AMOD AGL3080: an in-depth review.

January 29, 2008 - 09:14

I recently had the opportunity to test-drive the AMOD AGL3080 GPS Logger. For the past three weeks I've given the AGL3080 a run for it's money: I've tagged a few hundred photos, mapped a few hikes and plotted my commute.

And... I'm impressed!
My DG-100 has a serious contender for pocket-space in my future photowalks.
Here's why:

History

AMOD AGL3080 - photo by Kevin Jaako
AGL3080 Front. 3 status LEDs: memory full, satellite lock, low battery.

AMOD has recently relaunched the AGL3080. Their first-gen release was sadly flawed and suffered from susceptibility to RF interference, making the GPS module inaccurate. AMOD seems to be pretty actively chasing down owners of their first-gen device and offering upgrades, so if you own an old AGL3080, you should get in touch with them! The new version works flawlessly.

Drivers & Formats

The AGL3080 is a driverless GPS logger, which means it mounts as a USB external drive. If you read my blog post about the DG-100, you know that driver issues with many GPS devices can be a #*$@!'ing nightmare, especially if you're on a Mac!

The AGL3080 saves each GPS track in NMEA format (although oddly enough, it gives each file a .log extension, so make sure GPSbabel doesn't get confused)

You can convert your log files into GPX format to use with GPS Photo Linker or HoudahGeo, or convert it to KML for viewing in Google Earth.

The device uses the SiRF III chipset, which, is the only chip I trust for good reliability & accuracy- especially in urban environments. (Recently, I've heard good things about the Nemerix chipset used in devices like the iBlue, but it still doesn't have the sensitivity of the SiRFstar III chipset, so no cookie for you.)

The SiRF III chip puts the AGL3080 as a front-runner among the small handful of GPS loggers worth considering.

Form & Function

AMOD AGL3080 - photo by Kevin Jaako
AGL3080 Back. 3 AAA batteries for 15 hours of continuous use. No USB-charging, though.

The AGL3080 takes 3 AAA batteries for about 15 hours of use. It's very well built and it fits perfectly in my hand or in my pocket, however it's not as flat as the DG-100, so it doesn't stay put on the car dash quite as nicely. The battery-compartment door (frequently the first part to break on many of my devices) is rugged and easy to open. It has a built-in carabiener hoop, à la Sony GPS-CS1. Similar to the Sony, the provided carabiener and strap are junk, replace ASAP.

As I find myself slowly adapting to life in Japan, the carabiener hoop is begging me for a cute dangling cell-phone toy. Update on that to follow.

The device logs position, altitude, heading, speed, acquired satellites, hdop & vdop every 1 second and saves it to its 128mb of internal memory. It creates a new log file every time the power is cycled, so it's fairly easy to identify tracks if you're looking for a particular day's data.

AMOD AGL3080 - photo by Kevin Jaako
Sample GPX output. The AGL3080 logs: lat, lon, elevation, heading, speed, satellites, hdop & vdop @ 1Hz. Impressive. Textmate screenshot using skitch.

Richard Akerman has identified an interesting quirk where the log files are missing the standard filesystem created/modified datestamps, though it doesn't seem to affect the data.

While 1Hz logging may be a tad on the excessive side, it certainly provides excellent resolution (although I would recommend using a quick GPSBabel filter to strip out excess track points within 5m. You can chop your GPX file size by about 70% with no reduction to your data.)

The AGL3080 won't recharge your batteries over USB like many other devices (somewhat dissapointing!) so go buy a good wall-mount battery charger. Your rechargeables will charge faster and stay healthy for longer anyway.

Bottom line

AMOD AGL3080 vs GLOBALSAT DG100
AGL3080 & DG-100. No surprise here; Both devices use the SiRF III Chipset for near identical results. Shown: Route 38 - Takikawa (滝川) to Ashibetsu (芦別), Hokkaido, Japan on Google Earth

Okay- here's the verdict. The AGL3080 beats the DG-100, hands-down, for one reason and one reason only. Data.

We geocoders are interested in collecting quality GPS data to tag our photos, videos, blog posts, etc. The DG-100 logs only a small subset of available GPS data (position, altitude and speed), while the AGL3080 logs position, altitude, speed, heading, acquired satellites, hdop and vdop (Dilution of precision... look it up.) USB-charging and logging frequency control are one way to evaluate a device, but if it doesn't log every single piece of available GPS information, why bother carrying it around with you?

Oh- and the fact that the AGL3080 will work on my Mac without spending a few dozen hours hacking around with a C script is pretty cool too. =)

You can get your hands on a AMOD AGL3080 through semsons, amazon.com or you can contact AMOD directly.

Review & Photography © Kevin Jaako, 2008. All rights reserved.

57 Comments

MTK chipset, USB transfer

Submitted by Richard AKerman on

I've found the MTK chipset is comparable to SIRFstarIII. Also, while the AGL3080 works great with my Mac and PC, I'd like to be able to transfer files off of it using a USB "on the go" device like the Sima Hitch - unfortunately in testing, the Hitch wasn't able to detect it as a storage device.

Auto download script

Submitted by Keshi on

Hi Jaako
Nice review. Makes me want to get one of my own.

I am so in love with the canon utility when I plug in my camera through USB and it automatically downloads/syncs the pictures for me from the camera to my computer.

Is there such a script or utility to sync up delta tracks after plugging in USB device such as the AMOD GPS logger?

keep up the good blog posts :)

New firmware

Submitted by Kevin Jaako on

Hi!

I checked out the firmware upgrade on AMOD's website, which allows for changing the logging interval, as you mentioned, as well asallowing you to disable static navigation (which is a big plus if you use the device at walking speeds!)

The upgrade procedure sounds pretty simple, but AMOD has only released a firmware upgrade tool for Windows, which I find a little disappointing seeing how one of their primary selling points is their cross-platform compatibility!

I've contacted them about the development of a Mac or Linux version. I will update you as I find out!

Kevin Jaako

Hi Kevin, Great review,

Submitted by Ludwig on

Hi Kevin,
Great review, thanks.
I just lost my beloved Globalsat DG-100 and after feeling upset for a couple of days I thought that at least now I could get a new datalogger that would work on my Macbook. So browsing the net I found this review and then I looked at the rest of your blog and found out that there is a way to use the DG-100 with OSX... Wow.
So my question is, going back to the start of your post and two months of use later, would did you stick to the Globalsat or are you using the AMOD instead?
thanks for your opinion.

AGL3080 vs DG-100

Submitted by Kevin Jaako on

Hi Ludwig,

Sorry to hear about you losing your DG-100!

I have to say, I pretty much exclusively use my AMOD AGL3080 instead of my Globalsat DG-100.

Mac support for the DG-100 does work, indeed. But the DG-100 saves its datalog in one big long file, which is very inconvenient if you are trying to find or extract a certain day or a certain trip's data. The AGL3080 saves each log in a separate file, so it is very easy to find the data you need, and equally as easy to join multiple files together if you need one log that spans multiple days. The AGL3080 also logs the full range of data, including DOP and acquired satellites.

the DG-100 does still have some features that make it appealing, such as GPS-mouse mode as well as it's 2xAA battery usage (instead of 3xAAA with the AGL3080)

I still keep my DG-100 in my bag for backup, but my main logger is the AMOD AGL3080

I hope this helps, thanks for stopping by.
Kevin Jaako

Do you know if the AGL3080

Submitted by Carl on

Do you know if the AGL3080 can operate without the AAA's installed (just off of the USB power source)? I tried contacting AMOD and received no reply. I am looking for a data logger which I can install in my car, that I will not need to swap batteries out of.

Thanks,

Carl

AGL3080 without batteries

Submitted by Kevin Jaako on

Hi Carl.
Thanks for your question.

No, the AGL3080 doesn't receive power from USB, either for running without batteries or for recharging the AAA's inside.

I should be receiving a new bluetooth prototype from AMOD this week that is designed to sit on the car dash, and is powered/charged through the 12v cigarette lighter. I'll post an article about it when I finish reviewing it.

Cheers!
Kevin Jaako

waypoint marker

Submitted by willem on

Supposedly there is a waypoint marker on this device (yes this is protabably the one i will buy sincce it is maccompatible).
I'd like to log my daily routes and mark the points during the day when i swap my way of transport (e.g. when i get out of my car and hop on my bike, start walking or take the train). Will this work when i push the waypoint marker?
And what will this data log look like then? how is this extra information added?

keep track on my site on the work i'll make with this info!

willem

Waypoints

Submitted by Kevin Jaako on

You're right Willem.
There's a waypoint button on the AGL3080. I typically only carry my data logger on me during photowalks, so I don't really use the waypoint feature.

I'll look into it this week and let you know.

-Kevin Jaako

new firmware?

Submitted by magrolino on

I would like to know if the new firmware helped making this tool a better one; if yes I might get one too. But reviews for the new firmware are rare to find!

any comments appreciated!

I own this device and for

Submitted by dps098 on

I own this device and for the life of me could not figure out how to get the waypoint button/functionality to work.

I recently wrote to AMOD and the developer specifically told me they're aware of the problem.

I'm told that if you use the PC version of the Photo Tracker program that the device comes with, and you have pictures that go along with the waypoint, that THIS program will be able to tag a photo with a waypoint button push.

This obviously was not what I was looking for. The developer indicated this was because of a non-standard format for storing the waypoints.

The developer clarified that within several weeks (of yesterday), there will be a utility or some solution that will allow for extraction of waypoints from existing GPS .log files generated by the device (and that any waypoints we did attempt to record are not lost).

So this is great news. But I'd like to see it actually working.

Hope this helps. PS the AMOD team as well as the JetPhoto (separate company whose software comes bundles with the AMOD) are very responsive if you email them. Typically 1 day turn around to reply to my emails.

Good luck!

--D

As indicated I own the AMOD

Submitted by dps098 on

As indicated I own the AMOD device. I went on a trip with version 1 of the firmware. I got fairly good geo data as long as the batteries were in good shape.

I have since upgraded to version 2 of the firmware. There is new functionality that allows you to configure (dynamically) if you want 1, 5, or 10 second rates of data capture, and whether or not you want a full set of data, or a minimal set (less geo data). This allows you to decide resolution, storage space demands, etc on the fly.

The device is now more accurate when taking a simple walk or when moving slowly since v2 firmware upgrade. Though you'll need a PC to upload the firmware. The configuration of the data recording rates however is controlled by pressing buttons on the device at startup time. It's a little confusing at first to re-configure, but it makes sense.

New firmware + Waypoints

Submitted by Kevin Jaako on

dps098,

Thanks for your information on the new Firmware.
I've looked into the new firmware upgrade myself, but I haven't installed it yet. I use my device frequently when I'm driving, so static navigation isn't a huge concern for me.

I'm very interested in what you found out from AMOD regarding the waypoint button. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get the waypoints out of the log file. As a mac user, I'm particularly concerned that whatever fix or update they offer regarding the waypoint issue won't leave me stranded.

Rather than another "tool", I'm hoping for another firmware upgrade that will RESTORE the NMEA logs to standard, that way any software will work for extracting waypoints.

Please let me know when you hear back from AMOD!
Thanks for stopping by,

Kevin Jaako

AMOD Waypoints

Submitted by Laura on

As of July 23 AMOD has posted a Waypoint converter to make their waypoints more standard. I've just downloaded it but not yet tried it.

Thanks for such in-depth coverage!

Submitted by Kurt Strecker on

I've just started a project for a website that requires photo essays on neighbourhoods all over the city!

Realizing this will quickly add up to thousands of photos from all over the freaking place and many of them perhaps not being totally recognizable it dawned on me that my workflow needed to become geotagged as quickly as freaking possible!

I started looking at more expensive and aparently much crappier options, but amazon.com combined with a google search turning up this page has landed semsons a sale

good stuff!

how add >3MB tracks to Google Earth?

Submitted by James Murray on

I have uploaded one of my smaller log files to Google Earth using GPSVisualizer, but GPSVisualizer limits file size to less than 3MB. Does anyone know how to upload larger files? Or how to edit down the original log file? I have converted the log to text, but it is still hard to comprehend. (see below).

I read the manual and it says I can set it to 6 different modes, but they don't explain anything about the six modes (e.g. RMC only). Is there a place to read about those 6 modes to help me decided which I want?

thanks
jim

Solutions for Dealing with Large GPS Files

Submitted by Kevin Jaako on

Hi Jim.

GPSVisualizer limits file size to less than 3MB. Does anyone know how to upload larger files?

You have a few options. You can convert to KML with GPSBabel+ and skip GPSVisualizer entirely. This will let you create very large files, if you need.

Your second option is to discard some data to shrink your file-sizes. I use this GPSBabel+ filter to throw out useless data from my .LOG files:

discard,hdop=20,vdop=20,track,pack,position,distance=3m,sdistance=0.1k,split=3m

Read the GPSBabel+ help files for instructions on how to use command-line filters.

The 6 logging modes within the AMOD AGL3080 mostly allow you to adjust logging frequency. The more frequent you log data points (such as every second), the larger your log files will be. If you don't need super accuracy, drop your logging rate to every 10 seconds, otherwise try the other options above.

Thanks for asking!

KJ

sync with camera

Submitted by elias on

this may seem like a silly question but how does this mesh with your camera to tag the photos with location? this seems to be standalone device.

re: sync with camera

Submitted by Kevin Jaako on

Hi Elias!

how does this mesh with your camera to tag the photos with location? this seems to be standalone device.

You're right, it is a standalone device. However, part of the data that gets broadcast from GPS satellites is the exact current time. (UTC) Using the timestamp that your camera embeds in the JPEG metadata, software such as GPSphotolinker or HoudahGeo can sync up the two sources based on time and embed the correct GPS coordinates.

Its pretty clever really!

Thanks for stopping by.
KJ

hi kevin i recived the

Submitted by m@nu on

hi kevin

i recived the latest newsletter from semsons last night which included the agl3080 and a link to your review.
i was looking for a long time till i found a device which has all capabilities i wanted.
i just ordered now an agl3080 :-)

thanks for your great review which helped me a lot doing my decison!

cheers,
manuel

Apparently standard

Submitted by Colin on

Apparently standard waypoints are now part of the firmware as of the August 12 update. I too have ordered an AGL3080, and I'm hoping to use it with Microsoft Pro Photo Tools. Anyone tried this combo?

Mac iLife 09

Submitted by Phil on

Anyone tried to use the AGL3080 with the new iPhoto 09? I am looking for simplicity. What is the actual process to tag your photos? Is this product user friendly... you know plug it in and it works?

I am new to this and what to find a tagging method that is simply and user friendly like most mac applications?

Thanks,
Phil

iPhoto '09 GPS support

Submitted by Kevin Jaako on

Hi Phil.

Anyone tried to use the AGL3080 with the new iPhoto 09?

Previous versions of iPhoto have all suffered from the simple fact that you can't refresh the iPhoto internal database after you import pictures. This means that if you use iPhoto to download your photos from your camera directly, you won't be able to add GPS data afterwards. You either have to:

A. Use a GPS-enabled camera that saves GPS data directly into the images (a la Nikon D300 or D700), or...
B You have to introduce a middle-step into your workflow: (1. download your photos using another program such as image-capture, or the Canon EOS utility, then 2. run GPSPhotoLinker to embed GPS data before importing to iPhoto)

However, if (and it's a big 'if')iPhoto '09 allows you to refresh it's internal database (or better yet- if it comes with it's own photo-linking tool) then the workflow becomes much simpler!

I haven't personally played around with iPhoto '09, but I plan to get my hands on the new version of iLife soon, so I'll let you know when I find out!

Thanks for stopping by, Phil.

KJ

iPhoto 09

Submitted by jeffrey on

[Previous versions of iPhoto have all suffered from the simple fact that you can't refresh the iPhoto internal database after you import pictures. This means that if you use iPhoto to download your photos from your camera directly, you won't be able to add GPS data afterwards. You either have to:]

Actually you can get to your photos. Right click a photo and choose show file. This will pop open the folder structure behind your iPhoto library. If you navigate to the root folder called Originals and drag that and drop it as a shortcut under Places, you'll be able to get to your files in any application. I tagged a bunch of old photos this morning.

iPhoto 09 database

Submitted by lsa on

jeffrey:

But even when you look inside the database folder and add GPS location to the exif information, it won't show in iphoto 09. You have to update the database somehow or reimport the picture. Or have you found a way that iphoto 09 actually reads the location, then please share :)

iPhoto workflow

Submitted by Kevin Jaako on

As far as I know, it has always been best practice to download your photos to disk manually and use geolinking software, such as GPSphotolinker before importing into iPhoto. This way, there's no need to update the iPhoto DB, because your photos will have already been imported with geotags.

I have yet to get my hands on my copy of iLife '09, so I can't tell you if anything is different in iPhoto '09. I'm excited for geotag support in the new version, but I'll be a little disappointed if they don't finally address the issue of re-importing EXIF data (or ANY data, for that matter) into the iPhoto internal database.

Cheers!
KJ

iPhoto and geotags

Submitted by Dan R. on

A year old and still a great review.

I installed iPhoto '09 last night and realized what I was missing by not geotagging my photos. I'm looking into geotagging now and that's how I stumbled on to your review.

If it helps any, iPhoto '09 will allow you to update the locations of your current photos, individually, or as an event group. That would make me think that you can update your photo's with the AMOD software after importing. I haven't been able to try it since I don't have the logger! I'm on a mission to find one today and if I do I'll try it out and let you know.

good luck on your v900

Submitted by Kevin Jaako on

Thanks Dan!

I haven't been able to try it since I don't have the logger! I'm on a mission to find one today and if I do I'll try it out and let you know.

Good luck! Let us know what you find out...

KJ

my new AMOD AGL3080

Submitted by Dan R. on

I received the AGL3080 a couple of days ago from Amazon. The first thing I did was upgraded the firmware to 2.2 (SN off) and then tested it around town with my camera.

I'm not too thrilled with the Jephoto software. For some reason my waypoints wouldn't show up in the waypoint window. I also found it, not difficult, but not easy either, to sync the photos with the correct time. I would have thought you could grab a photo and drop it on a track line to sync all the photos. A wish list item, I guess.

I searched for other software, but it's slim pickings for a Mac. I ended up using HoudahGeo, syncing was still a pain, but it was a lot simpler to tag the photos. Anyway...to the point...the geotags added to photos already imported in iPhoto isn't recognized by iPhoto. The files need to be reimported. It's just an extra step before importing, and a step that would need to be done anyway. Maybe iPhoto will add this feature in a future upgrade. :-)

Thanks again for the excellent review and allowing me to contribute to your blog.

AGL3080 questions

Submitted by Sergey on

Hi,

First of all, thanks a lot for the review.
I'm planning to purchase a kind of tracking software to use it in my trips. It's not that easy to order it with delivery to Ukraine, therefore I have to chose the right one without buying a few and choosing the best :)
I was looking to TrackStick II GPS but looks like this AMOD model has better capabilities and feedbacks

Given your experience with the device, could you please shed some light on two questions:
- How many hours of data can it save in memory? What's the filesize of hour-long track? E.g. would it have enough 2 or 3 weeks of data?
- How many hours does it usually work from 3 high-quality AAA batteries?

- Which model of GPS tracker would you recommend me? :) I'm planning to write tracks to visualize the trips at the map later on. Less focus to geotagging photos; more - to statistics and trip history.

Thanks in advance!
Sergey

unrelated question

Submitted by Rick on

Hey, I am sorry if this is not appropriate, but I have been looking for a good gps tracking system for my car. There are a lot of them out there, but I found one that looks pretty good. I was just wondering if anyone has ever heard of them. I am looking for personal experiences before purchasing. The site is www.gpstrackpro.com .

Any help would be great.

Thanks

Rick

GPS questions

Submitted by Kevin Jaako on

Hi Dan,

Bundled software that ships with GPS devices usually suck. GPS companies often like to spend money on hardware, and think that the software doesn't matter. I'm a big fan of GPSPhotoLinker; I've used it since the very beginning. The developer is a really cool guy, and has always welcomed my questions and suggestions, and it's free!

Thanks for your investigation on iPhoto '09. Did you notice if there's a refresh option buried somewhere, in a ctrl-click menu somewhere?

Sergey,

How many hours of data can it save in memory? What's the filesize of hour-long track? E.g. would it have enough 2 or 3 weeks of data?

Easily! The AGL3080 has 128mb of internal memory. It takes much more than 3 weeks of logging to fill this up.

How many hours does it usually work from 3 high-quality AAA batteries?

Around 18 hours, give or take. I usually bring 2 or 3 sets with me when I'm traveling, and cycle between them. (and i ALWAYS keep a set of disposable alkalines with me too... just in case)

Which model of GPS tracker would you recommend me?

Either the AMOD AGL3080, or the Columbus v900, my newest GPS logger.

Rick,

No problems! All questions are welcomed here. Are you looking for navigation software or tracking software (such as fleet management) ? If you're interested in navigation software, I just answered a similar question in my Columbus v900 review. If you're looking for tracking/fleet management, you're starting to look into a very specialized field that is totally out of my area of expertise!

Thanks guys, good luck!

KJ

thanks!

Submitted by Dan R. on

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for the advice. I'll give GPSPhotoLinker a try.

I poked around iPhoto with ctrl-click and option-clicked in the menu's, but could find anything to refresh the photos. Nice thought, though.

Cheers

syncing photos?

Submitted by Al on

Very good information.
Here's something that I haven't seen anywhere:

How does one sync the time on the AMOD with the time on your camera? That's the most important step in assuring your photos' time stamp will match the time on the AMOD.

Thanks!
A

camera and GPS time

Submitted by Kevin Jaako on

Hi Al,
good question.

How does one sync the time on the AMOD with the time on your camera? That's the most important step in assuring your photos' time stamp will match the time on the AMOD.

The AMOD AGL3080 gets its timestamp from the GPS signal, so it always has the correct time. The only thing to make sure is that your Camera's time is set perfectly. My camera (Canon EOS 30d) comes with software that perfectly syncs the camera time to my computer, so personally I don't really have to worry about it. (my computer clock is auto synced too)

If you need to set your camera's clock manually, you can always set it for one minute in the future, but don't press [OK]. Then as the seconds roll over 58...59...00, hit okay and your camera will be synced. (as long as you're watching an accurate clock)

Once you've downloaded your photos and your GPS tracks, software will match up the two timestamps and geotag the photos accordingly.

The only important thing is to make sure your camera's clock is set accurately.

Cheers,

KJ

changing batteries

Submitted by Mitchell Rose on

Hi Kevin --

Great review and discussion follow-through.

"The AMOD AGL3080 gets its timestamp from the GPS signal, so it always has the correct time."

Will it be local time or GMT?

When I put in new batteries, is the data lost? I'm going on a 14 day trip and would prefer to not have to go through a nightly sync ritual -- and only download the data at the end of the trip. (I'll be using the 10 second sample mode.) What about if I just change the batteries one at a time?

Thanks very much.

AGL3080 Batteries

Submitted by Kevin Jaako on

Hey Mitchell, good questions!

Will it be local time or GMT?

GMT.

When I put in new batteries, is the data lost?

Nope!
Just like a USB-key, the data remains until you delete it with your computer...

What about if I just change the batteries one at a time?

That's actually not a very good idea. Having 2 drained batteries and 1 full one will put so much load on the full battery it will drain much quicker than normal. It's best to get as much "juice" out of the batteries as possible, and change them all together!

Hope this helps! Thanks for stopping by,

KJ

Ah. I misinterpreted the

Submitted by Mitchell Rose on

Ah. I misinterpreted the manual's saying "Battery cannot be removed while the AGL3080 is still turned on and functioning. If this happened, the power to the device will be out. This power outage will cause the logged GPS data not being properly saved and thus permanently lost." The operative phrase there is "turned on and functioning."

I actually meant take out one battery then put in a one fresh then take out the next one, etc. The idea being to keep a little charge going in to maintain the data. But you say data is maintained in ROM anyway.

So, if I'm in 10 second sample mode for a 12 day trip, you're feeling is I can just turn the unit on in the morning, off at night, change the batteries, rinse and repeat every day... and I won't have to sync the data with the photos till I get home from the trip 12 days later?

Thanks so much for tolerating the rube.

Mitchell

AGL3080 data retention

Submitted by Kevin Jaako on

Hey Mitchell,

I can just turn the unit on in the morning, off at night, change the batteries, rinse and repeat every day... and I won't have to sync the data with the photos till I get home from the trip 12 days later?

Correct!

The AGL3080 EASILY has a week's worth of storage capacity. You should have no problem waiting a week before downloading and sync'ing your data. Just make sure you shut down the AGL3080 properly every night before changing batteries! As long as you remember to shut down before changing batteries, your data will be safe and sound, even without any batteries in the unit!

Good luck!

KJ

Battery life with reduced recording frequency

Submitted by Jay on

Great review! I am also going on a long trip and it won't be practical to bring a large number of extra batteries nor can I buy batteries while on the trip... I was wondering if battery life will improve much if I change the recording frequency from once per second to once every 5 or 10 seconds? Will this allow me to keep the unit running for 5 or 10x as long on a single set of batteries? Thanks!

AMOD AGL3080 battery life

Submitted by Kevin Jaako on

Hi Jay,

I was wondering if battery life will improve much if I change the recording frequency from once per second to once every 5 or 10 seconds? Will this allow me to keep the unit running for 5 or 10x as long on a single set of batteries?

Nope, sorry.

The AGL3080's SiRF III chip (the actual GPS chip) stays on and powered 100% of the time, regardless of which logging frequency you chose. Saving data to memory uses a fraction of the power that it takes to keep the SiRF III GPS chip running.

You'd be better off either investing in a few sets of rechargeable batteries or buying cheap disposable batteries in bulk. You can also look into GPS dataloggers based on the MTK chipset, such as the Columbus v900 , which can get almost twice as many hours per charge as SiRF III based loggers and investing in a solar-powered recharging device.

I hope this helps!

KJ

Thanks, Kevin!

Submitted by Jay on

Thanks, Kevin! I think I'll go with extra sets of batteries. The Columbus has an internal battery and that won't be so convenient as I will not have access to power for parts of my trip.

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