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Discussion Forum - Gear ! - A gadget for Christmas?


Author: Peter Haslam
Posted: Tue 28th Dec 2010, 20:01
Joined: 1992
Local Group: East Lancashire
Chris, I'm surprised you haven't managed to make a human powered battery charger from a wind up charger. Just think, every step is topping up your GPS.

If you can make a stove from a beer can it must be possible. I await Teabag's next posting
Posted: Thu 18th Nov 2010, 22:08
Joined: 1972
If anybody is looking for a Christmas present or seasonal treat might I suggest a possible item. Maplin, the electronics store, are selling a bargain GPS device called the Ventus GPS watch. Not cheap at £79 but it is the lowest priced gadget of its type.

It is watch sized and you wear it on your wrist so it does attract derision from any Ludite in your vicinity. It does not support the OSGB format but only latitude and longitude. However you can create routes in Google Earth and upload them a "paths" to the watch or conversely let the watch capture your route as you go round it and download the data to Google earth. Then you can see where you have been on satellite images.

You can configure the watch to capture the data that monitors your performance around the route,eg speed, distance, time, pace, heart rate, calorie burn and the variants of these parameter such as max, min, average and current. Also all this is shown in real time on three scrolling screens.

Lock on to satellites is rapid and and the receiver is sensitive to the extent the the signal is retained indoors and in deep forest.

The capacity of its internal battery is limited to 8 hours so you can just about capture the whole of a 25 mile event however I have found a three pin USB charger so I have topped up the power during a short rest in a village hall CP. The manual is not particularly clearly written but with a bit of practise you soon learn your way around the buttons. The software that stores and analyzes your progress is easy to use and reliable providing a fascinating insight into your perfomance'

In summary you get a lot of bangs for your buck plus the fun of reviewing what you have done on an event when you get home afterwards.

And by-the-way I have no commercial interest in this matter. I just enjoy using it.

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