Hellis

Why am I not surprised? To OP. If you do make this app, make it smart and it's probably easier to get people to like it. For example, tracking people all the time will drain people's batteries and feel quite awkward. So my advice is set up a perimeter around the DZ. If you are outside this line below 1000 ft then it should show up on manifest computer. Also make the manifest app alarm when it happens. And then to make sure you don't get false alarms (because too many of them, then nobody will care) do not track if the phone has been on ground more than 10 minutes or so. That way people can leave the DZ for lunch without closing the app and not creating an alarm. An automatic on function of the app would also be good but that is probably harder to get working.

I bought these a few years ago and have used them both while skydiving and skiing and they have about the range they state. 1200 m or (4000 ft.) And since they are dirt cheap (compared with sena) I think they are worth the money. Battery is good too, no problem lasting a full day of skiing in cold weather. The only downside is that you can only talk to one person at the time. I have never tried them in freefall, pretty sure it won't work.

Charge it once a week? There is a off button. Did you get a quote on $50-60? Sounds steep. Where do you get the $80 from? Sounds as if you are just tossing numbers in to the air. Are you sure it has ground to land on? Regarding your sim card. Sure. Can't argue since I don't know whats on offer over there. But here you can buy prepaid sim cards. Cost is about $7-10 to buy and will last you many years.

One of the trackers is lost and not suitable. It was a flat, and large as a cell phone and white. No place to attach it, meant a pocket had to be made. Pocket opened, tracker fell. This one is probably the best I have found. I did not buy it from this company, it was someone else. Same product. http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/2015-New-Factory-Mini-Waterproof-Pet_60087623974.html?spm=a2700.7724838.30.84.x20I8w I tested the unit and got about 12 days battery time when laying in a window poor cell and GPS reception. (it goes in power save mode but wakes up every now and then to get a new GPS position. This took a long time because of the poor reception.) Very good mounting for a main, easy to build. Type 4 bindning and some flat dacron and it's a very "tight" mount on the d-bag. The only problem was the on/off button. I tried to ask for a special software which made it turn on off as a cypres but did not get a "yes". They confirmed that it was possible but kept trying to stay off the topic. The next one was this unit: http://ningmore.en.alibaba.com/product/60170926875-220437413/2015_long_battery_and_mini_size_child_anti_kidnapping_gps_tracker_with_free_tracking_site_and_APP.html I actually think I found the company I bought this and the one above from. It's a nice device. Waterproof with about one week battery if I remember correct. I thought I could attach it to the metal clip, and it worked fine for a few jumps. But after each jump the unit got less and less waterproof as the clip opened the device more and more. After about ten jumps I took it off. Again problems with the on/off. I bought it because he claimed it was "hard" to turn off. It wasn't. This one also has a special connector to charge it, which makes it hard(er) to charge when you need. The others use a mini/micro USB. The issue seems to be the forces on the everything as the canopy opens. I never thought it would be so hard on stuff. But with the "correct" way of mounting it, spreading the load, it is possible to have something there. The problem seems to be the on/off. I have thought of opening one and trying to replace the on/off with a old classic on/off (slide switch left/right), but it seems there is some programming controlling the on/off. To turn on you just push the button. Off you need to push once to "wake it up" and once again to switch off. If I ever build one from scratch I would have a reed switch as on/off. That would be awesome. Just set a magnet close to the unit and it turns on/off. All of the devices I have bought and have asked for manuals on are the same software. You can easily see that they all work the same and all the commands (or most of them) are the same. Probably that is the reason why I did not get the "yes" on building a special software to the device.

I have never seen a GPS unit sold for that price. That ioda one was around $150 when I looked at it. Do you have a link? -Michael Sure! You need to buy them in China. Alibaba.com But be aware, there is a bunch of frauds there. I have bought from three different peoples (or companies, I honestly don't know. Could be someones toilet that is the office for all I know) Anyways, I have no complaints on any of those three. I got what I orderd, some of them are more problematic to get to the point of actually making the buy/sale but once the deal was done they kept their word. Also be prepaired to get spamed after the sale is done. They always want to to buy more the next day. And they will keep on doing this for a few weeks. On Aliexpress however, there seems to be more frauds. Aliexpress is meant for normal people buying one or two units, but alibaba is mainly a buisness 2 buisness page. I orderd from a guy on aliexpress and he kept trying to change the order after the deal was done. Trying to tell me customs would not allow him to send unit X but unit Y is OK to be shiped out of China. After a week of him trying to change it his time was up and I pushed the "fraud" button and got my money back. No issues at all with that. Alibaba however does not have the fraud money back thing as far as I know. One thing to keep in mind. What I have learned both from reading what others have written and own observations, if a Chiness does not answer "yes". That means they will not do it. They will most likely not answer at all because they don't like to say no, but it does mean no. Do not try and force it. When I have more time tomorrow I can give you some links to devices I have bought and tell you how they did not work ;-)

Give me some of that glacier. Over here it's just above freezing and gray skies all the time. Sounds as a good plan with the BOC handle.

That does not sound good enough for skydiving use. When you close the container you push everywhere on the rig. The GPSes I have tried has been push and hold or push and push again to switch off. And it's actually hard not to switch them off.

Thanks! Sounds as it has a good battery life. Is it easy to switch off? The stuff I have used so far (GPS units) have been too easy to turn off. And that makes them pretty crappy for finding your gear.

Nice work! How do you find GPSes that cost $100-200? Mine only costs about $35 including taxes and shipping. Would love to see a real test of the device. I made two test jumps last summer with GPS units. First one landed in the middle of the field as I planned. On the second jump the thermals had picked up some and the test became 'for real'. A very quick edit of the jump and geting it back. Have fast forwarded when nothing out of interest is happening. Before anyone says anything about it, everyone knew what I was doing and the plan was for me to stay up for as long as possible and let everyone else come down to a safe low altitude where my PC would not be an issue. https://youtu.be/Qbnv5tEdkaQ

Optimistic delivery dates is a part of all kickstarter projects.

It's mentioned in the flysight wiki. It's a Excel add-in. It only works on windows computers as the apple version of Excel is not nearly enough advanced. You need to grant the add in permisson to install itself on your Excel. Once that is done Excel should recognize flysight files and prompt you if you wish to use the software or not, and if you want to change the settings.

Ouch! Not Stonetether? I was very close on backing that project. I'm happy I didn't. Since I'm not a backer I can't see everything on the kickstarter page, but yesterday when I was there it almost looked close to be released? It was a working device on a video. Didn't look like a prototype. But maybe it needs bugtesting first, and that can take a long time.

Got plenty of it. I even wrote a software to create subtitles of it to videos.

I remember a year ago or longer there was a discussion about Iota as a tracker for your main. I also remember some (one or more) saying they backed the project. Anyone got their? Is it worth it? Does it work in skydiving?

Lots of red and yellow canopies in this video.... Ban everyone with a red and yellow canopy and we are all safe?