Wireless GF Bite Alarms

[JV44]

Were the old Fox Micron M (the basic ones) made in China? I bought a pair of these about 8 or so years ago and they have been exceptionally reliable, and I've only changed the batteries once too! I've had a pair of the basic GF alarms for about 2 years and these have been equally reliable so far.

 

To be honest though I don't need wireless alarms of any brand, so I won't be looking to buy these new models.

I need the wireless so i can sit inside the boat watching a film waiting for a river Carp to be stupid enough to pick up my offering without infuriating every boat moored nearby dons tin hat and dives into foxhole .

[John Weddup]

Were the old Fox Micron M (the basic ones) made in China? I bought a pair of these about 8 or so years ago and they have been exceptionally reliable, and I've only changed the batteries once too! I've had a pair of the basic GF alarms for about 2 years and these have been equally reliable so far.

 

To be honest though I don't need wireless alarms of any brand, so I won't be looking to buy these new models.

 

 

Hi Anderoo

 

I, for years, used my old original optonics. I still love them and will no doubt use them on occasions.

 

Having said that whilst bream fishing bivvied up in the depth of night whilst obviously trying to stay awake as I do not leave my rods out and sleep like carp anglers I began to wonder if I would hear them if I semi dozed off.

 

Obviously the old sounder boxes were an option but if I did not trip over the wires my fishing buddy certainly would.

 

I then bought a set of the gardner ones which use a receiver only and I find them fantastic for nights and days aswell. The receiver is in your pocket so noise levels are low and it vibrates much as a mobile phone can.

 

I think the GF wireless alarms will be a good seller espescially when you realise the benefits of the receiver technology.

 

regards

 

John

[Brian Carragher]

Hi all

 

Sorry for delay in getting back to you, been sorting the website out.

 

In answer to your questions:-

 

1) I am aiming for the receiver to replicate the head unit exactly, but the receiver wont match the tone of the head unit it will just be volume adjustable. The reason for this is that to have exact tone replication involves a far higher grade of processor and then you are getting into the realms of Delkim/Fox costs, people would choose those brands over mine at the same price.

 

2) Yes the receiver will have four different lights compatible with upto four head units

 

3) No facility to adjust brightness, again added a surprising amount of cost for the limited additional functionality.

 

4) When you switch on the LED will latch for 20 secs, there is also a battery warning which will cause either the LED to Flash on start up or buzzer to sound ( still to be confirmed)

 

I think the biggest thing for me and especially reading some of the comments on the thread is that I have to make the units as good as possible, high quality, as much functionality as possible, BUT at a price. this is proving very difficult to do. I know the GF brand is known for its quality at a good price, and I am desperate to carry this on, but as soon as you add in wireless technology it becomes that bit more expensive(unless made in China)

 

It is quite costly to develop this system and I am wondering if the market is there for it, it may be that people would prefer a well known 'name' product like Sundridge, TF Gear etc which are in the price range I will probably be at, or are happy with the chinese products. If that is the case I will probably lose my shirt on this investment but I have to give it a go.

 

As always the support on this forum is greatly appreciated, and anymore comments/ suggestions are welcome.

 

 

Thanks for that

 

Have you given any thought on the power output issue yet, what sort of range would you be including within the system?

[tincatinca]

Like Steve, I am am a big fan of the GF alarms and have used them for many years for virtually all my static fishing and they have been totally reliable. The only exception has been when I am at Winham using a high rod set up where I use Optonics as the bigger roller on the Optonics ensures that contact is maintained between the line and the roller when the rods are pointed down at the front as in windy conditions. I did originally use the GFs but found that in the aforementioned position, there were ocassions that the alarm did not indicate a twitch or run due to the angle of the rod relative to the alarm. For remote indication I used to use a Fox receiver and transmitter which was okay when using a pod but not much good if the rods are spaced out unless you wanted trip wires lying around all over the place so this was changed to a Gardner ATTX v2 system which gives you a vibro/sound reciever and dongles in each of the alarms. If you use this system make sure that the dongles are anchored to the alarms as my first disaster at Wingham was one dropped in the water never to be seen again. Whilst this system works ok, it certainly does not give the same accuracy of bite indication that you get when using the GF sounder box and long leads which also replicates the alarm tone but again you have the potential problem of trip wires. I would be very interested in a GF remote system but my minimum requirement would be that it would have to have a bigger roller fitted to the heads and also match the the sound indication from the alarms. By that I do not mean the tone but the frequency of the beeps which the Gardner system does not.

[GF Bite Alarms]

Thanks all for your replies.

 

The issue of replicating the tone of the head unit at the receiver is the one that is causing the most problems and the one that I want to get as good as possible before I release the product. It is slightly difficult to achieve because as you can imagine there is a delay, however miniscule, between the head unit registering, creating a signal for transmission and then being received by receiver and converted back to tone & Led.... What I have to do is minimise that time delay.

 

A secondary consideration is the odd time that you may get two indications at the same time, the receiver has to recognise the 2 signals simultaneously and convert both.

 

Both of the above are what we are trying to nail down now, again it can be done easily if you can afford very expensive processors, but we are desperately trying to offer the best possible system and the most competitive price, something I hope you agree is what GF alarms are known for.

[Dick Dastardly]

Just been chatting with the Burkester and he thought a couple of things I said about this venture may be of help/interest.

 

No matter what features you put in the alarm system you will never compete with Fox/Delkim etc,Purely because these are the "in names" and most carp anglers these days wouldnt be seen dead with any other brand name.So no point at all in making even the best alarm if its in the same price range as their products.

 

As youve already realised its also pointless trying to compete with the cheap Chinese imports on price.

 

As I said before GF Alarms have always held the "middle market" ie a good value reliable product. This you need to keep to. I think that also a lot of the features you mention are all ready available on a lot of other products across the price range. You really need to look at incorporating a feature the others haven't got (like your plug in drop off you had) This will then give your product something to make it different from the rest. If this means leaving out some of the other "extras" to keep the price down then so be it. Is variable tone really necessary? a simple Hi or Lo would surely suffice and be cheaper?

 

Maybe reduce costs by instead of an electronic sensitivity just use a mechanical way? the old business of changing the line wheel (with various vanes/amounts of magnets etc) worked perfectly well on the early Optonic and Delkim alarms.

 

Like I said use these savings to "fund" the "unique" feature that you need to find and incorporate to make your product stand out. At the moment you just seem to be trying to make a "top of the range" alarm for half the price of the likes of Fox/Delkim etc,and you know you wont be able to or even if you do it will cost nigh on the same and you will be competing with ready established (as in they are the in vogue "names") products!

Edited December 7, 2010 by BUDGIE

[Rusty]

Exactly my thoughts Budgie but I hesitated to post. I was a bit worried when all of the suggested features were being posted, they represent a well intentioned 'wish list' from the consumers point of view, but increased costs from a manufacturing viewpoint.

 

I would design the wireless system on exactly the same basis as the existing wired system in terms of reliability and functionality. Then figure out the costs/margin and if even on that basis the selling price is getting near the competition I'd drop it, I don't think that being manufactured in the UK carries the same value to consumers as it once did and can't be used as a selling point. If there's a bit of room to incorporate features which get it near the competition but retain the pricing/quality advantage then incorporate as many as possible. Consumers have bought the wired system without bells and whistles for good reasons. The wireless only stops them tripping over wires so if the selling points of the original are retained people will buy it again.

 

The size of the wheel crops up as an issue, I'd regard this a fault that should be fixed rather than an additional feature so the costs should be incorporated into the wireless system.

[Dick Dastardly]

The size of the wheel crops up as an issue, I'd regard this a fault that should be fixed rather than an additional feature so the costs should be incorporated into the wireless system.

 

Yes definately.I dont personally know how bad (if at all?) this is on the existing GF's but know its a major failing on a lot of other models (including Fox!)

[GF Bite Alarms]

Hi,

 

I agree that the Gf brand has to sit almost in the middle of the cheap Chinese imports and the Fox/Delkim range.

 

The new alarms will have all the same functionality as the existing alarms with the addition of the drop off indicator reinstated, I will of course be looking to address the issue of the sensing wheel and 'line skip'.

 

like you have said I will not be trying to compete with the 'big boys', Gf have always been a niche brand, and that is what I hope it will remain.

[Anderoo]

Yes definately.I dont personally know how bad (if at all?) this is on the existing GF's but know its a major failing on a lot of other models (including Fox!)

 

I've never suffered with this (I use GF and Fox alarms). I always have an eye (the first or second, depending if I'm using bobbins or the long swingers) right up against the alarm though, could it be that simple?