SPOT GEN3 vs. GEN1?

My trusty SPOT gen1 has developed a bad on/off switch. The GEN1 was very good and almost never missed a data point. Any reviews of the gen3 vs the origional?

TT

It's a poor man's InReach?

'Nuff said.

On Monday, December 26, 2016 at 10:27:19 PM UTC-7, Tim Taylor wrote:
My trusty SPOT gen1 has developed a bad on/off switch. The GEN1 was very good and almost never missed a data point. Any reviews of the gen3 vs the origional?

TT

I hope it's better than the Gen2(s) that I had; they would eat up brand new lithium batteries in a matter of hours. Spot had a recall on a certain range of serial numbers known to do that, but mine was outside of the serial number range, so they would not honor it. I switched to InReach and have had no problems. It's pricier, but you can take it offline in the winter and recoup some of that expense.

CG

Had a gen 1 and went to a gen 2. . had tracking issues with both.

Just want with Inreach after several glowing reviews from some people that responded to info request.

Have not used it yet, but really like the increased tracking interval, the fact it uses a different satellite system, that sounds more robust for this application, and the fact it keeps sending the message until it gets a verification from the satellite that it was received.

On Cumulus soaring there is a good break down on the different plans you can get so you can set up tracking as you would like. Not just the standard 10 min, but more frequent. Was called the Aviation plan, now called the Enterprise plans.

Hope this helps.

Kevin
92

On Monday, December 26, 2016 at 9:27:19 PM UTC-8, Tim Taylor wrote:
My trusty SPOT gen1 has developed a bad on/off switch. The GEN1 was very good and almost never missed a data point. Any reviews of the gen3 vs the origional?

TT

An alternative that you rarely see discussed is the Yellow Bird. British company, targeted more towards yachts (where is it much more popular). Not inReach or Garmin, different plans, but uses the same technology and has the same features as inReach. The main advantage of this device is the battery life is FAR longer than inReach. inReach is fine if you charge it every other flight or so. the battery life if transmitting every 10 minutes is something less than 24 hours, if transmitting every 4 hours it will go about 4 days. The Yellow Bird will go 3 weeks transmitting every 15 minutes. I don't have one but several yachtsmen I know do.

Just throwing it out there in case you are looking for something different.

My two cents: I had problems with spot. Got an inreach and have been delighted; only problem is on-switch is not well-enough protected/recessed to prevent battery run-down if carelessly tossed in a bag of random junk.
See ya, Dave

I had a gen 2 which crapped out and I've been more than happy with my gen 3.

The gen 3 has even survived multiple trips on a friend's high altitude balloon project where it was the only tracking device that survived. It did quite working above ~50,000ft but came.back on during descent and allowed them to find their experiment.

I'm with the others - InReach has been extremely reliable. I also shut mine down for 3 months in the Winter (same time I take the glider offline), so the price isn't that much worse than the Spot.

P3

On Tuesday, December 27, 2016 at 8:41:55 AM UTC-8, Dave Nadler wrote:
My two cents: I had problems with spot. Got an inreach and have been delighted; only problem is on-switch is not well-enough protected/recessed to prevent battery run-down if carelessly tossed in a bag of random junk.
See ya, Dave

Like others I dropped SPOT for InReach and am happy with it.
Don't see battery life as a problem: Lasts more than a week of average soaring days and is rechargeable with a micro USB cable.
Dave, there was a bug in one version that caused InReach to start up too easily. Try updating it (currently v1.4.9.8229) and see if that helps.
Jim

On Tuesday, December 27, 2016 at 9:35:14 AM UTC-8, JS wrote:
On Tuesday, December 27, 2016 at 8:41:55 AM UTC-8, Dave Nadler wrote:
My two cents: I had problems with spot. Got an inreach and have been delighted; only problem is on-switch is not well-enough protected/recessed to prevent battery run-down if carelessly tossed in a bag of random junk.
See ya, Dave

Like others I dropped SPOT for InReach and am happy with it.
Don't see battery life as a problem: Lasts more than a week of average soaring days and is rechargeable with a micro USB cable.
Dave, there was a bug in one version that caused InReach to start up too easily. Try updating it (currently v1.4.9.8229) and see if that helps.
Jim

Typo: latest version is 1.4.9.8299