is probably not a fortune to be made for the company which does manage to make the right product. As for waterproof, if you read other posts on this topic it seems that is not likely with the price and other features we want.
I have been very successful with the Paqua and the GT31 so I will be very happy if the replacement is similar to the 31 in water ingress prevention. I just hope we get one soon.

OK Here are some facts about the Thingsee One, (which is getting close).

It has 10z UBlox GPS chip with Binary UBX output. (contains all the Doppler speed data and accuracy data we need)
Micro SD card
Powerful computer processor
Wireless networking
Bluetooth networking
Phone card
IPx7 waterproofing (same as GT-31)
Screen about the same size as GT-31
Big Battery life
It has open source firmware and is programmable to do whatever you want it to do with the data and hardware it contains.
Some Dutch techies are working on the programming and firmware as of now. The aim is to have all the features the GT-31 had and more.

Rough guesstimates of price, (no guarantees), 200-250 Euro.

So it will be dearer than the GX-52, but potentially much more capable.

We will still just have to wait a bit longer to see what transpires with both options, but it is getting much closer.

Water proof! My $70 Lifeproof iPhone case is water proof. Add $70 to the price and there will still be takers on the new unit. Sure a bag is cheaper but after 4yrs(yes I need to update) it's still sound. No I don't and never did expose it to body slams while sailing or swimming.
I wonder what dictates the shape of these devices? If they were phone shaped then there would be possible options for keeping the dry.
My 2c again.

Many thanks for the info Sailquik, I will suggest to my friend he holds fire for a short while while we hope to see the Thingsee One hit the streets.

Do you(anyone) think that Locosys are aware of the Thingsee? It should be making them lift their game to get their new unit out, since GPS sailors are part of the Thingsee design team and not outsiders asking for features. If there are only 2000 or so potential customers first out should be able to get a large market share so long as the features are what is needed.

thingsee.com/

They would be aware now but Locosys do not see a business case for tooling for the type of waterproofing we want. The costs far outweigh the probable returns with such a small market. Remember, we are only talking thousands of potential customers, not millions like with bike/running GPS or tens of millions with phones.

The shape is a bit of an issue to make cases for as the plastic bag idea never really worked for me. IPX67 just not enough without an extra layer.

My impression from the pic is that it might just squeeze into a paqua, any confirmation?

Problem looks like squeezing 2 into the larger paqua?

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decrepit said..
My impression from the pic is that it might just squeeze into a paqua, any confirmation?

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kato said..
The shape is a bit of an issue to make cases for as the plastic bag idea never really worked for me. IPX67 just not enough without an extra layer.

Why is it that shape then? Make it to a formula that already has a solution. As I said "what has dictated the shape that we see"?

I think it's shaped this way because gps tracking is only one of its many purposes.

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seanhogan said...
I think it's shaped this way because gps tracking is only one of its many purposes.

But no two GPS units look alike, how can this be? Canmore looks tiny while new Locosys is a puck and Garmin is phonish proportioned.

As Sean said. This thing (see) is not conceived as a 'GPS'. That is just one of the many things it can be adapted to do.

Hey Andrew,
any idea if the Thingsee will take larger capacity memory cards than the 2gig max of the GT's?

Can anyone provide exact external(max HxWxL) dimensions please?

It seems to me the thingsee may be interesting for those in need of compliance with GPSSS rules for record attempts, much less so for normal use by normal sailors. The 1 c 0Hz thing is ridiculous. The accuracy data, who cares. Micro SD is great. Wireless and Bluetooth, what for. Phone card even less so. Screen as big as the GT -31, very good. IPX7 not nearly enough. Long battery life, obviously! And, 250 USD sounds just crazy (assuming one is any concerned with money), much more so considering the very poor waterproofing (same as GT-31 means it will die as soon as the bag will happen to have the usual tiny crack). The Canmore makes much more sense to me, pity the tiny screen.

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sick_em_rex said..
Hey Andrew,
any idea if the Thingsee will take larger capacity memory cards than the 2gig max of the GT's?

My understanding is that it is compatible with all micro SD cards. 128 GB

Most specs available on the Thingsee One website. http://www.thingsee.com/Thingsee-One-Fact-sheet.pdf

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Man0verBoard said..
Can anyone provide exact external(max HxWxL) dimensions please?

110 x 67 x 19 mm

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geoITA said..
It seems to me the thingsee may be interesting for those in need of compliance with GPSSS rules for record attempts, much less so for normal use by normal sailors. The 1 c 0Hz thing is ridiculous. The accuracy data, who cares. Micro SD is great. Wireless and Bluetooth, what for. Phone card even less so. Screen as big as the GT -31, very good. IPX7 not nearly enough. Long battery life, obviously! And, 250 USD sounds just crazy (assuming one is any concerned with money), much more so considering the very poor waterproofing (same as GT-31 means it will die as soon as the bag will happen to have the usual tiny crack). The Canmore makes much more sense to me, pity the tiny screen.

What is a 'normal' sailor? One who is interested in accuracy, not fantasy?

Ridiculous is trying to run a competition or ranking where there is no way to know if the numbers you are posting are real or not. Without accuracy data, or at least corroborating trackpoint data, (neither available in the Canmore) it is just luck and hope. Remember the first rankings and competitions with the Garmin 205 GPS? We now know that any ranking of 20 sailors within a few knots of each other was highly likely to be purely random. The error was so great it could easily cover many sailors. The Canmore maintains the same possibility, despite it being 'potentially' more accurate. You will just never know. Fantasy or fact?

The GT-11 and GT-31 introduced progressively higher accuracy confidence to the point where we could have meaningful competitions and rankings. Being able to have even more confidence in the accuracy and ranking can't be anything but great!

Wireless and Bluetooth have the potential to allow cable free downloads, something that many people have been asking for for years! Bluetooth also has potential for wireless waterproof headphones telling you your speed as you sail, or a screen on your boom showing you your speed as you sail. What about a BT Heads up display in your goggles?

Wireless and Phone connection provides the possibility of real time results sent to your computer or to a timekeeper in a competition. That would be revolutionary, and could make televising World Cup races and major speed events so much more interesting to viewers and sponsors. But would also make local events so much easier to organise and much more interesting. The possibilities just increased out of sight.

10hz has the potential to make the Alpha category much more accurate to the point where the rankings in GPS-SS and GPSTC will actually be real and not almost random. Why is having more of something good ridiculous? Heres a thing: What about the ability to see your Alpha run results at the end of every run! Not only that, it might be possible to program the display to tell you how much you missed the poximity circle by (if you did)! How much fun would that be?

How about the ability to see all the category results at the end of every run? Are at least program the device to show you the ones you are interested in, not just the top speed and 10 sec average.

Yes, waterproofing is not ideal, but that is something that can be built later. At least it won't die so readily if your waterproofing solution develops a leak. Remember that you have to carry the device in something anyhow. We have plenty of workable solutions for that already.

The cost figure mooted is in Euro. 200-250. Every rider I have spoken to at Lake George this year has expressed the opinion that they would be quite happy to pay that or more for the capabilities of this device. Remember that all have a quite significant investment in their chosen pastime. They have taken weeks off work and have driven from 7 to 25 hours to get here and will have spent up to 2 times that on fuel alone before they get home. Every one of them would have many thousands of $ worth of gear, cars, tents, caravans etc. Many sailors think nothing of spending A$1200 on a carbon boom, or A$1800 on a sail. they buy A$300 fins in bulk like they are disposable toys (and many are;-)). Why so hung up on the modest cost of the part of your equipment that is actually the great enabler to get you into this wonderful lifestyle and community of fun?