Spidertracks

[StewartB]

I thought I'd share some of what was presented last night re: Spidertracks equipment capabilities. Some of it was news to me.

a) I can set my Spidertracks account no notify anyone I choose via text that I have landed or departed based upon accelerating or decelerating through a predetermined ground speed. That is, I can choose any speed between 10 and 50 knots to trigger an automated text message that I have taken off (when the Spider accelerates past the defined speed) or landed (when the Spider drops below the defined speed). This message happens automatically and is sent to up to 250 designated recipients of my choice. This is an exciting feature that I was unaware of until last night. I'll use it for sure.

b) I can pre-write 4 text messages and choose to send any of those 4 by pressing the message button once, twice three times, or four times to send the corresponding message. These messages have individual recipient lists of up to 250 recipients each. They can use common recipients or be directed to different users depending on the message. One idea shared last night was to reserve one for closing a flight plan when I'm out of radio range. Pretty slick idea. Whether FSS will accept an email message remains to be determined.

c) The S3 Spider has plainly visible status lights that include a power indicator and an indicator to confirm satellite reception. Better yet the operator buttons that send messages all have lights that will confirm the message has been sent through the Iridium satellites.

d) The S3 is Spiderwatch ready when you buy it. I found this out the hard way. When you power it up if automatically has you on an active watch. The user must push a button to terminate the watch prior to powering the unit down. If the user forgets his contacts list people will get a message that he's in trouble. I didn't recognize that my new Spider was set to active watch and sure enough my wife got the message. Fortunately I was home when she got it. I had tested the new Spider in the truck and was unaware of the procedure. Lesson learned. I can choose to disable the active watch via my computer. And cooler yet, I can choose to activate the watch from the Spider while in flight. The point of the watch service is that I do not have to push a button to say I'm involved in an emergency. If the Spider loses power and I didn't terminate the watch my contacts will be notified of trouble and of my location, speed, heading, and altitude of last contact. When anyone views your track on a computer or smart phone they can identify whether Spiderwatch is active or not by the color of the tracking dots.

e) All the new S2 Spiders have Bluetooth built in. The service package is not operating yet but it will be activated soon. For a 1-time fee of $250 the S2 will serve to send and receive text messages through your cell phone from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world via Iridium. That has some great potential for a lot of pilots. For now the S3 does not have Bluetooth capability but it was hinted that it's coming and it should be able to be retrofitted into my S3.

The new S2 comes with a keypad. When I bought mine I did not purchase what was at that time an accessory keypad. That Spider has served as a passive tracker only. With a small plug-in accessory pad with three buttons I can use all the functions I've described for no extra charge. I'll be getting one soon. The S3 has the keypad built in even though the unit is smaller and lighter.

Stewart

[StewartB]

Another Spidertracks update. The last time Rachel was up here she brought me a special power cord that allows me to plug a Spider into a Hypermac external battery. This little battery is so cool. I can run my Mac laptop from it or use it to power and/or recharge an iPhone, iPod, or iPad. In fact I can recharge those devices fully a few times on one external battery charge. The physical size is similar to the Spider Aviator model so I expect I'll velcro the Spider to the battery and take out for things like sheep hunting and bear hunting. Not that it's necessary but it will be fun to review the hunt route on Google Earth satellite overlays.


http://www.hypershop.com/HyperMac-Ex...-p/mbp-060.htm

I believe Rachel, the US rep for Spidertracks, will be at the Airman's Show. If you have any curiosity about a Spider that's sure to be a good time to satisfy that curiosity.

SB

[mike mcs repair]

Another Spidertracks update. The last time Rachel was up here she brought me a special power cord that allows me to plug a Spider into a Hypermac external battery. This little battery is so cool. I can run my Mac laptop from it or use it to power and/or recharge an iPhone, iPod, or iPad. In fact I can recharge those devices fully a few times on one external battery charge. The physical size is similar to the Spider Aviator model so I expect I'll velcro the Spider to the battery and take out for things like sheep hunting and bear hunting. Not that it's necessary but it will be fun to review the hunt route on Google Earth satellite overlays.


http://www.hypershop.com/HyperMac-Ex...-p/mbp-060.htm

I believe Rachel, the US rep for Spidertracks, will be at the Airman's Show. If you have any curiosity about a Spider that's sure to be a good time to satisfy that curiosity.

SB

thanks,

I can see that being added to my list for out camping/working on apps.... right now I have a big car battery that I plug the car adapters into to recharge stuff.... thats much nicer to drag into the tent....

do they sell these locally or only online?

how long does it take to charge this unit up plugged into a wall or a generator?


also side thought, what are some nice small generators? i see the small honda 1000 and yamaha, but those are both bigger than I really need... anyone got a souce for smaller ones?

[StewartB]

Mike,

Don't remember what the charge time is. I plugged it in and went to bed. That was the only time it really needed much charge. I use the heck out of it and I can't get it down below about half (there's a charge indicator built in). I bought mine on-line but I never looked around town. The Apple store or Best Buy might have them. The website says this little one I bought will recharge an iPhone 14 times with one charge of the Hypermac. I believe it, too. As for a gennie? I have older 1000w Yamahas and a newer inverter type 2000w Honda. I'd like a Yamaha or Honda 1000w but I can't justify it. The Yamaha is smaller and lighter than the Honda. Something like 23 pounds. Very capable little machines, these new inverter generators. Honda used toy make a 650w but it's significantly bigger and heavier than the new generation 1000w units. Costco's been carrying Yamaha 1000w generators for a few months. Around $600 I think.

Stewart

[StewartB]

From the Tal & Steve thread...

Stewart

The Spider tracks appears to work really well, with this system you buy block time on a monthly basis and it is use it or lose it correct?

I can see some advantage over my spot with the frequency of reporting.

Dale

There are several user plans available based on anticipated use on a monthly basis. As far as I know there are no roll-over or carry-over time allowances. These plans include the subscription and time allotments for reporting services as shown on the chart. http://www.spidertracks.com/aviator/plans-and-pricing Personally I started with the Flex plan before the other programs were released and I've never changed it. $20 per month for maintained subscription and .10 per ping. I could change to a less expensive plan but haven't gotten around to it. My service is billed automatically to a credit card and as with most things in my life, out of sight/out of mind.

I can change the reporting frequency time interval or switch it to ping by distance travelled rather than by time. I have always used the default 2 minute reporting intervals. For a straight line trip like we're seeing with Tal and Steve right now the 2 minute interval is a little busier than it probably needs to be. If they fly the Alaska coastal route that 2 minute interval will be more appropriate, as it also would be in bad weather when they may be hunting for clear passage around mountains. I could change it to de-clutter the path a bit but I think I'll leave it as is.

What you're all seeing is just the public track view. While this view provides more frequent reports and more comprehensive reports than the other tracker, the biggest advantages for me are a) that the unit is an active tracker that requires no action on my part. I turn the plane on, it works. Turn the plane off, it marks the end of that flight leg. No buttons to push, and b) I have user controlled notifications to text my family and friends of my status. Again, I don't have to do anything. Spiderwatch is an impressive function but I don't use it since it does rely on me to push a button to terminate the service (or it will send a trouble alert to my contacts) and I've proven not so good at remembering to do so. c) Because it's my spider and my account I'm able to watch the progress in real time on my iPhone. I usually don't get to use this feature since I'm the guy flying so I'm enjoying the view my wife and kid see when I'm out and about.

SB

[SteveE]

Stewart,,

I'm finding my self watching the spidertracks a lot more than the spot page.. a lot more detail. How long does the history log stay there, do some flights eventually fall off the bottom? Can you turn the spidertracks on/off while flying? Lots of detail on positions, speed, etc. Might be too much in some instances...

[StewartB]

Steve,

I can turn my spiders off in my planes by pulling the breakers or by detaching the power cord at the spider itself. I can't imagine why I'd want to. The S2 spiders have a function that allows the pilot to suspend reporting. It's called the "radius" mode and is intended for operators who want tracking to a location but don't need reporting while an aircraft is loitering in an area doing logging, ag, or survey work in a small area. Too complicated for me. If my master is on the spider is on.

As for the viewable tracks? I can't say if there's an age limit or number of events limit on the public page or in the private account history. I've never used the public page until I lent this spider to Steve and Tal and I'll probably never use it again. My family can log onto my account page and see anything and everything. They have no interest beyond the safety of my current flight. The iPhone app allows them to select which spider's track to view but only shows the most recent track for that spider. I'm not worried about privacy issues since the purpose of the unit is to provide honest information to whomever I choose to share it with. As soon as I get the spider back from Steve I'll deselect the public page sharing feature so all the information from future flight tracks will remain private. If I was so inclined I could go to my account page and hide any or all of the public tracks that you now have access to. I have control of what is shared and what is not.

Stewart

[kevin]

Stewart, Is the reason why I can not see what you guys are seeing because Tal and Steve have the plane powered down? I just tried again this morning and still nothing. Do you think it is on my end: either I am not doing something right or my computer won't allow it(which I doubt)? Thanks. Kevin G.

[StewartB]

When I initially log onto the public page I see a plain map with a dod in the center that's tagged "Tal and Steve". If that dot is gray the spider is not active. If it's green it is active and if it's blue it's active and in Spiderwatch mode. Some of you may have noticed the first several tracks showed a blue trail and now it's green. I turned off the Spiderwatch mode. So now that you're at that "home" page, you should see a yellow box at the upper right corner that says 'click here for public tracks' or something similar. Click on it. That should take you to a history of flight legs for this journey. You'll see the elapsed time of each leg and the most recent is at the top. Every time the Spider is powered-up a new flight leg is started. Since they were working on the plane yesterday you'll see several flight legs that contain one position report and no elapsed time. While those provide us a clue of what's going on they aren't very exciting to view. Select one of the legs with acquired elapsed time and you should see their trail from Graham to Wheeler, Wheeler to Lamar, Lamar to the pit stop hill, and then on to Agpilot's place. If you aren't getting these functions I'm uncertain how to coach you. I get full functionality from several different computers I have access to as well as from my iPad. All work equally well.

If you click on the dot at the home page you'll see a report of the last ping at the current position. You have to use the yellow box to view the track history.

Stewart

[kevin]

Stewart, After I sent the message above, I went back to the spidertracks and started playing with it. I don't know what buttons I clicked but now I see a page that is split. On one side, I see the map. After I enlarged it a bit, I can now click on each ping and see time, lat, long, altitude, speed, direction. On the other side of my screen, I see two tabs: Point of interest and Legend. I think I see what everyone else is seeing. I'm not sure what I did to get to this point but I'm here.

On a sidenote, This is very similar to APRS, or, Automatic Position Reporting System. All someone needs is a Ham radio Technical license. To pass the test, it is 35 multiple guess questions. No morse code is needed. Once the test is passed, the receiver equipment is purchased. This equipment is very small and light. From then on, it is free to operate. The tracking is overlaid on Google Earth map and the same information that Spidertracks gives is presented. I have followed a friend of mine barnstorm the Midwest in his biplane with it. It is very cool. I first heard about this on the Vans forum website. The RV guys are really in tune with it. For us in the lower 48, I think this would be a better set up than spot because it is free to operate. For those in AK, I'm not sure how it would be since it needs repeater stations to get it's ping from....

[StewartB]

At the upper left of the home screen you should see four control buttons. The "i" button will make the yellow box appear or disappear. The adjacent "o" button will superimpose the most recent track. The other two do something but I don't use them. There's no danger with experimenting for yourself.

I don't know about the ham radio thing and had poor luck with the SPOT that I had. One of the most important advantages of the Spidertracks service is that it uses the Iridium satellite network. That assures service anywhere and everywhere. I have never had a single missed position report. Reliability is a cornerstone of a tracking system. This is the first one I've used that's reliable. I know not everyone shares that history with the "other" system. I can only speak of my own. I'm a very happy Spidertracks subscriber. My wife and kid are fans as well.

Stewart

[spinner2]

Stewart, Is the reason why I can not see what you guys are seeing because Tal and Steve have the plane powered down? I just tried again this morning and still nothing. Do you think it is on my end: either I am not doing something right or my computer won't allow it(which I doubt)? Thanks. Kevin G.

Kevin you might be having the same problem I had. If you get a popup security-type window click no - not yes. I've only seen this type of window on a credit card transaction page before but for some reason the Spider webpage pops one up on my computer.

[spinner2]

On a sidenote, This is very similar to APRS, or, Automatic Position Reporting System. All someone needs is a Ham radio Technical license. To pass the test, it is 35 multiple guess questions. No morse code is needed. Once the test is passed, the receiver equipment is purchased. This equipment is very small and light. From then on, it is free to operate. The tracking is overlaid on Google Earth map and the same information that Spidertracks gives is presented. I have followed a friend of mine barnstorm the Midwest in his biplane with it. It is very cool. I first heard about this on the Vans forum website. The RV guys are really in tune with it. For us in the lower 48, I think this would be a better set up than spot because it is free to operate. For those in AK, I'm not sure how it would be since it needs repeater stations to get it's ping from....

My brother uses the APRS system. And you're right, it is just like the Spider in many ways. But being a non-satellite system it doesn't work everywhere. It wouldn't work in many of the places I fly.

[SteveE]

There is no doubt that it is better than Spot... but one has to consider the cost... BUT, while you are considering that, I bet any cost would be nill when someone is looking for you...

[kevin]

Yeah. I agree with you all. And if you are in remote places of the Country such as in AK, then I think the APRS might not be the right tracking device for you. I'm in CA and out here, there is no problem. It all depends on where the user is going to be operating. Nevertheless, from what I've seen so far of the spidertracks, I do like its functions. I'll continue to play with it. Thanks guys.

Kevin

[StewartB]

There is no doubt that it is better than Spot... but one has to consider the cost... BUT, while you are considering that, I bet any cost would be nill when someone is looking for you...

Keep in mind that you're viewing a rather one dimensional public page. What you can't see is the user-defined functions like the take-off and landing notifications. That's what really separates Spidertracks from the others.

Value is an interesting question. I find Spidertracks a terrific value. Others seem to like 35" tires. Some like to spend the money and time to come to the trade show next week. To each their own. Nothing in my airplanes is there because it's cheap. It's there because I want it there. Because the utility is worthy of the price. That's my benchmark for value.

Stewart

[cubflier]

Is there a reasonable way to make this system portable? It looks like it is a hard mount system from what I'm reading here. Also is there anyone that can give me a realistic yearly cost for a 250 hrs per year pilot. Most of my flying is concentrated from spring till fall which I think would be typical. Using just the 20 per month and .10 per point would be $1000 per year if I did the math right.

Jerry

[kevin]

Stewart, I got it figured out.....I think. Thanks and thank you for sharing this with Steve and Tal so we all can see it. Kevin.

P.S. I had the same question as Jerry did about the portability...Does the tracker have to be mounted in the open as with the Spot so to pick up the satelite signals? If so, when you part somewhere overnight, can you take it with you so it isn't stolen?

[StewartB]

The older (and soon to be discontinued) S2 spider is larger than the newer S3 but neither is big or heavy. The S2 is about 7" x 3 1/2" x 3/4" and the S3 is about the same size as an iPhone but is a little thicker then the iPhone on the keypad end. The S3 is not only smaller but it's lighter and more accurate for positioning. Neither spider is fixed equipment. Mine are affixed to the glare screen with velcro. All spiders require an external power source, either ship's power or battery as I showed earlier in this thread. The power requirements are minuscule. I can toss a spider with the Hypermac battery into my backpack and go, no problem. As for theft? The spider is registered to a user and only that user has the ability to view or share the tracking info. If somebody steals it and powers it up? You'll know precisely where it is. There is no market for stolen spiders. To the question of annual expense? The owner can change the time interval for reports to decrease the frequency (and lower hourly expense) or they can select to report by distance intervals rather than time. I believe gmandes prefers distance. I've always used the factory default 2 minute interval. For a flex plan user at 250 hours annually Id say the minimum cost for what I'd consider adequate reporting would be around $750 per year total. With Cubs the 2 minute interval makes for a busy track as you all can see in Tal and Steve's tracks. To reduce the tracking report intervals to 3 minutes or even 5 minutes would work fine for their trip. Or perhaps every 5 miles. Like I've said before, for picking your way through the mountains in low weather? 2 minutes makes better sense. I can switch the intervals as I see fit from any computer with internet access.

Want to put into perspective? $750 pays for consumables (gas and oil only) for about 8 hours of flight time in my 180. This aviation thing ain't cheap.

SB

[dalec]

Stewart

I finally got m Spider Tracks S3 installed yesterday. After having it for 60 days. I have to say this will eliminate a lot of conversation and worry around my house when I am out playing in my cub. The cost of the tracking information it provides is surely worth the peace of mind it provides my wife and son. I used to use the SPOT but it didn't always record. I am now an advocate for this product and there is a pricing plan for all budgets.

[StewartB]

Did you get the notification to update the S3 firmware? I just got the email this morning. Let me know if you need the update instructions forwarded.

Are you using the new Aviator website? I'm still on the original "Fleet Pro" dashboard. I'd be interested in any feedback about Aviator. I haven't spent any time comparing.

Stewart

[dalec]

Stewart

I haven't seen anything about the firmware update for the S3 yet. I am using the Fleetpro not the Aviator website, may play with it, I went over to Coghill River last night and the detail that is recorded is awesome.

[StewartB]

Catch any fish?

Check your messages. I sent you the S3 bulletin.

Stewart

[dalec]

Stewart

Thanks for the pm

[StewartB]

Any south central Alaska guys who are interested in Spidertracks can attend a presentation this Wednesday evening at Northern Lights Avionics. Rachel Donald, the Spidertracks director for the US will be there. The last time they did this NLA provided refreshments and Spidertracks offered a generous promotional offer. I don't know if there will be a repeat of those things but if you're at all interested in the Spidertracks system this will be an informative evening. And you can listen to Rachel's famous Kiwi accent. Call NLA to reserve a spot.

SB

[Steve Pierce]

Stewart, Wish I could make it.

[sierra bravo]

Still A Spidertracks fan. Uncharacteristically I had my fill of perfect weather and fun chores at the cabin and headed home Saturday evening. My daughter, attending a concert in Lufin, Texas, got the text alert from Spidertracks that I had taken off. When I landed I had a text from the kid asking why I was flying on a Saturday and was everything alright. Pretty cool.

[WindOnHisNose]

Stewart, I just called Spot last Friday to complain about the problems I and many others have had trying to pair Spot Connect with my iPhone. After much research I found that it is a common problem, and the customer service has been pitiful. I have finally given up on the Connect.

Your comments regarding Spidertracks are encouraging.

Randy

[superchamp]

This unit using the Iridium network looks interesting for connecting with smart phones http://blog.delorme.com/2011/06/03/d...communication/ anyone here have any experience with these?

[skywagon8a]

I stopped in at DeLorme in Freeport yesterday and saw this InReach system. It looks like a good idea. Something that will fit in your pocket. There are two versions. One connect with a cell phone and the other operates through the DeLorme earthmate unit. You can text message back and forth with another person of your choice as well as with emergency services. $250 plus a monthly $29.95.