i-Blue TripMate 850 Bluetooth GPS DataLogger with microSD Slot and LCD Screen (AGPS, 66 ch MTK2, 1GB MicroSD included)
TripMate850 features easy-to-use, cost-effective portable GPS logger solution. When you travel in different countries, it allows you to record your routes by ways of time/ distance/ speed. TripMate850 equips with one inch LCD for display of time, speed, distance measurement and position information. Through user friendly utility software, it can combine your pictures and record routes showing on the map. This recorder is small and robust, ideal to carry around for applications such as route tracking, mountain climbing and fleet management.
Features
- MTK 3329 chip with 66 channel capability
- Smart log function
- Receiver & data logger dual function design
- Smart power saving with sensor
- # Micro SD card slot for unlimited storage
This device seems to have decent sensitivity and picks up satellites fine but the log files couldn’t be read by any of the software products I tried. The device makes a *.nma file format and I’ve tried reading them with HoudahGeo, Google Maps, etc… I’m a Mac user and couldn’t find anything that could read these files. I even tried a couple of MS-DOS programs but nothing seemed to work.
In addition to the lack of developing a more common file format, the menu structure is not intuitive at all. It’s a bit of a mess getting around the menus on this device so it takes quite a while to try and make it do what you want.
The features on the device are impressive. It has a lit 2-line display menu, removal mini-SD card slot, bluetooth, USB connectivity, decent battery life on AAA, and generally seems like a nice device but since I can’t read the files it develops it’s basically useless for me…
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EDIT: I contacted HoudahGeo and sent them some sample *.nma log files from the device. They took a look and instructed me to open the file with a text editor, delete the first line, and then re-save the file as an *.NMEA file. Making these changes, the modded files worked perfectly with Houdah! As a result of these changes I can use the device to geotag my photos so I’ve upgraded my review from 1-Star to 4-stars (it still loses a star for having a crappy menu structure and for having to take the extra steps to make the files useable). As long as you don’t mind making the simple file changes you’ll be generally happy with this device.
i-Blue TripMate 850 Bluetooth GPS DataLogger with microSD Slot and LCD Screen (AGPS, 66 ch MTK2, 1GB MicroSD included)
