| | Location: Home » Electronics » Other Products » Amod AGL3080 GPS Data Logger (SiRF III, Driverless, 128MB, Push to Log) (Windows and Mac Image Software included) (AGL3080) | October 6, 2008 |
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| Amod AGL3080 GPS Data Logger (SiRF III, Driverless, 128MB, Push to Log) (Windows and Mac Image Software included) (AGL3080) | 
 enlarge | Brand: Amod
Category: Single Detail Page Misc
Buy New: $69.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 155
MPN: AGL3080
Model: AGL3080
ASIN: B000WO6HJW
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 10 | | NEXT » |
 Great Choice October 2, 2008
After spending more time reading reviews than I should.. I went ahead and purchased one of these. The data is spot on. One reason I got this one was sensitivity. So I put it in my pants pocket and drove out the local McDee's for lunch. I forgot to turn it off when i got back and to my surprise it recorded me walking from room to room in my house! Not only was it not in view of a signal , but it was inside in my pocket and it still logged! I did have to go make an investment in rechargeable batteries because it uses 3 AAA not included but I think I like that idea vs having an internal non serviceable batteries like the iPhone. Also i would have like to have seen a small LCD display like a pager to tell you what mode it's in. Other than no display I think its about as good as you can get in a device. I recommend getting one!
Simply Works. :D September 19, 2008
I have a Canon 40D and always want to GeoTag my photos. The only canon solution to this was for me to buy the wireless add-on. Which was too expensive in my mind. This let you get around that for a very good price. just download the latest software from the website and you are good to go. very easy to use and would recommend it to anyone.
 Great product, poor documentation September 5, 2008
The important part, GPS logging, is excellent. Seems to track fairly accurately; I don't have anything to compare it against, but from reviews on similar products, seems to have similar accuracy. It also has good reception. I was able to acquire and maintain a fix from inside my house and in the office.
Very simple to use. Collected data, plugged it into my Linux box, copied the log files off the presented flash drive. I then converted the logs from NMEA to GPX using gpsbabel, and correlated the locations to my photos in digikam.
The biggest pain was the firmware update. I downloaded the most recent (V2.2) firmware, and tried to update. First off, you have a choice of two downloads, one with static navigation enabled, the other without. No explanation as to which I might want. Some WEB searching, I found that for use when walking about, you probably want the one with it SN off.
Next, after unzipping the download, checked the README. It listed five files which should be included, and that the upgrade is performed by running 'fwupgrade.exe'. Well, there was no 'fwupgrade.exe', but there was a 'GoNoGo.exe'. Tried running GoNoGo on three differant WinXP boxes, and in each case it crashed. Next I tried the fwupgrade.exe from the V2.0 download, and it behaved the same. Finally, I upgraded to V2.0, powered on then off the unit, and then successfully upgraded to V2.2.
The newer firmware offers six logging modes. The documentation tells you approximately how many data points of each type, and the number of hours of samples will fit in the unit for each format, but again, no explanation as to which format you would want to use under what situations. I just chose the one with the most data types at five second intervals. That seems to work.
In summary, a recommended buy. I would suggest Amod work more on the documentation, and QA the update procedure better. I would prefer an upgrade procedure where I could just copy the new firmware onto the flash, and have it internally reflash, rather than fussing with their flaky Windows app.
Works Well; Could Have Better Reception August 3, 2008
This cell-phone sized GPS logger does exactly what it claims to do. It comes with a convenient velcro strap and hook so it can be attached to your camera bag; I prefer to use a carabiner since the plastic hook seems cheap.
The AGL3080's interface is mind blowingly simple: blinking green lights are good. Solid lights are bad. You just power the thing on and wait for the satellite reception indicator to blink green and you know it's good to go. With that said, this device could be quicker at picking up a signal. It's taken me upwards to five minutes for it to resolve when there's cloud cover or I'm indoors. This isn't killer, but I do wish it was quicker.
Once you've collected some data, it's simple to use software like Houdah Geo to tag your photos. The AGL3080 just plugs into your computer's USB port and mounts as an external drive. Very easy to use and there's no proprietary interface concealing your data. It works perfectly with my Macbook and Rebel XTi.
New tracking modes allow much longer tracks June 24, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
As reported in January by Paul Dulaney, the error in the device that caused it to report inaccurate latitude and longitude has been fixed. I find that the positions it records are very accurate.
In addition, while the device still has 128MB of flash memory, it now has six user-selectable tracking modes. The differences between modes have to do with the amount of information recorded (types of NMEA 0183 records), the frequency of position recordings, or both.
The original device recorded a position every second, and would completely fill the memory in 72 hours. Now you can choose between recording every second, every 5 seconds, or every 10 seconds. You can choose to record 5 different types of records, or just "RMC" records; these contain date, time, latitude, and longitude, which is enough for attaching locations to photos. RMC records also contain speed and direction of travel, but not altitude. Altitude is in "GGA" records, which also contain latitude, longitude, and time, but not date. (Who designed this stuff, anyway?)
Recording only RMC records every second, the device can now hold a track that lasts 288 hours. As you might expect, recording every 5 seconds yields 1440 hours, and every 10 seconds yields 2880 hours. Recording more record types takes more space, but recording everything record type it knows about every 10 seconds can be done for 720 hours.
The device remembers the last mode you set, and uses it the next time it powers up. You can just set it and forget it.
I found the recorded altitudes to be very inaccurate -- it claims a difference of 30 meters altitude between the front and back of my yard, while a difference of 1.5 meters is more like it. I understand that GPS devices generally don't do well with altitudes. This is a shame, because a true "geotag" should have three coordinates, to fix a point in 3-space.
I particularly like that fact that the device attaches to a computer as a plain vanilla flash memory drive, a "removable disk". This means that there is no dependency on device drivers or other proprietary software: you just copy the log files from the device to the computer, and do what you want with them. Based on the horror stories in reviews of other GPS loggers' software and drivers, this is a very good thing.
I have not tried the software that comes on the CD. AMOD provides two programs, but one of them is Windows only and thus unusable on my Macintosh. (I haven't needed to run Windows programs yet on my Mac, and I see no need to start now just for this GPS logger.) I wrote a rather simple Python script that matches the times on photos with entries in the GPS log files and updates the photos' GPS data using a free program called ExifTool.
To sum up, the AGL3080 does just what I wanted. It has a very simple user interface: about all you have to do is turn it on and make sure it has fresh batteries. It's easy to read and process the GPS logs that it records. I recommend the device.
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