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Lightweight, tiny data logger for recording your trips and uploading
 Only
recharges via USB cable, easy to accidentally turn off
i-gotU 120 Data Logger
One of the best things about
owning a GPS is being able to record where you go and share it with
others. It's not the main purpose of the usual GPS, but it's a pretty
much standard feature even with phone based GPS. If you ask GPS users
how they use their devices there's a fair proportion who just turn them
on, throw them in their packs and leave them there till they get back
unless they need to double check their map reading. The i-gotU is
designed to fill this gap, and take over the route recording without
trying to replace map and compass.
The first thing you notice
about the i-gotU is the size, it's a minute 44.5 x 28.5 x 13
mm and weighs in at just 20gm including the non slip cover. You also
get a USB cable and a mini-CD, the CD holds all the drivers and
software for the data logger and the USB cable works as a combined
charger and data transfer cable. You'll need to charge it first, which
takes 4 hours first time and 2 hours subsequently, but once you've
installed the drivers and software it's easy to get going with it. To
turn it on simply press the large button on the front - the only botton
you'll find on the device, for about one and a half seconds and a blue
light will start flashing to signify it's turned on. Once you've got a
flashing red light you've got a satellite lock and you're ready to
start.
i-gotU maps
The i-gotU comes with @trip PC
Pro, a software application for downloading and naming your saved
routes. By default you can download to Google Maps and Google Earth as
well as save as a .GPX file for use with other digital mapping
software. @trip also lets you integrate photos, which can be geotagged
with the GPS data, into Google Earth files . File transfer is fairly
straight forward and there's enough capacity to store 30 hours of data
if you set the sampling rate at once evrey 15 seconds.
Provisional Verdict
For those who are quite happy
with map and compass but wouldn't mind a full record of where they've
been this is the ideal weekend device. At 20gm and less than twice the
size of an SD card it can slip unnoticed into the pack and happily sit
there working away quietly. 30 hours at 15 second intervals is plenty
for a weekend, but having an inbuilt lithium battery makes extended use
problematic unless you've got USB based charging. You have to be
careful where you put it once turned on as anything pressing the large
front mounted button for a second and a half will turn it off again,
but put it in a pocket facing outwards and it does exactly what it says
on the box. We've yet to test the phot tagging and emergency use as a
back up GPS receiver but on first impressions it looks like a great
little data logger for the price - and it's water and shock resistant
too!
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