Feb 21 2010

Better GPS Tracking than EZ-1000’s for Skiing

Category: Arizona, EZ-1000, GPS Navigation, Garmin Integration, Google Earth, People Tracking, Skiing — rdonat @ 10:14 pm

I took my  boys (7 & 9) skiing (snowboarding they correct me every time…) up to Flagstaff AZ this weekend.

I brought my Garmin Edge 705 (a Garmin for bikes, basically) & put it in my coat pocket to get a really good feel for where we went during the weekend.  It logs every 10 seconds for eventual upload (vs. once a minute in real time for the EZ-1000 I brought along as well).

Garmin EDGE 705

Garmin EDGE 705

They are really nice, and we don’t sell them — I bought mine at the bike shop.  [We do sell Garmin's for vehicles and can integrate them with our GPSI-4000 GPS tracking solution though...]

The Garmin is an optimist, and thinks I ran up all those hills & burned 5248 calories in the process (had I brought the wireless heart monitor it would have known better):

Garmin's interpretation of my Skiing with my kids

Garmin's interpretation of my Skiing with my kids

This is a great image of GPS Insight vs. Garmin (bear in mind we are an “ACTIVE” tracking system whereas the Garmin is “PASSIVE” and needs you to upload the data eventually):

GPS Insight vs. Garmin for ski tracking

GPS Insight vs. Garmin for ski tracking

The “pins” are EZ-1000 points [every minute while in cell coverage, which is spotty on the mountain].  The yellow circles are Garmin points (a LOT more of them).

Here is the Garmin unit track of where we went (and where I remembered to turn the unit on…):

Skiing at Snowbowl in Flagstaff AZ

Skiing at Snowbowl in Flagstaff AZ

It’s nice to have that for sports usage.  But if you want to track your vehicles in real time, that’s not an option — you need an active tracking solution like GPS Insight. Both are great products — just for entirely different needs.

And here are my cold kids.  Lots of snow this weekend, and way colder than they’re used to living in the desert.

Rob's kids in their cold-weather snowboarding attire

Rob's kids in their cold-weather snowboarding attire

Rob.

Jan 19 2010

Finding my snowboarding kid on the mountain with GPS Insight

Category: Arizona, EZ-1000, GPS Insight Employees, GPS Tracking, Google Earth, People Tracking, Safety, Skiing, mobile mapping — rdonat @ 11:27 pm

I pretty much have a never-ending supply of EZ-1000’s so I brought one skiing with my 2 boys on a recent trip.

Jack, my older son, is old enough to go skiing (boarding, he would correct me) without me.  Actually, he has officially passed me by — he does black runs I refuse to do (small on a board is way better than big on skis when it comes to moguls).

I wanted to know where he was at one point so I ran a quick mobile map on my iPhone & put it in “compass mode” so I could see what direction he was from me.

Here it is (I’m the blue dot, Jack is the red pin):

GPS Insight EZ-1000 tracks my snowboarding son on the mountain

GPS Insight EZ-1000 tracks my snowboarding son on the mountain

Here he really was (my eyes are better than the 3 megapixel camera on the iPhone…) — note that he’s between the lift & the ski patrol “house” just like the map shows it:

GPS Insight EZ-1000 tracks my snowboarding son on the mountain

GPS Insight EZ-1000 tracks my snowboarding son on the mountain

I ran a 3D history of that device for the 2 days I remembered to bring it and put it in Jack’s pocket & it puts him exactly where my iPhone shows him at 1:44 (note the time in the first screen shot).  Waiting 4 minutes at the bottom of the hill for his 2 friends:

Showing skiing activity using an EZ-1000 from GPS Insight

Showing skiing activity using an EZ-1000 from GPS Insight

Also interesting is the straight lines which depict the lifts very clearly.  The main lifts are in the “clutter” of dots on the left side, but the lifts we went on once each are really easy to spot toward the top right.

It’s easy to see which runs got the most use by turning off the “time slider” and looking at just the blue path:

GPS Tracking my son on the ski (board) slopes

GPS Tracking my son on the ski (board) slopes

Here are my two boarders:

Jack & Ryan on a snowboarding trip

Jack & Ryan on a snowboarding trip

And by looking at the GPS track as well as how well he was jumping and grinding, I can tell Jack went through the terrain park most of all:

Jack grinding/jumping off a box in the terrain park

Jack grinding/jumping off a box in the terrain park

I’ll try embedding a Facebook video I have of him going through the terrain park here:

Rob.

Nov 15 2009

How much time in the NASCAR pits? (we use GPS tracking devices to find out)

Category: Ad Hoc Reports, Arizona, EZ-1000, GPS Insight Employees, GPS Tracking, Google Earth, Landmarks, People Tracking, Reporting, Reports — rdonat @ 10:14 pm

We were lucky enough to get a couple passes for this weekend’s NASCAR event, to include pit passes to the garage & pits.

We had a couple of EZ-1000’s with us, and I want to show how easy it is to quantify how much time we actually spent in the pits (vs. the stands/box):

I first create a landmark called “PIR Pits” around the pits:

tracking activity in the NASCAR pits

tracking activity in the NASCAR pits

Then cut & paste the PIR Pits landmark into GPS Insight:

Paste a geofence into GPS Insight

Paste a geofence into GPS Insight

Paste here:

Paste geofences into GPS Insight

Paste geofences into GPS Insight

Confirm here:

Paste geofences into GPS Insight

Paste geofences into GPS Insight

Run a report here:

GPS Track of Pit activity at NASCAR using GPS Insight EZ-1000's

GPS Track of Pit activity at NASCAR using GPS Insight EZ-1000's

1.9 hours in the pits

1.9 hours in the pits

Except that missed the part where we went really close to the “inside the building” chatter from the GPS device, so I had to carefully re-draw the polygon to get a more accurate picture of the true time spent down there.

So even though we may pick up a little bit of false “in the pit” activity since it’s so close to the box/grandstand (with drift due to the device being enclosed), this adjustment to the “pits” will give a better representation of how much time was there:

Extend the boundary of the pits geofence to get all activity

Extend the boundary of the pits geofence to get all activity

While we get a couple of random “1 minute” visits which are inaccurate due to the EZ-1000’s “inside” drift, the 2.8 hours is much more accurate than the original 1.8 — both Brent and I spent half an hour in that remote area of the pits and it makes a big difference to the total amount of time in the report by accurately creating the polygon:

2.8 hours in the pits

2.8 hours in the pits

A fun (and loud) time was had by all:

NASCAR in Phoenix

NASCAR in Phoenix

And a favorite of mine, the RedBull 83 car:

RedBull NASCAR

RedBull NASCAR

I like this car so much I bought the $60 model for my bookshelf.  Brian Vickers may have come in 38th today, but we drink a lot of RedBull and don’t have much use for Lowe’s in our office.

Rob.

Nov 09 2009

Jack’s first Camelback climb, GPS Tracking to document it

Category: Arizona, EZ-1000, GPS Insight Employees, Google Earth, People Tracking, Running — rdonat @ 10:00 am

I decided to take my 9 year old, Jack, to Camelback mountain yesterday.  I was curious how much longer it would take than the last time I went.

I brought an EZ-1000 & here is a picture of our hike, which was 1:30 up, & :56 down:

Camelback Hike with a GPS Insight EZ-1000 Tracking device

Camelback Hike with a GPS Insight EZ-1000 Tracking device

Here is a picture of Jack at the bottom:

Camelback Hike with a GPS Insight EZ-1000 Tracking device

Camelback Hike with a GPS Insight EZ-1000 Tracking device

Here was our location, courtesy of the iPhone (blue dot) and the EZ-1000 which had reported just a few seconds earlier:

Camelback Hike with a GPS Insight EZ-1000 Tracking device

Camelback Hike with a GPS Insight EZ-1000 Tracking device

And 1:20 later, at the top:

Camelback Hike with a GPS Insight EZ-1000 Tracking device

Camelback Hike with a GPS Insight EZ-1000 Tracking device

With sweaty Dad:

Camelback Hike with a GPS Insight EZ-1000 Tracking device

Camelback Hike with a GPS Insight EZ-1000 Tracking device

And one of Jack’s shady cave — he found a few of them on the way up & down to rest in:

Camelback Hike with a GPS Insight EZ-1000 Tracking device

Camelback Hike with a GPS Insight EZ-1000 Tracking device

It took a little longer this time  (last time 1 1/2 hours, this time 2 1/2 hours).  But my heart didn’t feel like exploding as much as when I was in a hurry.  Plus I had some company.  Much better this way.

Rob.

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Nov 01 2009

The scariest Halloween costume EVER!

Category: EZ-1000, GPS Insight Employees, GPS Tracking, Google Earth, Miscellaneous, People Tracking — rdonat @ 9:58 am

My kids went trick-or-treating the second we got back from Disneyland yesterday. Jack is wearing the skull face, and Ryan is the headless horseman. Sarah is the Alice in Wonderland.

Rob's scary and cute kids

Rob's scary and cute kids

(Look at the arrow on Jack’s shirt below) Just like in Halloween 3, the movie, there was something REALLY scary — truly frightening — lurking underneath Jack’s Skull costume. I had no idea until I saw it later.

YIKES! (shudder...!)

YIKES! (shudder...!)

Ryan had enough battery left in his EZ-1000 to track him trick-or-treating around the neighborhood so I could stick with Sarah on her first Halloween:

Halloween GPS tracking with an EZ-1000

Halloween GPS tracking with an EZ-1000

Rob.

Oct 29 2009

Sahara Race almost over!

Category: Egypt, Landmarks, Miscellaneous, People Tracking, Running, TT-1900 — rdonat @ 9:40 am

My brother in law Keir has covered over 30 of the total 54 miles for today as of 9:15 PST. This final 5th stage requires him to go 54 miles in 40 hours.

Here’s a picture of what we’ve tracked so far since he left Base Camp 5:

GPS Tracking Keir across the Sahara

GPS Tracking Keir across the Sahara

Rob.

Oct 28 2009

GPS Tracking at Disneyland

Category: California, EZ-1000, GPS Insight Employees, Google Earth, People Tracking — rdonat @ 10:45 pm

We headed to Disneyland today with the boys (Sarah got her own “Princess” trip with Mommy to Disney earlier in the year):

Jack & Ryan after riding the "California Screamin'" rollercoaster

Jack & Ryan after riding the "California Screamin'" rollercoaster

I put a couple EZ-1000’s in the boys’ pockets in case they got lost and to document our day.

Originally they were labeled Goofy & Dumbo but my boys took exception to that.  I called Tech Support and within 2 minutes Adam had them changed to Chip and Mickey (per my kids’ wishes).

Here’s a picture of our first day at California Adventure, then Disneyland.  (There’s a cool time lapse video of this at the end of the blog article):

GPS Tracking at Disneyland

GPS Tracking at Disneyland

They tracked like a charm for the entire trip from Scottsdale at 1 minute updates.  No kids got lost or ran off with Goofy.

I decided it would be a good idea to walk home to the hotel.  Apparently I was wrong, and had to carry Ryan on my shoulders most of the way (fun).

I got to measure it afterward — only .57 miles, but it felt like longer after walking all over Disneyland:

Walking home from Disneyland at the end of the day

Walking home from Disneyland at the end of the day

Here is a video of our walking around for the day:

disneyland

Rob.

Oct 26 2009

Racing in the Sahara

Category: Egypt, Google Earth, Miscellaneous, People Tracking, Running, TT-1900 — rdonat @ 7:57 am

I guess my assumption that they would have a destination (e.g. the Nile River which was 162 miles away from base camp) was invalid. In the past 2 days, my brother in law Keir has been on a race through the Sahara, but they are just running around a track with no real direction:

Running around the Sahara

Running around the Sahara

They’ve only gone 16.6 miles away from base camp, although they will have finished up with 49 miles of racing by the end of today (probably a couple more hours).

Today is a 28 mile day and a half hour ago Keir had gone 21.1 miles, as the crow flies, with one hour updates, which understates mileage by probably 8%.  This means he should be done in the next 2-3 hours hopefully.

Tracking Keir across the desert with GPS Insight GPS Tracking

Tracking Keir across the desert with GPS Insight GPS Tracking

I’ll keep putting tracks up on the blog for interested people (e.g. Keir’s relatives…).

Interesting to see this type of tracking though — it is not the typical “where’s my driver” stuff.

Rob.

Oct 25 2009

Sat Tracking in Egypt – Keir has left the base camp

Category: Alerts, Egypt, Google Earth, Landmarks, People Tracking, Running, TT-1900 — rdonat @ 9:05 am

I was curious when Keir, my brother in law racing 162 miles across the desert, would get started today, so I put an alert on his tracking device and built a quick geofence around his “base camp.”

GPS Tracking Geofence around Egypt Base Camp

GPS Tracking Geofence around Egypt Base Camp

Then I created an alert to let me (and his wife/parents in law) know when he got moving in the morning (down to the hour — the device only transmits to the satellites every hour since it costs around $.25 per “ping” and it probably doesn’t matter much to us which exact route he takes through the God Forsaken Desert):

Geofence Alert for Keir's Satellite Tracking Device leaving Base Camp

Geofence Alert for Keir's Satellite Tracking Device leaving Base Camp

Then I got the email (I didn’t send myself a text message since it would wake me up in the middle of the night):

It went off at 12:14 AM local time, and Egypt is 9 hours ahead of us so they must have started between 8 and 9 AM local time.  Here’s the alert I received:

GPS Tracking alert

GPS Tracking alert

And a quick image of his trek so far — I think they do 26 miles a day (a marathon a day until they do 162 miles).  He had done 19.7 miles so far today so far, and is averaging around 2.6 miles per hour.  That means a couple more hours I would imagine.

Hiking across the Sahara Desert with GPS Insight satellite tracking

Hiking across the Sahara Desert with GPS Insight satellite tracking

Makes me tired just thinking about it.  Actually, I think I’ll go for a run this morning, but a lot shorter and a lot cooler than this one.

Rob.

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Oct 24 2009

Racing the planet in Egypt — GPS Tracking a race across the Sahara

Category: Egypt, Google Earth, Miscellaneous, People Tracking, Running, TT-1900 — rdonat @ 8:02 pm

My brother in law Keir Oxley starts a 162 mile race across the Sahara tomorrow.  (This is the same brother in law who almost got me killed scaling the wrong part of Camelback Mountain 15 years ago…)

Here are 2 pics from the last race:

Egypt Race tracked by GPS Insight

Egypt Race tracked by GPS Insight

Egypt Race tracked by GPS Insight

Egypt Race tracked by GPS Insight

He wanted to be able to “show” the family and friends his progress and asked for a tracking device.  We have a perfect one for that, the TT-1900 (we don’t really advertise it much — it’s a tiny version of the TT-2000/2100).

He needed it light, battery operated, and satellite capable.

We programmed one up for 1 hour updates, and sent it to him.

I gave them a login & password, but didn’t want everyone in the world using it, so I also created (using “customer sites“) the following link:  http://www.gpsinsight.com/egypt — it took 1 minute.

For iPhone & Google Mobile Map users, they can “search” and see Keir’s location by entering/refreshing http://gps-i.com/k/oxley/1778.kml

Anyway, this is a pretty interesting new use for GPS Insight devices.  The TT-1900 is intended for container tracking and is waterproof, heat-proof (well, we’ll see how it works in the Sahara Desert…), and works on satellite networks across the world.

It only weighs 5.9 ounces so it won’t be difficult to lug 162 miles across the desert over 7 days.  It’s rated to 212 degrees F & Keir said it was 122 today — 90 F to spare.

GPS Insight Satellite Tracking unit TT-1900

GPS Insight Satellite Tracking unit TT-1900

I’m guessing they’re hiking to the Nile river — it’s exactly 162 miles from where they are right now, & they start soon.

Hiking across half of Egypt being GPS tracked by GPS Insight

Hiking across half of Egypt being GPS tracked by GPS Insight

Keir is doing this A) to prove he can do it and B) to raise money for poor African schools — if you are interested in saving schools from being destroyed by elephants by helping to purchase a fence for them, feel free do so in Keir’s name here: http://www.asanteafrica.org/donate.html#online

If you feel compelled to buy GPS Tracking devices for your company based on your love for Keir & his cause, we’ll donate 10% to Asante Africa.

Have fun & be safe Keir!

Here is a link to Keir’s online blog from the race — they have an opportunity to use satellite internet to update this once a day.

Rob.

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