Track What’s ImportantGTU 10 is a GPS locator that bines a web-based tracking service with GPS technology so you can keep watch on children pets and property.How It WorksThe GTU 10 is small lightweight and waterproof. It easily attaches to a backpack pet collar or whatever is important to you.When you purchase a new GTU 10 it es with 1 year of Standard Tracking (coverage dependent on GSM wireless service within the U.S.) so you’ll be ready to go once you register and activate it in your Garmin a
$ 199.99
Initial Thoughts,
I had a DogTracs unit for a year and overall I was satisfied with it, though I needed to charge it every day. In comparison the Garmin is smaller and sleeker, though it resides in a little zippered bag on the dog’s harness, which adds to the bulk. Set up was easy once I used IE as opposed to Firefox which just couldn’t seem to handle the Garmin download. Unlike the DogTracs, the Garmin doesn’t allow for a location query from an ordinary cell phone text – you need to ask for a location from a computer or a smartphone. Once a location is requested it comes quickly and reliably, sometimes even with the unit located inside the house.
The first year of monitoring is included with no connection fee and each additional year is $50 – this is a good value compared to other devices.
After just two days of ownership my biggest disappointment is battery life. I set it up for “ON DEMAND” use only, which should provide 7 days of battery life. I have gotten 24 hours maximum for my first two days. I have an email into Garmin and will update on their response. Additionally I have noticed that a location request does not supply coordinates, just a dot on a Bing map. I lost the device briefly and coordinates would have helped me to find it more quickly.
UPDATE: A Garmin tech got back to me and indicated that if the device is on and stored where it cannot receive both GPS and cellular phone signals, it will deplete the battery rapidly as it seeks to connect. After several back and forths with Garmin, it appears that you either need to store the device where it can get a constant signal, or shut it off when inside, taking the risk of forgetting to activate it before exiting the house. Overall I think this is one of the best devices of its kind out there, but it could be improved. I did end up putting the Velcro on the bottom of the device and the little bag it lives in after I forgot to zip the bag and it fell out onto the ground. Now it is very secure.
2nd UPDATE: February 2012
The latest software update seems to have improved the battery life considerably and the web interface has been greatly improved, showing exact coordinates in addition to the map location. There is also information displayed regarding battery charge and cell/GPS signal strength. I continue to charge the device daily to ensure a full battery if needed. The smartphone app is particularly nice, which I have downloaded to my iPod Touch.
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|terrific battery life, polished iPhone and DROID apps,
—–UPDATE———
After using this thing for a little while I have some useful feedback. It is more sensitive than most to being in doors. All mobile phones and 5 year gps units can get some fix inside my house, but the GTU10 wont attempt a fix with less than 5 satts. If you use the heaviest battery setting you have to recharge once a day. Its that simple. if instead of checking every 5 seconds you check every 15 minutes you can recharge every five days– big difference.
My biggest concern is the mobile apps, both android and IOs. the both seem to take a long time to connect with the device. A device I might have just turned on, placed on the hood of my car, waited for 5 minutes the apps where still giving my last nights position. eventually after pushing refresh enough times it works but I wish I knew what was happening and why it seems to take so long to lock if it hasn’t locked in a while. After all, I have the deluxe tracking option so when I download the track history I know the GPS is functioning.
this device is a breakthrough in the realtime tracking market. at 200 including the first year of unlimited location requests it’s one of the cheapest. add to this it’s size ( about the size of a pack of gum), its outstanding battery life and the very polished iPhone and android apps and you’ve got a winner.
there are a couple of things that really set this device apart from the rest.
1. it works on AT&T’s network. most of the cheaper models, like zoom bak use T-Mobile because it is cheaper.
now you might be thinking AT&T always drops calls. well it does, but this runs on the data, not voice, network and it doesn’t need the maintain a connection with a tower for minutes or hours- just a few seconds to fire off a location report. also at&t has much better coverage than t-mobile.
2. this device let’s you configure the frequency with which it computes it’s location:
every 5 seconds , every 5 minutes, every 30 minutes, or only when you request it known as on demand. this level of customization is unique and allows you tailor the device to your needs. also you can have it sleep when inside a pre-defined area called a geofences. so if you, using the website or app draw a rectangle around your house you can have the device sleep while inside that area. it will still wake up and take a fix at what ever interval you set, say every 30 minutes, but in between it won’t be available for instant checks.
3. the battery really can last four weeks, however it is totally dependent on how you use it. when configuring the device from the web page it will tell you what battery life to expect for each setting. updating every 30 seconds for example will last 20 hours. updating every 5 minutes will last three days. I have personally found these both to be underestimates. but based on this it is easy to imagine it lasting 4 weeks set on on-demand mode.
Some Cons
it doesn’t work indoors unless it is near a window or at least within site of a window. the thing is small with an internal antennae. this is a tradeoff. other gps’s including those in my smartphone can compute a location in a parking garage, but they only last 1.5 days before needing a charge.
I thought I could keep it in every,5 minutes or every 30 minutes for casual monitoring but if something or someone went missing I could just switch it to 30 second mode. sort of have the best of both worlds. unfortunately this doesn’t work. after saving any new settings you get a message saying it can take up 24 hours for the device to be updated automatically, Or you can turn the device off and then on and the changes will be immediately applied. I assume the system does a once a day refresh but it syncs itself every time it powers up.
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|Does What it Claims,
UPDATE: We have had 2 of these for about 9 months now. I wrote the review below after about a week. The units continue to serve our purpose (see below) perfectly. We get emails when the battery is getting low so we charge them in the car. They work while they are charging and GPS/Cell phone reception has been as good sitting on the seat charging as when sitting on the dashboard. The tracking website continues to get tweeked and is better than the original. There have been several firmware updates to the units as well. We depend on them now and would not want to do without them. Garmin will start charging for the tracking service in about 3 months — hope it is not too much. I see the price has dropped thirty since we bought them.
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Original Review:
I was going to give this 4 stars but I could not think of why I was dinging it a star. Maybe because I wish the battery life was more or that it was built into the Nuvi series. But my one week experience is that it does (including battery life) what it claims. So 5 stars.
Satisfaction with this device might depend on how you want to use it. My wife and I drive independently between the San Francisco Bay area and the northern California coast. These are winding two lane roads sometimes becoming one lane. Accidents and people over the side happen every year. So we always tell each other the route we plan to take and call when we have reached our destination, or call to announce our estimated time of arrival.
So this is the use of the GTU for the week: Monday and Friday about 4 hours of driving, otherwise in a geofence sleeping. Tuesday through Thursday about 2 hours of driving each day, the rest in a geofence sleeping. The setting was “balanced”
The battery died about 2 hours short of the end of this week. But I pinged it heavily throughout the week as it is a new gizmo and I wanted to see how it was working and what it would do. I think under normal use it will last the week. I will probably move the setting to “moderate” as 15 minute intervals should be fine for us. (I THINK the battery died, it was ambiguous. Garmin could not find the unit and suggested the battery was dead. But I still got emails when a geofence was transversed. So it could have just been a temporary glich in the system).
Now we are free to change our route on the fly if we wish. No need to check in — emails notify when the destination geofence has been entered. And even, by email notifications as geofences are transversed on route, have estimated times of arrival for such mundane things as dinner preparation or meeting up. If no emails are received, or the car is not where it should be when we expect, we can start calling. If there is trouble there will be tracking available to find the car. I liken gadgets like this to garage door openers; they are not a life necessity but it just makes things a little easier, safer, less stressful.
Often it seems smartphone apps are diminished versions of their desktop counterparts. The opposite is true here. The iOS app I use on my ipod Touch gives more information than the desktop version. (No actual desktop software to download, just a browser connection to Garmin’s website).
We have ordered another one for the second car.
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