AO(N²) Brilliant Pebbles audible

[mr2mk1g 10]

degeneration

************Right, sell it to me. I've already got a Pro-track and an Optima 2... why do I need one of these?

I *want* to buy one, as who doesn't want a new toy?! The price point is excellent, but I don't think I really *need* one. Unless you can convince me otherwise. I am open to being convinced, I just don't want to end up with something I won't use over what I've already got.

How about supporting British industry and innovation and helping fund future developments?

Sorry, but I want to be sold it as a product not as a feel good pat on the back.

You said you didn't need one so how can you be sold on one? The information is in this thread already. I'm only repeating it when I say smallest, cheapest audible on the market. Innovative with the app and future developments. Sorry if supporting a young local doesn't tip you over the edge.

Sorry, maybe I wasn't as clear as I could have been in my original statement. I said I don't think I need one. Maybe there's something I'm not realising/appreciating on the capabilities of this.

I don't need one as I already have devices that do what I want, but I wanted to know what makes this a better option to have than an Optima, as if I could be reasonably convinced on that one, I'd happily replace the optima. Also, maybe this has features that an Optima doesn't have, which could make this the better device to have?

I was really just looking for real-life usage reasons as to why my kit would be better for having one of these.

By a Pebble and sell the Optima second hand - you'll probably make enough of a profit to buy a couple of jumps.

[lyosha 48]

I purchased one of these things to try them out, but for me having to turn it on every day will probably be a deal breaker as well.

I haven't had to turn my Optima on since I got it and only take it out to adjust altitudes. I don't know a single skydiver which turns their audibles off at night.

The point about turning it on to know battery isn't running out is moot as well. All audibles I've used emit a sound at 1k. L&B ones that sound even changes to let you know your battery is low. If you don't hear a sound - your audible is off.

My Optima lasts literally a year in between batteries, which cost peanuts. The same is true of just about every other audible out there, so I don't think it's an unreasonable expectation.

[maxhogg 0]

I bought one of these in place of an Optima and love it for canopy alarms. Although the Optima has a sort of 'approach' beeping to each of your pattern altitudes, Arthur got me to set it up using two alarms for each of my pattern altitudes. So for example one goes off at 320 feet and one at 300 feet. It works really well to calibrate my turn more precisely. If you're looking for canopy alarms I cannot recommend it strongly enough.

As for freefall alarms, my one question is over the volume. I use it alongside a pro track for sit flying and, whilst I can hear both, the pro track is more 'noticeable' at break off. I do have a slight question in my mind over whether I would reliably hear it if I was going a little more quickly at break off.

All the same, the number of alarms is awesome. I'm just now thinking that I might set one for 1000 foot above break off as an additional warning that I need to get ready to get out of there.

Awesome product for the price. Thanks Arthur!

[aonsquared 9]

Hi degeneration,

As Craig has said, you can set up to 20 alarms each accurate to 1 metre - try that with a Pro-track or Optima.

You can also set altitudes up to 29,999 feet (the Pro-track maxes out at 9900, the Pro-track 2 which is £275 maxes out at 19900).

Many people who bought one are raving about how easy it is to use. Our target market was recently-qualified skydivers, as we want to make audibles more accessible to people who don't have them yet.

Obviously you have several audibles already, and don't seem to be our target market, so I hope you don't take offence if we don't spend much effort trying to sell it to you
However, our plan is to start adding higher-end features to it such as canopy speed detection and some jump logging, with a much better software interface.

But we will not do that at the cost of our original mission which was to make audibles more affordable to skydivers. The more affordable skydiving is, the more people will do it, everybody wins :)

[aonsquared 9]

lyosha

***We've now started testing new features - canopy speed detection!

We've also released a new version of the app which can update the device firmware, so when we've finished testing these new features it will be an automatic notification of the update.

Any way you'd be willing to open source the code and/or allow guest developers?

There's a few of us here that know how to write some code and are interested in contributing to such a project...

Hi Iyosha,

Thanks for your interest! What sort of involvement did you have in mind?

[aonsquared 9]

Thanks Max and Craig!

I haven't had much time to check this thread as I had a lot of work shipping audibles and improving the software - our app now works in several locales and is improving every day :)

I'll try to check this every week or so, but if anyone wants to ask anything urgent just drop me an email at [email protected].

[lyosha 48]

aonsquared

******We've now started testing new features - canopy speed detection!

We've also released a new version of the app which can update the device firmware, so when we've finished testing these new features it will be an automatic notification of the update.

Any way you'd be willing to open source the code and/or allow guest developers?

There's a few of us here that know how to write some code and are interested in contributing to such a project...

Hi Iyosha,

Thanks for your interest! What sort of involvement did you have in mind?

Implementing features that you don't see the value in but there is demand for. Namely the three mentioned in this thread.

[aonsquared 9]

I don't think I've said that we don't see value in any of the features mentioned in this thread...could you be more specific?

We're currently working on hard deck alarms, adding an option to turn off the climb beeps, and the app showing last battery level among others.

There's actually nothing stopping anyone from reprogramming the audible with their own firmware, all that's needed is the AVR109 protocol. Connecting it to a PC shows as a USB-CDC device, and connecting and disconnecting at 1200 baud will kick it into bootloader mode. The microcontroller is an AVR Atmega32u4.

[DonScott 0]

Just wanted to add to the discussion, because I didn't see anyone mention actually using one, that I used it for a couple jumps last Saturday. Worked well and was super easy to set up. Two things I did like about it were the ability to choose tones and the fact that it wasn't super loud. I could hear it just fine, but I often find my Pro-Track to be a bit louder than I would like.

[TsunamiGilligan 0]

I bought one of these as a second audible to compliment my ProTrack. The flexibility on the alarms is great, and I like the simple android interface. Can't beat it for the price.

The only thing I want to change ASAP is turning off the beeps on the climb. Glad to see that update is already in development. As a static line instructor, my 3500 ft alarm is going off repeatedly as we are flying right at that altitude putting students out. I've bumped the alarm down to 3400 as a temporary solution.

Beyond that, I'm really looking forward to seeing what future developments might be available via software updates. Tons of potential there.

[aonsquared 9]

Thanks for everyone's feedback!

We've actually released a minor update now, which improves the temperature compensation code making it more accurate and resistant to the very slow drift in sensor readings due to temperature changes. I highly suggest all users to update to the latest firmware.

As of now you can only update the firmware using a PC or laptop app, the android app doesn't have the ability to update the firmware yet (we're working on it).

We're hoping to release the option to turn climb beeps off soon, this feature is now under testing as we want to make sure people can update smoothly.

[bodypilot90 0]

disclaimer : I am the US dealer. :

This weekend charged it up and tried it out. The software is easy to use and worked well over 8 jumps, including beach jump. I could hear it clearly in free fall in my bonehead helmet and the canopy alarms with the visor open. I like being able to very both the alarm tone and time the alarm sounds.

[Bricee2011 0]

I am having problems downloading the app onto windows 8.1. Yes, I followed the directions on the website, including installing the driver. any help??

[bjbkkb 1]

Email the company. Their customer support is fantastic.

My goal is that when all is said done I will have a big pile of well used gear and a collection of great stories.

[davenuk 7]

or facebook, pretty responsive

[bodypilot90 0]

send me a email, I'll walk u through it.

[email protected]

[Volare500 0]

I put about 50 jumps on mine this season and overall I'm happy with it.

It's very accurate, I hear it just fine and the app on my phone works well. The only downside I find is that you can't change the altitude settings on the fly, and you do have to turn the unit on each time you get to the DZ. I had one jump where I forgot to turn it on and only realized when I didn't hear the usual climb beeps after takeoff.

Other than that, it's a great value and does what it needs to do well.