New Product Announcement: GPS

[Tanner]

Is it a separate/new system or does it work with existing transmitters?

[Captain Gizmo]

The rechargeable battery looks like you would take the lid off the old 1/3N, dump it out and screw the rechargeable in place of the old lid. I suspect it is a gram or two heavier looking at the size.

Regards,
Thomas of the Desert

[Tasha55403]

The rechargeable battery looks like you would take the lid off the old 1/3N, dump it out and screw the rechargeable in place of the old lid. I suspect it is a gram or two heavier looking at the size.

Regards,
Thomas of the Desert

I think I saw a FB post yesterday that said it added 0.5 gram Well worth it, I would think!

[Tasha55403]

Yup, found it...here's the quote "The challenge is that rechargables are genrally 2x the size for the same energy, and we are all about staying small to allow leg and tail-mounting. So we found a way to get the same or better life than the 1/3N with just under 50% increase in size (not 100%) while gaining only .5 of a gram."

[Tasha55403]

I like that it says it will help acquire GPS lock faster. I got to try out a friend's GPS on V the other day and it took ages for it to sync up to the satellites. It would've been much simpler and eaten up a lot less battery life if you could wait till you got a point, turn it on and have it sync up quickly so you could fly before the game flushed. Instead, we had to turn it on, wait for it to sync, then look for a point while the battery is being steadily drained while we walked.

[Captain Gizmo]

The rechargeables are going to have a higher voltage. I can see where this would give a bit bigger transmitter output and some improvement in range. Rechargeables are also capable or very high discharge rates, so I can see where they would hold voltage better when the GPS draws big current in a cold environment. As to how either the higher voltage or higher current capability would help acquisition time I can not see. Acquisition is a software function.

Regards,
Thomas of the Desert

[goshawkr]

I think the rechargeable batteries are a step in the right direction. However, what I really want to see before I bite into this is better optimization of battery life.

I have a scout transmitter custom tuned by Marshall to give the longest possible battery life. I had them reduce the pulse length and pulse frequency as much as possible. I haven't timed it, but I think I get one 1/4 second chirp about every 6 seconds. With that optimization, I get about 60 days of use per battery.

Being somewhat of the thrifty persuasion, this is great. But its not the $3 per year battery bill that really got me focused on this. Its the peace of mind that my transmitter will still be banging strong if I loose my hawk for more than 3 weeks.

When I first started using this transmitter, I expected that telemetry hunts would take a bit more time because of the delayed pulse, but really it makes no difference. In the amount of time it takes me to pan an Arc, I get enough pulses to determine where the strongest part of the arc was. With the more frequent pulses from a normally set TX, it takes me just as long to pin down the strong signal, even though I will get several times more pulses come in.

I don't need or want several miles of range. I'll trade in distance for long battery life every single time. I also don't need frequent updates. Once every 5 minutes is quite excessive for my style of use. I realize that there is a big market for Marshall with the people who do want frequent updates and long range products, but there is another market they are ignoring at present.

[jdrmd]

I like that it says it will help acquire GPS lock faster. I got to try out a friend's GPS on V the other day and it took ages for it to sync up to the satellites. It would've been much simpler and eaten up a lot less battery life if you could wait till you got a point, turn it on and have it sync up quickly so you could fly before the game flushed. Instead, we had to turn it on, wait for it to sync, then look for a point while the battery is being steadily drained while we walked.

I typically turn the transmitter on as I get in the truck heading to the field. It takes anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes to get where I am going and the bird is ready to go when I get there. I missed a rabbit slip early last year because I wasn't ready when I drove into the field...not anymore.

Hopefully, the new battery will make a significant improvement is acquisition time.