In the box

The V-900 comes with the usual arrangement of accessories, such as AC adapter, car charger, carrying strap, user manual and software CD. BuyGPSNow are throwing an SD-to-MiniSD-to-MicroSD adapter (plus 1GB card) into the offer.

The user manual features a cute little character that doesn't seem to perform any function except to make you smile.

Setup and use

The V-900 can be used "out of the box" without needing to be configured. The 32 channel MTK chipset has an excellent performance and will achieve and retain a lock even under difficult conditions like dense foliage or urban canyons.

According to the log the receiver had a DGPS fix most of the time despite the fact that the V-900 was tucked away under the car's trunk floorboard (!) with no direct sky view.

You'll notice the small stretch of fixes in the bottom center. That's a very small opening in the eastbound Boston harbour tunnel, and most other GPS devices are not able to regain a fix at that point.

You do have a few (limited) options to change the behaviour of the receiver, namely to switch between "normal" and "professional" logging (as well as no logging), and between the standard 1Hz recording rate and the "spy mode" where the device records a position and then sleeps for a specified amount of time.

You can use the V-900 as a Bluetooth GPS receiver, the normal pairing procedures apply. If you don't want to log while navigating (who would want that?) you can switch to the Navigation mode. Bluetooth will automatically be disabled after 15 minutes of no connection. The SD card does not need to be inserted in pure Navigation mode.

In the logging mode the device will record the position every second (GPS lock permitting) and will also record the voice notes and waypoints you may enter.

Voice notes are recorded in a push-to-talk fashion - you have to keep the button pressed while recording your important statements.

If you press the waypoint button a bit longer the device will start writing to a new file (ie start a new track).

To switch between logging/navigating and spy modes you have to press both the power and voice note buttons for a few seconds.

It's not a real spy mode though as the device keeps blinking profusely. You cannot record voice memos in that mode but you can record waypoints manually by pressing the waypoint button. After the receiver has gotten a fix it will then resume the configured schedule. Think of it more as am option to record slower but regular processes with the possibility of manual addition of waypoints, and with the advantage of a much longer battery runtime (up to a month)

In fact the blinking and beeping is one of the niggles I have with the device. The LEDs are way too bright, and the beeps are way too loud. It sometimes feels like an arcade game. Well, some may like that.
 

[1]  [2]  [3]  [4]  Next Page