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During a recent trip to Colorado and Wyoming I compared the BT-Q1000x with two other GPS Data Loggers. Moreover, the battery can be user-replaced as it is a standard Nokia cell phone battery.4. No problem with accidental disconnections.The bad:1. The GPS chipset is very sensitive. QStarz Travel Recorder software is not very well designed as opposed to @Trip PC, a wonderful and mature product by a competitor that makes the IGotU units. It even tracked my flight when placed in a pocket in my backpack that was in the overhead bin on the plane.2. It's truly an amazing piece of equipment.The good:1. There is a switch that you slide to switch the unit on and not a push button.
The battery life is advertised to be 40 hours. I tested it up to 20 hours and it still worked when two other units died due to exhausted batteries.3. Qstarz Travel Recorder software hangs a lot on my Vista 32-bit laptop computer.2. Please note that it is very easy to export the tracks from Travel Recorder to the *.gpx format and import them to @Trip PC.If someone found a better GPS Data Logger than the QStarz BT-1000x, please post in this thread.
Qstarz charged 30 USD to exchange the first defective unit (to cover up their fees and probably the manufacturing cost of the unit.)., which I had to pay. Not sure if this is back luck or not, but I had two devices and they were both defective. Because I bought it in the US, but live in Europe, I had to return them to Taiwan. For the second one, I just gave up, as they expected me to ship it back with the international shipping cost that you can imagine.If you buy this device, just make sure that you have a good warranty (and option to send it back free of charge for exchange). If you are lucky and get a working unit, it is perfectly fine.
I took this GPS on a 9000 mile, 3-week trip by land, sea and air, and it stored my positions without having the opportunity to download the data or change settings during the trip, since the sub-notebook I took ran LINUX. I wish the software would allow several trips to be selected without re-downloading the tracks each time. I found it to be very sensitive.
This, by the way is either. In a bus or car I could keep it in my pocket. I did some trials while walking and car riding before leaving to arrive at a compromise setting which would last the trip, which was 30 meters and 30 seconds.
On the ship or train it would generally work if within a few feet of a window. not both. I did not use it on the plane, but it was satisfactory on bus, train, cruise ship and walking.
It even stored during some indoor rides in Disney World. Also, I usually use a Mac.
The Software is good, Installs and Loads OK, nice features including showing path taken on Google maps (nicely integrated with internet on-line maps and satelite pictures), and speed during the trip (Can click on speed vs distance graph, and it shows where on the map speed limit was violated). Printed documentation is OK but tiny font and black & White pictures, Better to read the documentation on the Disk (easier to read on the computer and is in color).All in all, I'm glad I purchased this device. Minor incovenience is the upload of the data log is slow, takes several minutes.Blue Tooth allows this to work real time with my palm pilot and PC map programs when I'm driving.
However, If it sits in one spot for a few hours, it has occasional drift in calculated position, and looks like it is moving around the size of a soccer field, with an occational spot several blocks away, even with a view of the clear sky and good signal lock.The device has a nice feature to save data space, with option to only record points if they exceed a certain distance or speed from earlier points. The size is small and easy to fit in a pocket. However if I leave the software running on my PC for an hour, Windows says it is taking too many resources, and it hangs/freezes.Program allows pictures to be tagged with location and elevation, with an adjustment if needed for Camera and GPS times being offset.The accuracy is good, It generally shows the exact parking space I was in, and which lane I'm driving on a wide street.
In addition to logging the route for later playback. Data point entries can be also programed for variable time between points. Battery life is over 24 hours.
Comes with USB cable, AC wall charger and 12V DC car charger. If they have software upgrades in the future to address consistant accuracy and S/W hanging, it would be 5 stars.
Some 10+ friends got one following my recommendation. I always leave it on on a plane and later review the flight.
It's an incredibly reliable product. Easy to use.
It's a modern marvel. Not any more.
Fun to have. I use it mostly when traveling, for reviewing my routes and geo-tagging pictures I take.Remember some 10 years ago you had to buy a separate GPS for planes.
Exciting.At ~$100 it's a steal. No one is disappointed.
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