Discussion: GPS tracker thingys

Hi all,

I'm thinking of buying myself one of those GPS tracker thingys, you know, a small device that you clip to yourself when you run and that records where you've gone on your run. And then at the end of the run you can download it to your computer and overlay it on a map. Sounds too cool.

Can anyone suggest a good make and model for that? I know Kenny you have one (and have had for ages), Spike has one so I'm sure lots of you geeky types (like me) have suggestions :-)

Thanks a lot
Matthias

I have no experience with these things, but admit to be intrigued by the new Garmin Forerunner I was reading about. GPS + HRM for athletic training.. worth a look anyway

http://www.garmin.com/products/forerunner305/

This is the one I just bought on behalf of Mats Troeng and a couple of other guys from my club:

https://www.buydig.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=GRFR3...

See a recent discussion on the Garmin Forerunner 205/305. I am waiting patiently for it to come out so I can upgrade. And the Forerunner 201 can be found for a pretty good price these days.

I've been happy with all the garmins that I've had. (most recently the foretrex 201) the foretrex/forerunners are obviously the most suited to attaching to yourself, which is pretty important. the other thing that's very convenient is the internal batteries and charge/download cradle. I just leave mine in there after downloading, and it's always charged.

I like to wear mine with the expander strap on my upper arm. not sure if the 205/305 have that option.

There is an expander strap with the 205/305. Though I am looking forward to wearing it on my wrist - the antenna is supposed to be better geared to wrist wearing...

Do you find that they're getting better at tracking your route accurately in forested areas? I ran with a friend who used one, and it lost track of our position from time to time.

It depends on where you are - Colorado & Oregon last summer - perfect tracking. The parks around Washington, DC - not as good. More tree coverage perhaps...
The new 205/305 is touting a better technology. The beta testers have been really pleased with the results.

Does anyone have any experience with the FRWD system from Finland?? http://www.frwd.fi/

They were used at the 2005 Ski-O WorldChamps - http://www.skiwoc2005.org/index.php?pid=frwd_data

Neat ability to track competitors and run them head to head as they actually ran/skiied - rather than assuming a consistent pace on each split like Route Gadget does.

Can also rerun on individual and watch speed, heart rate (if they had a HRM on), altitude, pitch, temperature, simultaneously.

FRWD is relatively popular here. Vaajakosken Terä uses it a lot, here is their gps log page:

http://vaajakoskentera.com/frwd.php
(in Finnish)

By viewig those routes you can figure out something about accuracy/sensitity.

Halden SK fellows are also using it:
http://www.halden-skiklubb.no/article/articleview/...
but I no not know if there is any web gps log page.

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I have been doing FRWD / Forerunner / Suunto X9 track log viewing feature to RouteGadget, but I haven't yet found time to finish it. Too many ski-O events around here, you know ;]

Here is a night-O training event with Mats Troengs GPS track. It seems to be rather accurate.

http://www.matstroeng.nu/files/temp/fiby_060208.jp...

What system is he (and others in the club) using? Does anyone know - Boris?

mata - do you know if the black dots are his position at a regular time interval?

If so, being able to see relative speed would be illuminating. For instance, why the hesitation at the corner of the field about half-way between 7 and 8?

Here is an interesting Swedish web page with info on GPS-logging. Some of the material is in English, but most of it is in Swedish - the maps are international though. Here you will also find the different speeds used. The author is by no means an elite orienteer - hardly even competitive, but he´s certainly serious about what he is doing...

Jim, usually more dots doesn't mean less speed, but better coverage.

This rocks, but it is in Finnish:

http://www.suunnistus.net/pekkavaris/gpsseuranta/

- FRWD gps + bluetooth + gprs cell phone, it sends location live to a server
- stand alone windows application (you can download and install it), it connects to the server, reads the map and location data of competitors, you can see them moving live.

I'll let you know when there will be next live test.
I have seen one of live test test and it works really well.

Jarkko, what are the runners carrying on them? the FRWD unit and a cell phone?

KurkoCup 4 & 5

Pekka Varis had Rikaline GPS-6031-X7 bluetooth gps and a cell phone (a Nokia phone with bluetooth, I do not know the exact version).

KurkoCup 5 Jones Kahelin had older FRWD and the data was added afterwards (old frwd does not have bluetooth).

(FRWD was a more accurate than Rikaline)


KurkoCup 6 - 9

Both had new FRWD: F-series, the one with bluetooth. And a cell phone (with bluetooth).

So basicly they had two toys, gps and a cell phone. And a web server and some self written software.

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Pekka was mamber of Finnish national Ski-O team last year. Jouni "Jones" Kahelin is Vaajakosken Terä runner, Finnish Long distance champion 2-3 years ago.

The GPS Mats Troeng is using is the one Boris is linking to. I don´t know anyhing more about it, really. I was involved in the business where the people in OK Linné bought the stuff (it is much sheaper in USA), but as I have left Uppsala for Tennessee I don´t know much about it. Boris maybe has some more information?

Actually, the one i linked to is different from the one Mats is using. The one he (and Micke Nordstrom and maybe a couple of others) used on Wednesday is a bigger one that they attached to their backs (they carried both that onne and the one i linked to) that some company representative gave them as a trial version to see what they thought of it. I don't know the details, but will ask when I am back in Uppsala on Tuesday.