Wireless GF Bite Alarms

[smalltincup]

Hi

 

1) Sensitivity - Are you happy with the GFs dual sensitivity or would you prefer more options as found on Delkims etc

Happy with what you have, keep it simple less to go wrong and i guess should keep the price down.

 

2) Bigger sensing wheel noted

Sounds grt

 

3) Battery low level warning - I presume you would want this on head units and receiver unit?

yes please.

 

4) I will be honest now and say I am only designing the system to function at a max range of about 50 metres, do people see this as an issue as I would say you should not be further than that from your rods anyway.

5o meters would be great, I have ur wire and extension box at the moment so 50 meters sweet

 

5) Could people give me an honest appraisal of where they would like the price to be for lets say 3 head units & 1 Receiver. I am desperatly trying to offer these to people at the lowest possible price but obviously the technology in these units does cost more than the GFs/GFx units unless I buy the components from China which I refuse to do

Price no sure keep it as low as you can but make them as good as you can, if you are happy with your product i AM going to buy it, have used gf bite alarms for ages, do not mind paying a few pennies for a product that aint gunna break.

 

Hope that helps

[wyeknot]

Phil,

As a user of alarms for many years (yours included), here are my views:-

Thank you all for taking the time to reply could I get some further opinion on some of the points raised:-

 

1) Sensitivity - Are you happy with the GFs dual sensitivity or would you prefer more options as found on Delkims etc - Two levels is the minimum I would go for but it would be good to have a choice of up to five to allow for varying conditions.

 

2) Bigger sensing wheel noted - Great idea

 

3) Battery low level warning - I presume you would want this on head units and receiver unit? - Great idea

 

4) I will be honest now and say I am only designing the system to function at a max range of about 50 metres, do people see this as an issue as I would say you should not be further than that from your rods anyway.- My understanding of the range quoted for most alarms is a max distance under perfect conditions. This can vary from swim to swim and will be affected by trees, banks, walls, etc. etc. There is a danger that if you select a low power output then you could lose contact with your alarms just by being in the wrong place even though you are within a 'safe' distance from your rods.I don't know of any alarm that has a 50 yard range. Most are 100+[/i]

 

5) Could people give me an honest appraisal of where they would like the price to be for lets say 3 head units & 1 Receiver. I am desperatly trying to offer these to people at the lowest possible price but obviously the technology in these units does cost more than the GFs/GFx units unless I buy the components from China which I refuse to do. - Price is secondary to performance. If it does what it says on the box then people will buy it.

 

Just to let you know on timescales, I would hope to have working prototypes for testing within about 3-4 months, but I do want to rigourously test them before going to my customers.

 

Thanks again for your responses

 

Phil

 

One further feature that I have found useful is the automatic night sensing led that is found on some alarms. I had a set with this feature and to see the little light at night gave me confidence that my alarms were switched on after I had re-cast in the middle of the night! I have woken up to find that there was very little line left on my spool because I had forgotton to switch my alarm back on on at least one occasion!!

 

One last thing. As I now have a set of dongles to turn your existing alarms into remotes, can I ask that you also produce a version with all the features except the radio transmitters so that I can upgrade my existing set up. Thanks.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Steve C.

Edited June 16, 2010 by wyeknot

[Steve Burke]

One further feature that I have found useful is the automatic night sensing led that is found on some alarms. I had a set with this feature and to see the little light at night gave me confidence that my alarms were switched on after I had re-cast in the middle of the night! I have woken up to find that there was very little line left on my spool because I had forgotton to switch my alarm back on on at least one occasion!!

 

 

That would be a great help!

[poledark]

I was given a Carp magazine and several tackle brochures for Fathers day and browsing through these I was struck at the various alarms available for as little as £6.99 each ! Even 3 alarm and remotes for less than £100.

 

You will have your work cut out to match any of those..........

 

Den

[GF Bite Alarms]

I was given a Carp magazine and several tackle brochures for Fathers day and browsing through these I was struck at the various alarms available for as little as £6.99 each ! Even 3 alarm and remotes for less than £100.

 

You will have your work cut out to match any of those..........

 

Den

I will not be trying to match them as the majority are cheap alarms manufactured in China and are not good quality. I will be trying to produce a very high quality product but for a reasonable cost.

 

Thanks all for your input to this thread.

[Anderoo]

I have a couple of the basic GF alarms (the ones with just volume and tone) and I really like them. I was worried a while ago that they were unreliable - I had some runs which didn't cuase the alarm to beep - but now realise this was my fault, as the line wasn't sitting right in the little groove in the wheel. Now I just make sure the line is sitting properly and have had no other problems.

 

I, like most users of the alarms I suspect, like them because they are not tarty. They are cheap compared to most competitors, reliable (I've fished in some horrendous storms with them), and go beep when I get a bite

 

Stick to those principles and I'm sure the wireless ones will be a success. I wouldn't bother trying to compete with the Delkims of this world, because the only alarm Delkim owners want is a newer, more expensive Delkim

 

If you could make it easier for the line to sit in the wheel groove it would be good though.

Edited June 21, 2010 by Anderoo

[Dick Dastardly]

I dont own or have ever used any of the GF alarms but have allways been imprtessed at the amount of people (whose opinions I respect) who sing their praises.

 

Ive owned and used several other brands though Herons.Optonics both Bamford and Delkim conversions,Fox and Delkim.Ive come to the following conclusions-

 

1.Sensitivity adjustment isnt really required other than Optonics basic method of being able to change the line wheel vane from 4 to 2 vanes.Most moderm alarms have an unnesessary ramge of sensitivity.

 

2. Volume control is good (if only people would use it!)

 

3. Latching LED is handy.

 

4. Leads are a pain! But 20'-30'maximum is the only range really required.

 

5. Tone selection is ok (ie hi or low) but variable tone (so you know which rod its comming from) is a waste of money.

 

6. On the subject of tone though I (and I should imagine a lot of other big bream hunters) would love a tone for a run and a different one for a drop back,(purely out of lazyness as you would then know if you had a "20 beep" run which required your attention or a liner of 10 up then 10 down! if you get what I mean?)

 

7.Above all reliability.

 

IMHO every thing else are just needless gimics that only add price.

 

But Im sure making them in a Realtree finish would increase sales!

[Dick Dastardly]

Sorry I forgot to mention that I to agree with the bigger line wheel to avoid "line skip" is important.Its nticeanle that the alarms with the smallest wheels suffer from this the most.Fox's first Mini Micron being a prime example.

[Guerilla]

Phil,

 

bring back the 'M' drop-off function! Or if the leads work in the bobbin extension socket, just bring back the drop-off leads.

 

One very tiny niggle with mine is that I have to take my swingers off the bankstick (and the alarm beforehand, obviously) to remove the battery cover when one of the selling points is that the battery can be changed when on the sticks. Maybe my hockey sticks are a little wider than most, though?

Could the battery cover slide on from the side as opposed to from the bottom?

 

I'd certainly choose a GF alarm over the new Korum ones which may be in your current market.

 

I've no experience of wireless so can't comment on that.

[tincatinca]

One thing to take into account when increasing the dia of the line roller is that when using paddles or magnets on the roller shaft the sensitivity decreases due to the relative line movement increasing. Because of the high up rod rest positions I now use, I have now reverted to Optonics which eliminates the problem of not getting good contact on the line due to the angle on the rods. With the various paddles that can be used i.e. 2, 4, 8 and 12 vane, I have found that the 4 vane variety gives me the best compromise for both indication and resistance to going off in windy conditions whereas the 12 vane twitcher vanes give off constant bleeps. Because of this, I think that the ability to change the sensitivity is important as there are also other fishing occassions when pardon the expression, I want to know when a fish f____.

One thing that I would say, is that I have been using the GF alarms now for many years following problems in the past with virtually every alarm that I have used including Delkims which used to suffer in the rain and had to protected with a top hat made out of plastic cups. They have never let me down until recent times and that only being due to the line contact problem associated with the small dia wheel. In my mind the GF alarms have been the most relaible and best value alarms on the market.

Differentiation of tone is also important to me as I like for example when fishing with 4 rods at night, I know instantly which one is going off and can lurch out of the bivvy inthe right direction which I can't do at the moment as the ATTS dongles and reciever generally give a one toner. Also at night I like to turn the alarms down to silent which I can do with the GFs but not with the optonics and rely totally on the sounder box. I also think that a vibrate indication is also a benefit especially for anyone who has hearing problems. Whilst cost is a very important consideration then so to is reliability.

Edited June 22, 2010 by tincatinca