Customer Reviews

Winplus AC13268-72 Beacon GPS Tracker

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This unit works just as advertised and is very accurate. Set up was reletively easy. All you have to do is install a couple small programs on your PC (I have Vista on my PC and the SW works great)and provide a link to Google Earth. Calibration of the GPS is about 5 simple steps. The only complaint that I have is the instructional text in the supplied manual and on line is a little hard to read (not that big of a deal). I bought this system to keep an eye on my teenager. I personally don't look at it as a means of spying but rather a continual supervisor. Kids will drive better if they know that you can track them whenever you want. This system allows you to view where and when they drove as well as the speed of the vehicle along the route. This information is pulled from the system when they return home. This system will NOT send you this information real time as they are driving. If you want a device to do that with, plan on spending more for the GPS device as well as maintaining a service with a cell provider exclusive for the device.

I was needing a device with a "tracking key" type functionality, but did not need the tracking key price or ability to be hidden from view. This Winplus Beacon does the job. Just make sure you update the unit and software with what's available on the winplus website - don't use the included CD software. And remember to follow the short initialization routine the first time you use it.

PROS: Does what it's supposed to do; keep a record of it's gps location saved to memory. Has some selectable modes and recording rates, and a compass feature that can help guide you to pre-selected waypoints. The locational accuracy of the gps is very good. Unit starts up quickly and locks on to a variety of satellites well. The internal battery life seems good - I've only used it for periods of about three hours at a time, and that hardly makes a dent in the power meter bar. Plus it comes with a car power code. While in use, one can switch between various displays on the small screen such as latitude/longitude, speed/altitude, compass bearing, etc.

CONS: Clunky software. At first, it seems OK. Attach the unit and the program pops up and downloads the "trace(s)" from the unit. (a Trace is generated for each On and Off cycle of the unit, with 30 Trace 'slots' available, up to the memory limit of the unit).

If you double-click on a trace it opens a window showing the outline of the route taken on a grid, and a scrolling list of each waypoint with the time at that point. Not very useful though.

If you right-click on a trace you have options to save the trace or send it to Google Earth or Maps. If you send it to Google, it loads up and shows the starting point, a colored line for the route, and the end point. That's it.

You can also open a trace in a second winplus program (available from the website) that will "analyze" the trace and send it to Google Earth with an additional bit of info marked and mapped: the location of the highest speed achieved on a route. That program also allows you to define a 'speed limit' setpoint that will then highlight any speed over that setting, and include placemarks on the Google Earth map. So this could be somewhat useful.

If you save it as a waypoint .txt file, that file includes latitude, longitude and date/time info for each recorded point. But, oddly and aggravatingly, the data does not include the speed or altitude info. This is annoying. The speed, at least, is being recorded in the unit, as evidenced by the speed tracking feature mentioned above. So why not include it in the .txt file of data? Not sure about altitude data, but again, if available why not utilize it?

I've been using the .txt file output and loading it into an Excel spreadsheet that converts it into a Google Earth .kml file. This gives me location tracking placemarks every five seconds along a route. Very useful for my needs, but I would have liked to have speed info there as well.

Summary: A useful little device at a reasonable cost, with some caveats.

If any Winplus employees read this; PLEASE improve the software and/or units flash code to utilize and output as much data as is available. Don't limit what's available.

If you are the parent of a young driver that tends to "wonder" all over with the family car this device could be your new best friend.

After you properly calibrate the unit (easy), just hide it under the seat before giving the keys to the kid. After they return (hopefully safely), simply retrieve the unit from the car, connect a cable and log onto Google maps to review all of the places your child took the car that evening.

This becomes a real easy way to verify whether or not your child is obeying any restrictions mom or dad has placed on the use of the family vehicle.

% -- PROs:
- No frills, good battery life
- Cheap
- Data can be exported as text file, which allows you to process it with your own software, and *kml files that you can import into Google Earth
- Choice of Miles and Kilometers
- If you do email winplus, they get back to you promptly
% -- CONs:
- Displays Longitude, Latitude AND altitude, but stores ONLY Latitude and Longitude
- Bulkier than you'd think
- 5 seconds is the shortest logging interval
- Included software is very basic
- You NEED the firmware update
- It's a closeout item, so no more updates
- Little documentation

% -- In the box: Unit, USB Cable, Car charger, CD with software (which is also available online, so I haven't even touched the CD) and a silicone sleeve for the unit.

% -- I didn't buy this to spy on anyone but to track myself, in particular when I go for runs, to see how far I actually went. The Beacon does its job there, but not much more... In particular: In case that isn't clear yet, this unit is entirely passive, meaning it logs it's position at a fixed interval and you can look at the log afterwards, when the unit is hooked up to your computer. There are two modes, misleadingly labelled as "Sport" and "Navigation" mode. In Sport mode, you have the choice between logging intervals of 5, 10, 20 or 30 minutes, in Navigation mode that decreases to 5, 10, 30 or 60 seconds. It starts logging as soon as you turn it on, and stops when you switch it off, simple as that.
When running, there is basically no choice but to hold it in your hand, which is okay, because despite being somewhat bulky, the unit is at least light.
Back home, you have to install the software, which then lets you connect to the device, look at the traces and do one of the following with them: Get a google map overlaid with a polygonal path of your waypoints, get something similar on Google Earth (if you have it installed), or export the trace into a text file, which will consist of commas separated values of Longitude, Latitude and time stamp. Here is the first problem I have with the unit: While it is possible to display the altitude while the unit is on, the altitude is not stored, so you cannot retrieve it. Seems pretty stupid to me, when the info is available, why not store it?
The other program that comes with it, "TrackStat", additionally displays the total trip length, and speed info. The speed is computed, as far as I can tell, by dividing the difference in distance by the time difference of consecutive data points, no smoothing or anything like that. Here we get to the second problem: The measurements are too noisy, to get good speed data, at least at the 5sec interval. For longer intervals I suppose it looks smoother, but the again, a 30sec average of my velocity when jogging seems too coarse.
There are also some other features, like a very tedious way of setting way points. It also displays you a fancy little thing with satellites, but I was not able to find out, what that is about.

In conclusion, it does what I wanted it to do for a pretty nice price tag ($35 in my case) and I am writing my own Matlab code for the traces anyway, so the software is secondary. I strongly suggest you look at the manual and the other info at winplususa's website before making your decision.

If you want a Real Time Spy feature this is NOT the product. You can only check the location after they have gone there and returned and you hook up the device to your computer thru USB to download everywhere they have gone, Which was fine for me.

Got this product to spy on my Adult child who moved back home after rehab and a battle with drugs. Wanted to make sure he was staying on the straight and narrow. I charge it and drop in under the seat of his car and then check it every day or so to see where he is going and what times he is there.
Happy to say that so far he is only going to places he says he is going and there has been no suspicious activity.
Had no problem with the software set up
Battery will last for a couple of days
Shows map of route he takes and time and speed
Can be a little difficult to read longitude and latitude markers to match up with time and location because you have to switch between google map and the log and lat map.
On the map it sometimes isn't exact but gives you the general idea of where they have been.
Biggest con is that if it completely dies you have to reset it but that takes just a push of a few buttons and about 20 seconds.
I also charge it by plugging the USB into a standard usb adaptor wall plug that I use with my iphone cord.

Overall, if you just want to double check on someone to make sure they are going the places they say they are going its a great price and beats paying $150+

The unit works as advertised. If all you're interested in doing is knowing where someone/ something went then this unit will be fine. However, the software sucks, and it is very difficult to determine when the unit was in a certain place and for how long. Also, the software caused some stability problems for my computer. All in all, you get what you pay for... I'll be buying some better units to track my commercial vehicles.

We bought this product to track our newly driving teenager. This is not real time tracking, the information is stored in the unit, and then you hook it up to a computer and use it's software program to read the trace. After much research, this seemed to be the best value for the price without having to pay a monthly tracking fee. This tracker does what it says, but has a very basic computer interface. The charged battery only lasts 2 days, or you have to keep it plugged into the car charger. It occasionally shows the tracking to cut across streets, but you get a good idea of where the vehicle went. If you charge the unit to your computer for too long, it will lock up and you have to let the battery run out to recharge it. It is a very basic unit, but we have been able to track where our teen goes, and see how fast he is going by matching the trace numbers and the longitude and latitude coordinates. This will work if you don't expect any bells and whistles.

I got this unit about a week ago. It has sport mode for walking and hiking
and a nav mode for car tracking. It works great for car tracking. It shows
the time a car was traveling and where and how long it was stopped. Also shows
speed. You can download info into the computer and then take it to google maps
which will show you the route. If you would like to know where the car was when stopped it will give the exact location which you can plug into google earth
and it will take you to the exact location. Very neat little gadget for 30 bucks. Works under seat or even the trunk.

Very poor precision GPS tracker.....returned it and purchased a much better live GPS tracker for $30 more and a small monthly fee.

i bought this to keep up with my daughter.it work's great,the google map option is very cool,software was easy,but i did'nt quite understand all of the setting's ,but i got the clock set,other than that all you do to track is turn it on,then connect it to your pc when your ready,go trace and choose google map.well worth the cost.