Wireless GF Bite Alarms

[Steve Burke]

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?

 

That's what I do but unfortunately it doesn't always solve the problem. It works on the vast majority of occasions but not 100% of the time. The line must be at right angles to the roller and it's not always possible to achieve this when the rear rest is significantly higher than the alarm, as when dipping the rod tip under the water to avoid floating weed.

 

Having said that the GF alarms are better for this than many others on the market.

[Anderoo]

Ah yes, I can see there may be a problem with a high back rest.

 

Getting the price right, as others have said, I think is the real key. It's really tricky, I almost didn't buy my GF alarms because I thought they were too cheap! Usually things like that are too good to be true, but it shows the strength of word-of-mouth recommendations.

[tincatinca]

Yes, it is only when the rod is st high at the back and low at the front when there is sometimes a problem which does not happen with the Optonics and its bigger wheel although I did have to play about with the number of vanes on the paddle wheel on the Optonics to get the sensitivity right. Tried all avaialable combinations between 2 and 12 vanes before settling on 4 which seem to be the best solution to prevent false beeps whilst at the same time giving a good indication. The signal delay and sychronisation issues which have been mentioned are certainly present in using the Gardner receiver and dongles irrespective of the alarm heads used and can make it difficult to interpret what is actually happening. With the extension leads and the GF sounder box this does not happen with the sounder box replicating what the alarm is doing in terms of the frequency of beeps. In daylight this is not so much of a problem as you can see both the rod tip and the indicators but at night it can be particularly if you are in a swim where you have to sit well away from the rods and also where your rods are set up on a stage where you want to limit the possibility of vibrations entering the water which will happen every time you walk onto the stage which is not ideal if you have baits in the margins. To me personally it is a matter of function over form and I will certainly be watching the development of the GF remote system with great interest.

[Dick Dastardly]

I was just thinking about this and just had to comment on it-

 

I dont know if you still do them or if the price is the same but the "plug in" illuminating bobbins you have for the GF range at under £3 are cheaper than a bog standard bobbin from most manufacturers! Fair play to you for still trying to keep to this "value for money" pricing ethos,and best of luck with your new range.

 

I have many different makes of alarm but if you could have sorted the different tone for run/drop back I would have brought 5 just on principle! and Im renowned for being tight!

 

Another thing myself and Steve spoke about was the "custom" service that Optonic used to provide,You could send your alarms to them and they would carry out relatively basic "up grades" such as changing lead length,up rating leads to more heavy duty cable,changing LED colours /configurations up to building their now famous 4T sounder box for you. I understand that carrying extra components etc can be a financial drain but it might be worth looking at offering some of the many "extras" that people have suggested on this thread as custom up grades? Keeps your basic unit price down but would definately encourage many to swap from their existing alarms just so they could get these "extras"? As Ive all ready mentioned I certainly would.

 

Plus it would keep your repair/assembly people in work.

[Rob Ward]

I was just thinking about this and just had to comment on it-

 

I dont know if you still do them or if the price is the same but the "plug in" illuminating bobbins you have for the GF range at under £3 are cheaper than a bog standard bobbin from most manufacturers! Fair play to you for still trying to keep to this "value for money" pricing ethos,and best of luck with your new range.

 

I have many different makes of alarm but if you could have sorted the different tone for run/drop back I would have brought 5 just on principle! and Im renowned for being tight!

 

Another thing myself and Steve spoke about was the "custom" service that Optonic used to provide,You could send your alarms to them and they would carry out relatively basic "up grades" such as changing lead length,up rating leads to more heavy duty cable,changing LED colours /configurations up to building their now famous 4T sounder box for you. I understand that carrying extra components etc can be a financial drain but it might be worth looking at offering some of the many "extras" that people have suggested on this thread as custom up grades? Keeps your basic unit price down but would definately encourage many to swap from their existing alarms just so they could get these "extras"? As Ive all ready mentioned I certainly would.

 

Plus it would keep your repair/assembly people in work.

 

A reasonably priced illuminated swinger with a 2ft arm might also get you some business from this forum...

[GF Bite Alarms]

A 2ft illuminated swinger arm would be fairly quick to develop, is it something people would be interested in?

[Dick Dastardly]

A 2ft illuminated swinger arm would be fairly quick to develop, is it something people would be interested in?

 

 

 

Hmmmmmmm Yes thats what a few of us thought as well.......................

[Steve Burke]

Paul (tincatinca) is the one to speak to about the finer points of swinger design, Phil.

[Anderoo]

I would be interested in long-arm swingers, but they would need to match some fairly specific requirements - I'm happy to elaborate if you'd like me to?

[tincatinca]

Phil,

 

What was thought to be a fairly easy job turned out to be something that was far from simple as soon as you started to look at arms over 10 inches long.

 

The key criteria was

 

1) Wind resistance and to eliminate as far as possible false indicationsfrom the alarms which also meant containing sideways movement

2) Adjustable both in terms of up and down movement

3) Adjustable in terms of weighting. This had to be looked into very carefully following the priciples of the laws of levers and moments of force it is surprising how much weight is requuired at the rear of the arms to balance the system.

4) Free movement and the ability to be used from both the front and rear bank sticks and in my case also to be able to be mounted on a rod pod.

5) And to my mind most important of all is rigidityalong with easy line removal from the bobbin head when a bite occurrs

 

The result of this was the testing of numerous materials particularly regarding a suitable material for the arm which maintained rigidity over the longer length combined with extensive testing to cover all the above requirements.

 

I am not for one moment saying yhat this is the only solution as Anderoo made some perfectly adequate swingers with very limited equipment and I am sure that the design could be improved greatly by utilising an injection moulded block which is the key to how they work.

 

Regarding an illuminated bobbin, it should be fairly easy to make a fitting on the end to contain an l.e.d with a wire up the bore of the arm and fit an appropriare jack plug on the end to suit the alarms. To do this I think that I would reinforce the tube with a collar where the wire exits the tube and drill through boththe collar and tube for same.

 

I have attached a picture showin the swingers fitted to a pod on posts which are the same dia as my bank sticks. I am sure you will noe the GF alarms fitted.

 

It looks simple but if you look at the thread for the ultimate bobbin you will see that a huge amount of work was put in by many people.