QStarz 66 channel GPS travel recorder
Mar. 4th, 2011 11:08 pmPreliminary verdict: I likes it.
GPS fix in 35 seconds from a cold start. Able to track (albeit with decreased accuracy) inside of buildings with steel structure while sitting in my jacket pocket. The software it comes with Just Works, I tagged photos with zero trouble in a few seconds. I synced my camera time to time.gov before leaving work today, and took a couple of photos at intersections, which it nailed within 20 feet at 50 MPH. 42 hour battery life, and uses a standard Nokia cell phone battery which is available from eBay vendors for < $3 shipped.
Includes bluetooth if you want to use it as a GPS receiver for a smartphone or computer running navigation software. The red button on the front marks a specific waypoint which shows up as a bullet point on the map when you get back to the PC.
I haven't played with the Google Earth stuff it comes with, and may not, but it sounds kind of neat.
Some have complained that the memory is not as much as other units, but with it set at every 5 seconds, it'll record something like a solid month of tracks, and you can optionally decrease the number of data values logged per click to increase that (if you don't care to record accuracy numbers, bearing, speed, etc and just stick to time and location).
Also, it includes a vibration sensor so that it can power itself down if it doesn't move for an hour. And uniquely among GPS recorders, it can be configured to save data points only when it moves a certain number of meters, rather than every X seconds.
It's more expensive than some of the other options at $110 (was $100 a few days ago but it jumped before I clicked "buy"), but the increased sensitivity (it has a higher rated and reviewed sensitivity than any other receiver I found) means it'll probably be more reliable, not only indoors but in a pocket in the woods in weather. Also the 42 hour battery life was a huge deciding factor for me, it is not uncommon for me to be shooting photos while on vacation from 7AM until 10 at night or even later.