inReach Mini: Ease of use and charging questions.

[Graham F]

I know it’s not quite the same but sending a free message about every hour also easy to just send one when you stop for the hourly snack/drink, works for me -just says something like ‘zipping along having fun’. Three button presses and done. Takes all of 5 -10 seconds.

One at lunch and send one at 8 am “setting off’ and 8 pm ‘stopping for the night”

I have the big Garmin Inreach one and the battery lasts for about 7-8 days and on all the time/or sometimes off at night.

Would rather use the toggle on the big one than trying to BluTooth to the phone-one device one job. Phone lasts 4-5 days also on airplane mode.

 

[Jerry Adams]

That weather report works really good

I changed one of my presets to “wx now”, to “[email protected]”

It sends back 160 characters of weather report which is enough for maybe 5 days

for example:

Tn Brz 67 Tm Brz 41

TmN Clr 71 Tu PtSun 44

TuN Cld 66 We Cld 14% 46

translate:

tonight breezy 61, tomorrow breezy 41

tomorrow night clear 71, Tuesday partly sunny 44

Tuesday night cloudy 66, Wednesday cloudy 14% chance of rain 46

That’s weird, it appears they switched the daytime max temp with the nighttime min temp, not to worry

[Erica R]

Does the Mini have enough power to send and receive in a valley in a forest?

[Jerry Adams]

I think the only problem is if you’re in a steep canyon, the canyon walls block the satellite signal

I’ve used it in shallow canyon without problem

Trees no problem

If it doesn’t get a gps signal within about 15 minutes, then try moving to a different place.  Or 30 minutes.

[Erica R]

Thanks, Jerry!

[Hanz B]

I can’t say enough about how much this meant to my loved ones. The fact that they got a preset text with a location and simple mess was greatly appreciate. My wife said it was the first time she agreed with the steep price of a purchase for my hobbie ;)

its 99 grams; you really don’t need a phone if you are bringing a map; just use the coordinates and your preloaded POIs; it connects well to satillete; it’s battery has lasted at least 5 days for me (not bread crumbing) turning on as needed; even so for longer trips if you use a zebra light buy a 6 gram 18650 case and charge it off the zebra battery; ability to develop your own evac plan in non-emergent situations is super great: the size is wonderful; it feels and appears sturdy; I really like all the seals had this around sand and water and no issues; the interface on the iPhone is cleaner then expected.

the cost is really up to the buyer to justify of course.

I suspect that an iPod touch + garmin Mini + zebra light 18650 + 6 gram 18650 case + a 6 gram 3 inch charging cord with a 3 gram lighting adapter is a really terrific electronics set up for those looking at balancing UL with usability and Saftey under 1 a pound.

[Jerry Adams]

“That’s weird, it appears they switched the daytime max temp with the nighttime min temp, not to worry”

I let Martin know about this, he said it’s a bug that was fixed but crept back in and will fix it

Being a software engineer I am well aware of the tendency for fixed bugs to tend to reappear : )

Now I got to figure out how to make a small donation to help pay for this

Even with the bug it’s easy to figure out

[Gunnar H]

Anyone who knows how to hold it, vertically or horizontally, to get the best satellite connection? Horizontally I would guess with the satellites above, but I don’t know.

[D M]

Doesn’t matter, just have a clear view of the sky and be patient. I’ve laid it on the ground while setting up camp and waited for a signal to transfer and it’s done fine. And I’ve hung it in the tent and it’s sent and received a signal. The only signal problems have been under heavy tree cover.

[AK Granola]

Rusty, what plan did you choose and are you happy with your choice so far? I just read a few stories by people who had actually used their devices in emergency situations. They didn’t require rescue, but needed support. I’m giving in to the world of connection, but at the most minimal level possible! Just wondering if you found the ideal setup.

[Rusty Beaver]

Hey Karen,

I forget the name of the plan but it is the most basic and least expensive plan they offer…a monthly plan. Called “safety”, maybe?? ~$11/month.

At any rate, I have puttered with it a fair bit now, testing it in both a mountainous and desert regions. When I say testing, I have sent my wife and friend different preset messages I made as well as used the phone to text more custom messages. They have all worked, and with each message, the person gets a link that shows them my exact location on Google Earth with coordinates.

That said, I have yet to test it in the type of canyons I frequent… some rather narrow and deep. Hope it works as well there.

Despite having such a distaste for technology as a whole, I’d say over all, I’m very pleased with it. It wasn’t too difficult for me to figure out and I don’t find it difficult to use. Trying to type a custom text from the Mini without the phone is quite tedious but doable. Sending a custom text is best with a phone. Sending a preset message without a phone is very easy though.

I hesitate to recommend a piece of tech but I do recommend the Mini.

Hope that helps some. Holler with any more questions.

[D M]

I LOVE this mini…so tiny compared to my SE and the pairing is seamless with the phone. I was in a situation this past weekend where we had to locate a lost person and one half of the team had phone service and of course my half did not as we were out of view of towers in mountains, but I was able to use the mini paired with the phone to notify them of our position periodically and the sweep went as planned and the person was located PDQ and all was well.

[BlackHatGuy]

Also, to note, if you don’t want to have your phone with you, the Mini will pair quite well with an iPod, and the iPod would be lighter, FWIW.

[Hanz B]

@idester,

I’ve been looking into that and asking about it – were you able to confirm that the screen real estate works on an iPod with the app? And that there’s no loss of function? My only thought is if your “electronic back up” is Gaia maps then since the garmin mini doesn’t share its gps signal outside of the explorer app you would just have to enter coordinates manually to check gaia mapping – whereas the iPhone will still have its own gps signal to run these apps. … I can’t think of another downside … I mean the battery sampler but it’s running a less pixel smaller screen so it should be equivalent – ish.

I have found a way to share routes into the app via gaia but it’s round about and requires an internet connection so day of trail changes would need to be on a cell signal if not preloaded.

I think my ideal electronics system would be:

garmin mini / 18560 battery with a 10 gram charging case from alibaba / 3inch charging Appel charging cord / iPod / zebralight (18650 variant). This would be a lot of utility and use case scenario for a very reasonable weight. I just haven’t bit on the iPod but for 4 oz of weight savings (assuming you want more than a paper map) maybe that price is in line with the rest of UL.

 

 

[BlackHatGuy]

“I’ve been looking into that and asking about it – were you able to confirm that the screen real estate works on an iPod with the app?”

Does it work with an iPod? Yes, I’ve paired my Mini to my iPod (most recent version) and it works fine. As far as the screen real estate bit, as I think I said in your thread on this, that comes down to personal preference. I like my 8+ screen, and have no interest in using the iPod’s smaller screen. For those who don’t care about the bigger screen, an iPod would work fine via Earthmate.

“you would just have to enter coordinates manually to check gaia mapping – whereas the iPhone will still have its own gps signal to run these apps”

Or you can use something like the Garmin Glo 2 or the Bad Elf GPS with the iPod.

[AK Granola]

Well I bought one and just activated it. I have to say the whole setup seems primitive in the world of sophisticated electronics. I’ll bet in 5 years we’ll all be laughing at this thing. Remember modems? sheesh.

[AK Granola]

And now I have to ask more questions. The support page for the inReach doesn’t help much. I’ve successfully set up my presets, sent messages to email addresses, and gotten a basic weather report. When I tried to send the preset to a phone number, it didn’t go through. I tried four different phone numbers, re-sync’d it, and only the email went through.  It doesn’t matter too much, as long as some message goes. But the SMS should work?

I wondered too, if having Bluetooth on will run down my phone faster, paired with the mini. I probably will need a battery to charge both, but my phone adapter successfully charged my mini on household power. Maybe I’ll just turn Bluetooth off while the mini is off, until I need both. Is there a good light battery that I can charge both the mini and my iPhone 6?

I need to learn what I can do with the Earthmate app too, anyone know of any good tutorials? I’ll scan YouTube.

I think the thing that really encouraged me to buy this was a friend who just found out she had a heart issue. She’ll be fine and back to hiking soon, but we’re all getting older…that and going alone.

[Hanz B]

I only turn my phone and mini on when needed. The Earthmate app work with and without the mini on. But easier to send messages. I haven’t been able to get presets sent to a phone number without using the Earthmate app. But inside the app you can.

Download gaia maps. Make a route in gaia. Download your route as a kml file to your phone storage. Go to the inreach explorer website. Sign in. Go to the map tab. Press the upload route (it will ask if you want a route or a track, u want route for it to sync with mini). Once saved in the website you can restart your app and you’ll have the route in the app – now go to the other setting in the app and press sync. Now your route will push to you mini. You’ll find it under navigation tab and you can use it as needed. You can do the same with POIs.

The silliest thing about the app is you can’t upload routes into it without going to the website  – so you need to download the maps for your hiking area before you go and if you need routes all your potential options should be uploaded into the app before you go.  Of course u can use app to navigate on a background maps without a defined route but to change a custom route on the fly while backcountry is not possible because you need to work through the website  – that’s the biggest oversight to me.

 

[Jerry Adams]

I haven’t tried phone number

If all you want to do is send and receive message (including weather report) I just use mini by itself.  A little awkward to read messages but after a couple button pushes I can send my preset or read my reply message

If you want to use phone to read and write messages then turn on mini and wait about 15 minutes for it to find satellites, then turn on phone, send message, wait about 15 minutes to see that the message is transmitted.  Time phone is on is short so it doesn’t use much battery.  I turn on mini in the evening for 30 minutes to send message, then in the morning for 15 minutes to read any replies, doesn’t use much battery.  After a week I use maybe half the battery.

For GPS use I just use smartphone by itself.  No reason to include mini.  Phone with gaia (or whatever) is better than earthmate

[BlackHatGuy]

“When I tried to send the preset to a phone number, it didn’t go through. I tried four different phone numbers, re-sync’d it, and only the email went through.  It doesn’t matter too much, as long as some message goes. But the SMS should work?”

It should, yes, but didn’t for me this past weekend. A hiking buddy tried sending two messages to his wife’s phone number using my Mini. The Mini indicated the message was sent, but she didn’t receive either message. Messages I sent to my brother (to his email address) worked fine. Not sure what the glitch is.

“Phone with gaia (or whatever) is better than earthmate”

Not always. When in Death Valley recently, Gaia wouldn’t update my position, but Earthmate did quickly and easily. Earthmate also had trails that weren’t on Gaia. Using both can be handy.

[Jerry Adams]

“When in Death Valley recently, Gaia wouldn’t update my position, but Earthmate did quickly and easily. ”

That’s weird, you said that before

Was earthmate using the phone GPS or the mini GPS?

Was it the GPS acquisition that was failing?

Or was it the Gaia software vs the earthmate software?

[BlackHatGuy]

Gaia software vs Earthmate software I assume. Also assume Earthmate was using Mini’s GPS.

If it was GPS acquisition that was failing then it was the iPhone’s GPS acquisition that was failing, in which case Earthmate was definitely using the Mini’s GPS, as it didn’t fail to acquire satellites.

[Jerry Adams]

The mini GPS antenna sticks out the top, must be better at acquiring satellites

I don’t know where the smartphone GPS antenna is, maybe not as good like if you’re in a canyon or something?

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