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Beartooth

beartooth.com

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Re: Beartooth

#111

Post by zubeen »

freehunter wrote: post #17
csomar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think 2 miles is a good travel distance. (or maybe it is from a technical perspective but not from a practical one). That would assume lots of users which I feel can be problematic with a $399 price range and big form factor.

I've been trying to solve an issue similar to what Beartooth is doing, and 2 miles is amazing range. Bear in mind, these aren't huge towers hundreds of feet above the ground with 50kWh power sources and million dollar price tags, they're battery-powered, handheld, and consumer-priced. And cell towers with all the advantages listed only travel less than 20 miles. 2 miles with those limitations is a great distance. I t…

What frequencies are they using (sub 1ghz with audio) ? is 2 miles really possible ?

Re: Beartooth

#112

Post by prawn »

vermontdevil wrote: post #34
jdietrich wrote: post #30

As with any smartphone product being marketed for use in wilderness environments, a note of caution is necessary. Rescue services have seen an increasing number of life-threatening situations caused by the unwise use of smartphones. Phones aren't sufficiently rugged and often lack user-replaceable batteries, so cannot be relied upon as a navigation tool or as a means of emergency communication. If you're considering…

Also take orienteering class if you want to be an outdoorsy person. I took it and it was a blast. Now looking to join a local club and get into orienteering competitions.

Beyond orienteering, I think the sport of rogaining would appeal to many here. Not sure how popular it is in the US, but there are bound to be some events people could try - start with a 3-6 hour event and work up to 24 hours. It's addictive.

It's similar to orienteering but team-based, everyone leaves en masse, and control points can be reached in any order within a fixed amount of time. This means you can be competitive by walking and relying on compass smarts rather than having to be able to run for hours on end.

This looks like a calendar of US rogaining events: http://www.us.orienteering.org/orienteers/rogaines/events

I got into it a year or two ago here in Australia and have now competed in a state and national event plus others. Entered into the world champs in July, though we will be aiming mostly to not come last!

Re: Beartooth

#113

Post by prawn »

aj_g wrote: post #91
ldayley wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it is designed with this use case in mind, despite the marketing that mentions crowded festivals. I see a "Born in Bozeman" badges on the site, so I'm assuming this was born out of necessity for backcountry trekking in wild Montana and not hiking Mt. Tamalpais. I'm not far from Bozeman and I don't have to travel far from home before I lose network coverage from both Verizon and T-Mobile. Sure, I relish…

Yep. I'm from Bozeman, and can think of more than a few friends who could find this useful doing field research out here. And to anyone who is wondering, the name is in reference to the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness, an absolutely gorgeous expanse of land near Bozeman http://www.outsidebozeman.com/places/wilderness-areas/absaro...

Also maybe the Beartooth Highway which is a stunning road South-East of Bozeman. Up there with Byway 12 in Utah as one of the most picturesque drives I've done.

Re: Beartooth

#114

Post by GoNoah »

cullenking wrote: post #49
leejoramo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, a comparison between goTenna and BearTooth would be good.

I've got a 4 pack of gotenna's, and the hardware seems good, but the android app is pretty bad. Pretty sure a solid Android dev could bang out an app with better functionality in a good solid weekend of hacking (assuming they were using an SDK that abstracted all the BTLE comms). Android app is missing some great features like automatic group location updates. Right now you have to get location updates manually broad…

Hi, the SDK is not dead at all, it's going to come out in 1-2 months, we just have been focusing on encryption which should be coming this week. By the way, the lack of automated group updates is by design, there is very limited bandwidth made available by the FCC and if we allowed everyone to transmit their locations non-stop it would ruin it for everyone. We do have some features coming soon that will help get locations in a smoother fashion. Please standby to see those functions soon.

Re: Beartooth

#115

Post by [deleted] »

cullenking wrote: post #49
leejoramo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, a comparison between goTenna and BearTooth would be good.

I've got a 4 pack of gotenna's, and the hardware seems good, but the android app is pretty bad. Pretty sure a solid Android dev could bang out an app with better functionality in a good solid weekend of hacking (assuming they were using an SDK that abstracted all the BTLE comms). Android app is missing some great features like automatic group location updates. Right now you have to get location updates manually broad…

[deleted]

Re: Beartooth

#116

Post by nathan_f77 »

jdietrich wrote: post #30

As with any smartphone product being marketed for use in wilderness environments, a note of caution is necessary. Rescue services have seen an increasing number of life-threatening situations caused by the unwise use of smartphones. Phones aren't sufficiently rugged and often lack user-replaceable batteries, so cannot be relied upon as a navigation tool or as a means of emergency communication. If you're considering…

I'm pretty sure that many of your concerns could be alleviated with a lifeproof case (rugged and waterproof), the maps.me app (offline maps for iPhone, also supports KMZ hiking trails), and a few 10,000 mAh USB batteries. I use one which typically keeps my phone charged for a few days, with a lot of use.

This is great for relatively small hikes. But if you're going off on a major expedition, then sure, you should probably take the professional radio and Garmin gear, and all the other survival gear people normally bring.

But if you've already got the lifeproof case and extra USB batteries, I think this Beartooth device looks pretty useful.

Re: Beartooth

#117

Post by ntrepid8 »

I've had trouble with phone at low temperatures before, even when carried inside my parka, and inside a lifeproof case. Modern smartphones are not made to withstand life threatening temperatures for any length of time.

That said, something like this would be better than nothing.

Re: Beartooth

#118

Post by micha_ross »

linksbro wrote: post #4

It transmits via some sub-1ghz free spectrum bands, which travel a good distance and have decent structure penetration. https://beartooth.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/216797018-Wh... This is why unlicensed spectrum bands are great; they allow for stuff like this to be built without a billion dollar spectrum price tag.

Anyone else think its kinda sketchy that they're just saying "sub-1Ghz" frequencies? There aren't a ton of options there, and they aren't secret information. This sounds like they're either heavy on the vaporware side of things and haven't figured out what they're doing, which doesn't bode well for them shipping anytime soon, or they are trying to do something which the FCC isn't going to approve, which again doesn't bode well for us getting this thing on pre-order

Anyone know if they're encrypted? I'm not seeing any mention of that, I think I might grab a goTenna if only for that reason

Re: Beartooth

#119

Post by micha_ross »

macintux wrote: post #56
andrewljohnson wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree it's foolish to do a dangerous trip with just one navigation method. But that doesn't mean your phone isn't a good tool, or that we'd have less emergencies if they didn't exist. I develop an app called Gaia GPS, which a vast array of backpackers, wildland firefighters, and SAR use as a tool to navigate in the woods. They use battery packs and rugged/insulating cases with their iPhone and Android devices to ma…

I heart Gaia GPS, thanks. I find the interface a bit confusing, but that's a tough problem to solve given a large feature set and a small touch-only UI.

I think Gaia is coming out with an integration with goTenna soon via their SDK, so that would be awesome!

Re: Beartooth

#120

Post by micha_ross »

fudged71 wrote: post #79
rdl wrote: post #9

Is this basically the same as goTenna? http://www.gotenna.com/

The websites are nearly identical

Lol, I don't think that's a coincidence. I'll give my points to the guys who came out first, are already in market, and seem to have proven themselves with pretty good real-world reviews
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