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Skydiving Gear and Equipment: Altimeters, Audibles and AADS: Larsen & Brusgaard : Altitrack : Reviews: Pages: 1 2 [>] [>>]

has contributed 12 reviews

(Review ID:2169)

11 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

1 happy customer

Rated by: drhcanada on 2009-04-23 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Altitrack in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: big display and tons of info
Cons: takes some figuring out on the computer side

This was my very first altimeter and wow, for the extra bit of money it was well worth it compared to a non digital type.

face is perfect size and with it fitting nicely on an angle on my hand it makes it all the easier to read without tilting my hands.

once you get used to navigating the display on the backside, the information this thing provides is amazing to say the least and I use the replay feature to give non skydiving friends a sense of the speed and timing.

all in all, I will buy again.
hopefully the software will get better so I can take advantage of that too.

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(Review ID:2039)

5 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

Recomended

Rated by: cefey on 2008-08-08 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Altitrack in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Very accurasy, realy easy to read, logbook with lot of stuff, greate background light for night jumping
Cons: You have to buy expansive software for it:/

Really great thing! Yes, it maybe a bit more expansive then other altimeters, but you get lot more then you pay for.

For the first its very great accuracy, since its digital.
But since it have a analog display, so it very easy to read. It have a clear and great display.
Also I like very nice background light. Very great for night jumping!
Also its have a logbook with lot of data. Exit alti, deploy alti, max/min/avg speed, ff time and much more!

Only thing I dont like is that I have to buy very expensive software to get my logs over to PC.

Otherwise Im super happy with it and highly recomend it for everyone!

Cannot enter negative DZ offset

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(Review ID:2023)

24 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

Altitrack great, JumpTrack software, not so good.

Rated by: JonnyMac on 2008-07-16 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Altitrack in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: The instrument works as advertised.
Cons: UI is not intuitive. Jump track software is expensive and not very good.

I loved my Altitrack, but I think the JumpTrack software leaves a lot to be desired, and that takes away considerably from the package.

First, Altitrack works great, as advertised. It is beautiful aesthetically and ergonomically, resting nicely on the side of the hand. The analog movement is natural and easy to read. One comment: it does not show any more granularity than the typical analog altimeter at low altitudes, while technically it could.

JumpTrack is not so hot. First mistake: the product is Windows-only and uses Microsoft Access for its database. My software freezes or hangs or fails to import data at least once every time I open it.

As far as I can tell, the software will not import GPS.

I ran into a competitive product recently that looks superior: Paralog (www.paralog.net), which runs on Linux, Mac, or Windows, imports from GPS (jumps viewable in 3D on google earth), and supports digital logbook signatures (not sure if those are accepted by USPA, though I think not). Paralog, however, does not import Altitrack data, only ProTrack, Neptune, and a few others.

The Paralog software looks so good to me (and supports publishing to web!), that if I had it to do over, I would go with a lesser instrument than Altitrack so that I could use superior software.

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(Review ID:1912)

19 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

Altitrack is a great altimeter

Rated by: dfairleigh11 on 2007-12-19 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Altitrack in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Tons of data, accurate, and easy to read
Cons: A little on the heavy side

Absolutely LOVE my L&B Altitrack. Lots of people think it's just a normal analog alti - it's SO far from that. I prefer the analog style, but I wanted more info about my jumps without having to have a 2nd alti to record that info - this fills all my needs. In a previous review, I read that you can't do a neg. offset - first day out of the box I checked that and had no issues setting it. Tells you more about your jump then you'd ever need to know - max/min/avg speed, freefall time, exit & deployment altitude, and then after your jump you can replay the entire thing to see all the little details about your jump, like how much alt. you lose doing a full toggle 360 or a front riser dive. If you want an alti that reads like an analog and has a full computer, get an Altitrack!

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(Review ID:1781)

8 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

Altitrack negative altitude adjustment issue

Rated by: paul_rovira on 2007-04-14 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Altitrack in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Great analog display & computer
Cons: Cannot enter negative DZ offset

First off I love my Altitrack and would recommend it to anyone who wants an analog display with digital accuracy and a computer. I would just like to inform potential buyers about a known issue with negative offset entry. If you are jumping into an elevation which is higher than your take off altitude be advised you cannot enter a Negative Offset into the device. Example - our DZ is 490ft higher than our takeoff altitude, so I would need to adjust minus 490 on a regular altimeter. According to L&B this is a known issue and they are working on an upgrade to be released around August 2007. The suggested workaround; "The way you should do is manually adjusting the Altitrack to �0� when you climb in the plane and pass the altitude of the DZ where you are going to land.".
cheers,
Paul

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(Review ID:1678)

15 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

L&B is an amazing group of people!

Rated by: DSE on 2006-10-15 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Altitrack in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: ease of use, features, backlight, best with JT software
Cons: Cable should come with unit, not software, cable should be available separately, rubber ring on the face is chipping aft

I had a Protrack prior to purchasing my Altitrack, and wanted to keep using my JT software, the software is the cake, and the Altitrack is the icing, IMO.
These guys really planned this product out well.
And when my cable to connect the Altitrack to the computer disappeared, L&B was willing to help me out so I didn't need to buy another copy of the software just to get another cable. GREAT customer service.

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(Review ID:1615)

54 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

L&B, it's all good

Rated by: 377 on 2006-08-06 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Altitrack in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: LOADED with features
Cons: erratic, first 500 ft of climb

I have bought EVERY accessory that L&B has ever made. Their customer service is A+++++++++ (actually PERFECT) and their products are great. The non linear face on the Altitrack is a very useful feature. It doesnt require wraparound conversion to figure out your altitude if you are above 12K. It also spreads out the low altitude portion to give you good angular resolution where you need it most. They use a solid state pressure sensor, a microprocessor and a digital stepper motor to do this. The back lighting is nice, not overly bright. The hand mounting works well, although I prefer a wrist mount. The jump logging features are awesome, everything the Pro track does and more. I like to have an accurate altimeter from TO to landing and here is the one shortcoming in the current version of the product. For about the first 500 ft after TO it stays on zero then jumps up to the right reading and is fine after that. Maybe L&B will fix this in a new software version. When you consider all the work that went into the product. the amazing number of useful features and the relatively small skydiving market, it is a good value at $299. I think it is out of kindness towards the Cypres mfr that L&B does not make AADs. Clearly they have the software and most of the hardware to do it already. The Altitrack is a great device which is useful, fun and very accurate. Buy one, you will not regret it. I love knowing that if something goes wrong, even after warranty expiration, L&B will treat me right and keep me happy, just as they have always done. They truly deserve my business and set the gold standard for taking care of customers.

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(Review ID:1570)

61 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent analogue face powerful and detailed jump tracking computer

Rated by: Armour on 2006-06-18 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Altitrack in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Extremely smooth, highly accurate and easy to read analogue face with built in back lighting. Twined with a highly detai
Cons: USB cable for firmware updates and basic ALTITRACK setting should be included with the ALTITRACK and not with the Jump T

Once I was signed up for and paid for my AFF course I started to look for my first piece of gear. My only other experience with altimeters was on my introductory Jump with a chest mounted altimeter. After looking at various models and prices I decided that the cost to get the ALTITRACK to have an easy to read analog faces but with the log book features of a digital would be worth it. In 3 past days did seven jumps of my AFF and found it extremely great to use.

For jump tracking purposes you can put in a starting jump number and accumulated free fall time from previous jumps

On my first jump with it I found that the needle did not move on take off right away which had me a bit concerned but on flipping it over I did find that it was showing it was in flight mode and showing the altitude climbing on the digital display. At about 500 feet the needle jumps and then moves smoothly from there this was pretty much standard I observed on all takeoffs. I did find that on Saturday being 33 Degrees C extremely humid and 4 jumpers in a C182 makes for a sloooow climb to altitude that the needle at times would not always move and then jump at increments but the digital was always showing the correct current altitude extremely accurate I compared this several time to the planes altimeter on different jumps. One of the jump we got up too 7000� and hit a cloud ceiling popping up through a break in the clouds and climbing to 8500� and the top of the cloud base it was deemed the break wouldn�t be in a location for a good spot so the pilot dropped down to 7000� pretty aggressively the ALTITRACK did not record this as a jump (I had it and AFF mode) but some of the other modes may pick that up as such. So there is a jump deletes feature to erase a jump for such a case VIA the menus screens on back or if you loan it to some one that way your jump # a free fall time remains accurate for your use.

One easy use but important feature of the ALTITRACK is the altitude is adjusted automatically for you DZ location but if you are taking off from one altitude but jumping in to a different one you can put in this altitude off set in to the ALTITRACK to factor in the elevation difference.

On the Back you get displayed Date Time change screens you get total jumps and freefall time. As you scroll through the jumps you get exit altitude, deployed altitude, freefall time and dive type and speed Max Min and Avg. On the dive screen you can replay back the jump with pointer movement in real time � speeds or double or view the digital read out of the jump playback showing the Altitude and speed.

On exit and during free fall the needle moves very smoothly and the position sits on such a nice offset position my hand that that it was very easy to glance at so much so that I had to start turning my head for altitude checks as my instructor wasn�t sure I was doing them

I had set mine to track both free fall and under canopy. This reduces the number of full jumps as it can track. There is not a jump number limit but a time limit of 400 minutes that it will log and then start over writing the first jumps once that limit is reached which it wasn�t a concern for me as all the details are downloaded in to JUMP TRACK.

Jump Track 3.0 software and the USB adapter for the ALTITRACK the setup was pretty straight forward and went without issues (I�m in I.T. by trade so the computer stuff comes second nature to me) but looking at the instillation instructions it has all the steps that most non computer savvy people should be able to install without issues. The Various settings for the ALTITRACK such and MPH/KPH/FPS Meters or Feet for altitude on the digital readout, Fahrenheit or Celsius ect. can be change VIA screens on the ALTITRACK itself or the JUMP Track software allowing you to change all the settings on the ALTITRACK. The back up feature is very easy to use all you need to do is select the folder to back it up to and the click! I would strongly suggest doing this on a regular basis and save it to a CD or USB thumb drive (2 gb can now be gotten for $60 or so) loosing all you electronic log books to a computer crash is something that can be easily avoided buy this step. Jump Track 3.0 now uses standard Microsoft Access Databases for the log books now so all you advance computer users of Database people will see a wealth of opportunities this opens for presenting the data form jumps. The default reports are pretty decent to start. There are several other great features in Jump track that I like such as Gear Track which will track and alert you to repack cycles cypress maintaince cycles ect. Linked with the jump track will track number of jumps on your gear. It can track a number of different rigs at once. Also tracking gear costs and serial numbers in one handy place. I had down loaded the Demo from L&B and found all the tings it could do was going to be worth the cost. You can enter all you jump DZ�s you jump at Jump ticket prices to track all your costs and so much more

The battery is a fairly common one to find LS 14250 Lithium and L&B says it should last 2 years through normal use or less if you use the backlighting. They say the ALTITRACK really only needs to be turned off when on a commercial flight or driving in the mountains. The backlighting is not overly bright to affect you night vision but not to dim either (haven�t done a night jump but have tried it dark and dimly lit room) The finger loop (black glued surgical tubing) that came with it is sized for single finger but a a two finger one is available or due to it being attached via Velcro pretty much any type of finger loop you want could be easily be but on. The wrist loop I found to long about 1 �� even wearing over jump suit cuff that I will be cutting it with a hot knife and a quick sew to keep the Velcro from separating. The wrist loop is very secure with long length of Velcro in contact and is very easy to replace. I have fairly small hands and found it sits fine for me with no issues.

I order from http://www.skydivestore.com the shipped it Via USPS witch I�m extremely happy with. I live in Canada it did take a little longer for it to arrive the Fedex or UPS (If your in Canada do not ever use UPS if you don�t want to be gouged by customs brokerage fees!!! and this is from more than one costly experience I cite this from) Via USPS it took just a week to arrive but only cost me $28 GST and $5 customs brokerage fees.

I don�t have a lot of experience with gear but after talking may people at the DZ this weekend many who use various digital altimeters the response about the ALTITRACK I have gotten I don�t feel any buyers remorse about the product or the price I�ve paid and feel I�ll get a long and good use out of this altimeter. I would have no problem recommend it to others who want a very detailed computer for jump tracking with the extremely easy to read Analogue face. Overall looking at it you�re getting 2 very high end products wrapped in to one

I will update this latter as a I get more use in the different jump mode and one of the wing suite jumper would like to give it a try

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(Review ID:1559)

8 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

Must have for instructors

Rated by: Danor69 on 2006-06-01 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Altitrack in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Features galore..
Cons: none.. ok price maybe but it's worth it.

ok.. you can read about what the features are but I've already used a few of them..
1. the log booking feature.. basically the same as the protrack.. but since I make a lot of jumps in a day I like having it to keep track..
2. the single biggest selling point for me is you can playback your jump using the needle.. esentailly you can use it for an accurate altitude simulator.. GREAT for student.. and decent even just for dirt dives..
3. the backlight is electronic, and very visable.
4. the fit is great.. a simple rubber gasket on the back makes it 100% more comfortable than predicesors.. not that they were even uncomfortable.. but that's L&B always raising the bar..
it is a little spendy for a newer jumper, but if you concider the logbook functions combined with the jump playback for training and the backlight.. in my opinion it's worth it..

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(Review ID:1543)

18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

Great altimeter!

Rated by: bofh on 2006-05-29 (user profile) (user reviews)

Review of: Altitrack in Unknown Tag: 'cat_linked'

Pros: Easy to read & use.
Cons: Low precision clock, computer connectivity is in a separate product.

The altitrack comes in a clear plastic throw away box together with a little bag to store it in, an embroided patch and three manuals. One real manual, a quick start guide (just enough to use it as an altimeter) and a "road map" paper that shows all menus and how to navigate them.

The manual (70 pages, each 12x9cm) explains everything together with images of each menu in an easy to read style, but it is rather wordy and some of the information is repeated a few times. There is a good index in the beginning so one can skip most of the hand-holding and go directly for the thing one is interesting in.

The altitrack comes in a few colours, black or silvery-goldish were available when I got mine, and the face comes in four different versions: meter or feet and a symetrical or asymetrical scale. I choose the asymetrical meter scale and mine shows 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 and 50 x 100m. There are half way marks between each number.

The face also has the pro-dytter's "access" and "low battery" leds, both work just like on the pro-dytter. On the side there are two keys to be able to manually adjust the elevation (it does that automaticly by default) and to turn backlight on/off. There is also a rubber covered connector for the USB-track cable. The size is about the same as a barigo and the rubber on the back is designed so it can fit nicely over the side of the hand, near the thumb. The display is rotated 45 degrees compared to the barigo, making it slightly easier to read.And that's it, until one turns the unit over.

The backside is the interface to the loggbook and setup features. Here there are three more keys, "left", "right" and "dot". The display is an old-school LCD with pictures and 7-segment numbers, so no fancy graphs are possible to display. It is easy to read, but there is no backlight. Navigating the logbook and setup is easy and quick, pressing dot to switch screens and left/right to navigate the current screen. It is probably not too hard to accidently enter the setup mode (just hold the "dot" key for three seconds), but all important settings are well protected and almost impossible to change by misstake (one has to change a number to match a "matching number" and then press dot). The keys are near my knuckles when I'm wearing it and if I press the display, the "dot" key is pressed, but it requires some force. One can chose to have things displayed in meter or feet, mph or km/h, Celsius or Farenheit. Like the pro-track airspeed can be displayed in both SAS and TAS.

Before jumping, one can set the kind of jump (there are 8 different kinds, two of them change how the unit works - student, for logging short delay jumps and "slow" for birdman jumps) and while looking throw the logbook, it is displayed.

So, what's good and what's bad?

On the front's two keys, one is used to enter height adjustment mode and one is used to turn on/off backlight, but which does what isn't marked in any way. If one uses the wrong one when intending to turning on the backlight, it stops to automaticly adjust the height until after the next jump.

Log menu #2 (there are three) is used to look at the log for a specific jump and play it forward and back (and also to start analog playback). The playback is first played back at 1/4 of normal speed and can be increased by pressing left/right more times. Unfortunally one can't slow down the speed again or stop it. Pressing the other key only changes direction of the playback. Not a big deal, but slightly annoying.

The manual claims the clock has a precision of +-4 MINUTES / month! Sure, one will not use the altitrack as a regular clock, but still +-4 MINUTES can be the next/previos load after a few months into the season unless one remembers to set the clock now and then. It is however easy to set the clock and I often just change to the Xth jump of the day.

Unlike the Neptune, one has to pay more to be able to access the unit from a computer and afterwards it is a bit hard to put the rubber protection back over the connector (on the Neptune an IR interface is used, which almost all laptops have and the program is gratis for Neptune owners).

The unit feels solid and looks quite good (mine is of the silvery-goldish kind), but on close inspection there are a few rather visible casting marks around the buttons and strap holders which look less good. I don't know if the colour is painted on or if it is the plastic that has been coloured.

It is easy to find the information one searches for, both in the menus of the unit and in its manuals.

I don't know if it is good or bad, but the unit has a clearly marked reset key under the battery lid, the firmware version is displayed when it is powered on and the manual explains how to udate the firmware. Hopefully it will not be needed... :-)

The unit seems well thought out. Besides good protection of irreversible actions (and power off), the unit also refuses to do an analog play back of an old jump while in "jump mode". When the unit powers off, it puts the dial at 2000m and at power on it shows what kind of scale it expects on the front (in my case it says 6000 m). All to prevent nasty surprises.

On one of my camera jumps the minimum speed has been recorded as 105km/h, which seems really low (I didn't use any wings). Perhaps the unit got fooled by me putting my hands in front of my chest while speeding up?

Anyway, the display is easy to read and the height displayed matches my pro-dytter perfectly.

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