SPOT Sharing

[Scott Brady]

I have always thought it would be fun for someone to log into the SPOT site and see where Expeditions West was at a given moment, or on a fun trip, expedition, etc. In working with SPOT since the early beta units, there has been a constant steam of enhancements, including kml and gpx exports, etc.

Now, they have SPOT sharing, which allows us to paste or embed a link on our own websites or in "in progress" trip threads on ExPo so other can follow along.

This is a cool feature, and I plan on just keeping my spot running, just about all the time.

Here is my first test of the beta application, which will be announced on a wider scale on Monday.

I am working a little more with SPOT on some testing, and have been beta testing their new "Shared" page.

It allows you to create a public or password protected page independent of your user account, which will allow others to view your current and recent locations, ok messages, tracks and help requests. I really like this feature, as I think it would be fun for others to be able to follow a trip and our progress on adventures.

Here is a test I just completed:

SPOT sharing, where is Expeditions West? CLICK HERE



I am leaving for a short trip tomorrow, which will get me into the mountains. I will keep the SPOT rock'in, and we will see how it works.

 

[mountainpete]

Scott,

I've been playing with this feature a lot lately can't seem to get the SPOT shared page so show more then about 30 track messages. Did you notice the same thing?

Pete

 

[Martyn]

Scott

According to the satellite map you are living in a wasteland.

It's time you built the house you are living in and got it hooked up to power, water and sewer. :sombrero:

 

[SOAZ]

I was playing with that. I'm not sure how to show long than the last 24 hours though.
Like right now the page shows nothing. It would be cool to select how far back to look.

So far the best I was able to do is send OK messages to my blog straight from the spot.
www.soaztim.com

I sent that one last weekend on Sunday. It let my Mom know why I hadn't called for Mothers day and then when I upload trip pictures from the trip I can use the already posted link to show my location. I would much rather have a small map I could post to show my "whole" trip.:sombrero:

 

[adventureduo]

Cool they added this feature. Should have been a option to begin with. I will test this out on our next trip May 24th.

Tim, i really like the remote blogging via spot. How'd you do that? Just post via email and set spot to the correct email? We use blogspot too.

 

[Desertdude]

Here is a test I just completed:

SPOT sharing, where is Expeditions West? CLICK HERE

Only linked to the spot sharing page and google map?

 

[mountainpete]

Only linked to the spot sharing page and google map?

That's a good demonstration of the current problem with shared pages. They only show the last 24 hours and from my experience only show the last dozen or so tracks in the last 24 hours.

It really needs a date feature.

Pete

 

[SOAZ]

Cool they added this feature. Should have been a option to begin with. I will test this out on our next trip May 24th.

Tim, i really like the remote blogging via spot. How'd you do that? Just post via email and set spot to the correct email? We use blogspot too.

Exactly. I just added the remost posting to the spot account and had it post instantly. Works pretty well. I just wish there was a map instead of a link, but its cool for anyone stuck at home that wants to see where some ExPo folks are at. :archaeolo

 

[mr r2fj]

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl.jsp?glId=0ZCXQtIIIHYN2iC5ansfDD5P7iFqPNXhU

Nothing there at posting though. =) It's only the last 24 hrs?

 

[adventureduo]

Weird, i sent out a message last night that never ever hit. I know it was sent because the light lit up like it's supposed too (solid).

Weird. Has anyone ever had a message fail like that? It's a first for me. Thing has been super reliable since we bought it last year.

 

[mountainpete]

I've been in contact with SPOT technical support regarding the way my unit does tracking updates.

According to their site and published material, the tracking should update the unit's location every 10 minutes. Mine does not. It clearly updates every 30 minutes according to the message timestamps.

According to technical support is should be 10 minutes and they are investigating.

Anyone else notice this same issue?

Pete

 

[Tress]

Hate to be the ignorant here but i only just came across this device just recently, is there another thread that has some debate regarding it or is this the first? Either way how do you like it besides the tracking issue, would it be wiser to get a sat phone?

:Astrologist:

 

[TheRoadie]

Master discussion thread: http://expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9208