I've written an overview
of SPOT and STM and I hope it will be useful and interesting
I very much believe that people don't know what they're missing by not
incorporating STM with their SPOT Personal Tracker.
When the SPOT personal Tracker first came
out, I became interested. Soon, many friends and aquaintances
were using it and we all saw the ability to track moto-bike riders.
It was now easy, cheap and reliable to do so.. This new orange gadget
has pretty much made satellite tracking a mainstream kind of thing.
Still, I wasn't too impressed, primarily
with the SPOT interface. Then I saw that long distance rider and
programming guru Jason Jonas created a web-based program called STM (SPOT
Trip Manager). And that peaked my interest. Then when Yahoo
created Fire Eagle -SPOT sent tracking updates to Fire Eagle -and
these updates can be incorporated within STM. Hhmmm,
....now things were getting real interesting -and a couple of weeks
ago I jumped into the fun.
This overview assumes that you have a fairly
good understanding of what SPOT is, and what it is intended to do.
If not, info can be found on their site: http://www.findmespot.com At this point knowing the names of the
following applications is good enough:
- STM (SPOT trip Manager) -An awesome
application created, maintained and provided free of charge by LD rider
Jason Jonas (clicky)
- FE (Fire Eagle) -A division of
Yahoo that SPOT sends tracking data to ..and this is available for STM
to use. Basicaly a nice bridge to the data. (clicky)
How does this all work?
In
a nutshell, SPOT sends out data which gets collected via sattelites and
can be seen on the SPOT website. This data fall into four buckets
and each bucket is handled a bit differently. The four buckets:
**911/Emergency.
This is pretty self explanatory and will not be discussed here. It
is great functionality, to learn more go to SPOT's page.
**Help.
This is nearly identical to the "OK" messages and will not really be covered
here ...just realize that any 'help' message will be handled by SPOT and
STM similar to an 'OK' message -just flagged to the recipients as more
important.
The next two will
be discussed here and it is important that you have an understanding of
the difference between the two and how they work.
** "OK" messages:
This is data that is sent from a location of your choosing by pushing a
button on the unit. When doing so, it sends data that -updates the
SPOT map, AND has the ability to send emails to anyone you choose.
You can have this sent to friends/famiily.
** Tracking Data"
When the unit is put in this mode, it sends an update once every 10 minutes.
These are like breadcrumbs showing the progress of your journey.
For the techies: 'Tracking' data is
captured by STM via the help of Fire Eagle, FE is really no more than a
bridge to get the info into STM, but a very important one for this to all
work.
'OK' and 'Help' messages are captured
by STM via the emails that spot sends out ...yes the same emails that are
sent to the people on your SPOT distribution lists.
Note: SPOT, FE and STM are
all their own individual web-based applications. The beauty
of STM is how it brings it all together with tools to make it all useful.
Good and bad of the spot unit:
- First off, let's
all realize that this is an inexpensive tool that does quite a lot for
something that doesn't cost much. At worst case, full retail is only
$149.99. However, you do need a subscription and that comes
in two flavors.
- Basic package
does the first three buckets mentioned above. (aprox $100/year)
- Secondly, "tracking"
package which adds tracking capabilities. Add aprox $50/year
to the above.
Note: Check
for promotioanl offers -- I got the full subscription plus tracking free
for a year via a promotional offer.
Small, compact, and
relatively light.
- The interface
takes some getting used to. Four buttons and four LED's that
'kind of' tell you the status of the unit. IMO this could have been
done much better. While you can instantly tell if your unit
is on, as well as if it's set to do a transmission....
My biggest complaint
is that you can't tell WHICH kind of transmission. You have
no idea from looking at the unit and the double blinking green LED's if
you're sending an 'OK' transmission or if it is in 'tracking' mode..
I like to use both of these modes and me thinks this is a bad design that
they're not differentiated on the unit. It is also very tedius to
go back-and-forth between these two modes.
I very much wish
that 'OK' transmissions could be sent while in tracking mode, but
instead you must cancel tracking mode first (or turn the unit off/on),
then
send an OK message, then wait 10minutes then go back to tracking mode.
That design sucks.
HOWEVER, it should
be noted that you CAN send a 'HELP' or '911' message while in
tracking mode. That is a good thing. And, BTW:
The unit does let you know if you're in '911' or 'Help' mode via their
own LED's...and these two buttons are slighly recessed to help avoid accidental
button pushing.
If this sounds complicated,
it isn't: A few minutes with the device in-hand and it alll makes
easy sense.
- While riding in
open areas, the realiability of transmissions being received is awesome!
The unit seems to work best laying flat and not vertical which makes you
wonder why you'd want to use the nice belt clip(?). My generic
guestimations: While in open areas in 'tracking' mode, transmissions
were 90%+ successful. However, when in canyons, forest
and certainly when in a combination of the two, the percentage goes way
down. In some areas (ie: hwy 32 west of Chester the SPOT tracking
was worthless, many of you know this is a tight canyon in heavy forest).
On hwy 70 from Quincy to Oroville aprox 50% of tracking transmissions made
it through.
In such areas, this
will not give the people following you pinpoint accuracy, but me thinks
enough data will get through that they'll be able to figure out your route.
Also note that I'm talking about 'tracking' data here.
All other modes (OK, Help, 911) the unit re-sends data multiple times
so it is possible (likely?) that the reliability for these more important
messages would be much better.
The SPOT interface:
As most of you have
probably seen and played with. The above is a typical screenshot
of the SPOT mapping/interface/share-me page. It is a nice graphical
representation of where you've been and where you are. To the left
you can expand any of the specific sites and get detailed coordinates,
time etc. Also, any 'OK', help or 911 messages are shown.
Example of email updates: As mentioned earlier, when 'OK' or 'help'
transmissions are sent they can be emailed to multiple people of your choosing.
Below are screen-shots of what those emails look like: Note:
They can easily be modified so the recipient knows who they came from ...below
are examples.
To the left is the
default "OK" message that is sent from SPOT
A buddy(?) added me to their list and I
got this OK message in my email this morning.
Problem is:
**I HAVE NO IDEA WHO THIS PERSON IS!!**
Yes, nice of them to put me on their list,
nice to know exactly where they are -nice to know that everything is 'OK'
...Now, if I only knew who this person is!!
To the left is
the email that comes from my spot. I've modified the message (easy
to do on the SPOT website)
More importantly, it identifies me and
where the message came from (SPOT Satellite Tracking System).
Should people receive an email, they'll know it is from me and also know
where the email came from and why.
I wonder how many people have not changed
the message and their recipients are confused when getting the emails?
Also, note the hyperlink on the messages:
-This is very nice as it allows users to click for a Google map which will
show the exact loaction when the transmission was sent. Very cool.
The fist link to first example is here
and the 2nd link here
So, as you can see, the SPOT interface
is kind of cool, it gives a nice map and real-time updates of data.
When you send 'OK' or 'help' messages, the SPOT system will send emails
with this info to those you specify within your profile on the SPOT website.
But what it doesn't do:
It does not allow specific time-frames to be shown, it also doesn't accomodate
for embeded maps to be used on your own site. And the data dissapears
after a while. In short, just a temporary way to see what limited
data they want you to see at that particular time. The SPOT interface
is very limited.
***This is what
most SPOT users are using to share their riding fun. Yep,
it's cool, but only a C+ grade IMO, certainly not the head of the class..****
Are you bored yet??
Yep, me too. PLEASE continue on Daddy-O -as this is where things
start to get groovy.
What
Happens When You Add STM (Spot Trip Manager)?
Warning::
You are about to witness me giving a ton of praise/kudos to STM and Jason
Jonas. Well deserved as STM is really the key to making exciting
things happen with the SPOT data.
In
short: STM is like Viagra for your SPOT: It
takes a simple little tool and transforms it into something big and useful.
What? How? Why? .....
We see that SPOT
does a nice job of gathering the specific locatons that you ride to and
through.. But the data is typically viewed through the SPOT website
and this data goes away after a while. In additon, this data that
they provide is only viewable in the way they want you to see it.
That sucks. It is very limited.
WHAT IF:
.......All of your data was captured, kept indefinately and wonderful tools
were provided to allow you to create trips with specific time-frames and
the ability to display and share this data?
Add to this:
An infinate amount of trips, and they can even overlap each other! ......And,
these trips that you create can be seen via real-time maps. -Maps
that can be seen on the STM site ...But ALSO, these maps that can be embedded
into your own site!
Want more?
How about the data doesn't go away ...You can set these trips to: Current,
future and even past time frames.
Welcome to the
wonderful fun of STM. Awesome stuff.
Not sure why this is so nifty?
Let me give you an example:
Let's say I plan
on going to the infamous
Utah1088
and I want friends/family etc to be able to track my progress.
Well, I know the pre-rally BBQ is on the 25th of June so I'll be
leaving for Utah that morning, ...and I know the rally will finish Sunday.
Hence -I know I'll be coming home on Monday. So, I'll create
a STM trip to represent this whole time frame: Early Thursday 25th
through Monday the 29th of June.
I'll go into STM
and set that up: Here is a screen shot from STM of me doing just
that:
Note that I've set this
trip to start at 04:00am on June 25th, and end at 11:00p June 29 ..this
will be good window to catpture my whole trip from doorstep to doorstep.
BUT!!! STM
is sooo groovy, it also provides us with embedded maps to use on
our own site (if you wish)....so Yes, I'll do that here!!
Above is the "Real-Time"
map of my doorstep-to-doorstep trip of the 2009 Utah1088. Was
that easy or what?
OK, that's nice to
get my whole trip ...but the reason we go to Utah and enjoy the Rallybastard
is really about running the rally. I'll also want a map to
represent just the "rally" and not necessarlly the before and after.
I'll create
another
trip to start at 5:00a Saturday and go until 1:00p Sunday.
This 32hour window should be sufficient to capture the "rally" portion
of the trip.
So, again, we take
30seconds of our time -go to STM site and create another trip : (actual
screen shot of doing this below)
In just a few seconds
we have created another trip to show just the "rally" portion of the trip.
Should any of this info change, it is a quick and easy to modify on the
STM website.
Again, the map is
instantly available on the STM website here(clicky)
..and again I'll
post the real-time map here: (why? because we can!!)
(You'll notice I made
this map a little smaller ...you can make the maps any size you want!)
So, in just a few
minutes I've gone to STM, created two new trips that will both be
used in the upcoming Utah1088. It makes no matter that the dates
are 6months in the future ....and when it comes time for this event -all
I need to do is get on the bike, turn on my SPOT and the rest is magic,
-thanks to STM.
Yes, the maps
are boring now, but come June 25th the first one will become
live with my real-time status ...like magic. And ditto
for the 2nd map which will show my status during the rally.
Two different trips, created way in advance and it makes no difference
that they overlap!!
Try doing that with
just SPOT, --it aint gunna happen. .......STM is very very
useful for creating and sharing trips within the infinate parameters if
your choosing.
What about past data?
With STM past data
is retained- indefinately. Let's say you want to create a trip that
consists of a ride done in the past. Again, you take 30seconds, go
into STM and create a trip using past dates and times. (just as i
showed above) STM will gather your data and create a map. For
example, I did a ride yesterday from Chico to Reno with a few diversions.
It can be seen
here on STM site, and I've also put the map here:
NOTE: All STM
maps are real-time dynamic maps. You'll see that you can navigate
the maps: zoom-IN/OUT, move around, change to sattelite view, hybrid
view etc etc. These are not static images! Also
note that the icons represent diffent things. A legend shown here:
So, go ahead and
play with the map, zoom-in, move around, click on the icons to get detailed
info ...etc ....pretty groovy eh?
And while we're
talking about past data: STM also allows you to download
all your points in an KML file which can be used in all kinds of fun ways
including Google Earth. Awesome yet again.
Advanced functionality.
If you look at the
screenshots taken from the STM site:
You'll see that you
can configure other things as well:
- You can limit
locations to only those in recent hour of your choosing (handy if
you just want to create a single map and have people only see current stuff)
- You can hide time
.....uhhh, for the paranoid, you can keep people from seeing when you were
at each location.
- You can allow
others to download your data in KML format ...kinda cool and I see no reason
to not let others do that.
- You can also not
allow your maps to displayed ....uh, nice that you can collect all your
data without anyone seeing it ...for you REALLY paranoid folks this is
a nice option.
- In addition you
can put your own home page or other URL if you want it to be accessible
to others viewing your maps from STM -you'll see I added my home
page.
- You can also password
protect to allow only people of your choosing from viewing.
Once again, ...totally groovy. And
again big Kudos to Jason Jonas for writing this web-based application and
making it available to all of us.
For
those who want to capture their trips, and/or share their journeys: STM
is awesome. In my opinion, this is the best thing to happen
to riding moto-bikes since the throttle was introduced.
Displaying the maps ..sharing the fun.
STM has a great
interface which allows visitors to view your maps. In fact,
pre-defined searches make this very easy. In addition, you can also
send folks links to STM that will take them directly to your map(s).
There are many folks
using STM, although I don't see it being used by the LD community like
one might expect. In my opinion, there is not a better arena to take
advantage of the functionality.
While playing on
the STM Site -please look at
some of the trips in progress -they are wonderful (much better than the
examples i've shown here). They show stuff that is not possible
using the SPOT interface. Like
this one for example
While some folks
might prefer the look of the SPOT interface/maps over the STM maps.
-My personal feeling is that once you play with the STM maps and see the
amazing flexibility, you won't go back to the SPOT interface.
Regardless: You always have both -remember, STM is just a wonderful
enhancement to SPOT, if you add STM, all your curent SPOT stuff is
business as usual.
For my objectives and uses, I've incorporated
the STM functionality into a blog-style format. This is but
one way the fun can be shared, and for me I think it will be a good one.
It allows me to post the real-time maps, in addition I can give real-time
updates to the blog from the road via my blackberry. And, comments
can even be posted from friends/family. Example of doing this
can be seen on
this recent trip, and for any interested my (work in process) blog
can be seen here
I *hope* this helps people understand SPOT
and how STM is a great enhancement. Please let me know if you have
any suggestions to help better illustrate how STM is a no-brainer when
it comes to using SPOT.
