Tip up alarm

[graywolf]

I was told by a tackle shop owner that just got back from a buying show about a new tip up alarm.  A small device attaches to your tip up and when activated, dials your cell phone and tells you which tip up was tripped.  Any one else hear about this yet?  Bluetooth so I don't know the range from your phone to the tip up.  Estimated $39.  I don't know the manufacturer, yet.

[Trooper Bri]

Your typical Bluetooth device is usually a Class 2. That's good for up to 30ft. About all you need to be paired to your phone or Puter.
Class 1 Bluetooth is good for up to 300ft IIRC, but I'm not enough of a geek to know off the top of my head what it's generally used for. Or it's power requirements.
There's also Class 3, which is probably what Smart Watches will sport. It's only good for a few feet or so.

Dialing your phone number? Doesn't make sense, but who knows. I'm guessing it'll just be an app that uses your ringtones or vibe to get your attention, and a display of your tipup number.

[DR.SPECKLER]

theres already something like that but its a device that goes on your tipup and when you get a flag it sends a signal to a pager that you keep in your pocket.its called strike sensor.i have one and it works good I can be in my shanty and get a page from mr.pike.haha.its worked a 100 or more yards away even.

[stripernut]

I use these with a few rubber bands to mount to the tipup. They work great are easy to use and so far they have lasted...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Automatic-Electronic-Fishing-Rod-Light-Bite-Fish-Alarm-Bell-With-Battery-/271281071599?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f299ca5ef
 $39.00, is that each? I wonder how big a market there would be? What happens when your cell phone goes dead?

[osiris]

i picked up a few new strike sensors the other day on ebay im excited to use them this yr during some late nights

[corny13]

Sorry didn't see this post when I posted on Blue tipz .... will try it out this winter and report back!  They say 200 yd line of sight....less if inside a shanty.

[Dogzlife]

Brad, curious as to if the BlueTipz still work if out of cell phone range or with only one bar on the phone. I often fish lakes where the signal is poor and can only text message at best. Also, how much delay is there from the time the flag trips to the signal on the phone?

[Dogzlife]

Thanks Brad, great answers and really looking forward to them coming in the mail.

[EngineerBob]

Dogzlife, BlueTipz doesn't use the cell connection, so you could have zero bars and you'd be fine. It uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE or BT 4.0). BLE has an advertised range of 100 yards, but has been tested to 200 yards. As for delay, it's essentially zero. When the app is running in the background and the phone screen is off, some phones don't scan as frequently, so sometimes on iOS devices the delay can be up to 15 seconds. Apple doesn't give developers any control over this, so it is what it is. Any other time it's instantaneous.

[Martian]

 I used window alarms , you know the kind that are in 2 pieces, one goes on window sill, one goes on window, when window slides up, alarm. so I zip striped one to base of tip up, the other half to spring with flag on it. i bought a 5 pack, at the $ store , for $5, they came with bats,. Well you do get what you pay for , 3 worked, one would not come one, one would not shut off, but the 3 that worked were cool, but even at that $1.25  ea.

[kb]

thats what I use.  But I get mine at the dollar store.  loud and it works.

[polski]

I use the dollar tree window alarms with Velcro

[ftwchopper]

Shotgun primers get your attention when fishing with slammer tip ups.....even the game warden was impressed 

[kb]

I'd like to see that setup!

[itsmeagain]

I'm giving up on the "Blue Tipz" - I've got a newer motorola droid - its got all the bells and whistles and has worked with any app I have ever downloaded. "Deep Freeze Fishing" is the mfg or blue tipz and theyve told me on several occasions they were working on solving it. No resolution. Here is my Blue Tipz reviews - save your money.

[ftwchopper]

When the back board slams down on the pin,the 209 primer goes off....

[thomasthepikehunter]

I really like the 209 primer system, but I cant see how I can get that to work with my tip ups. I've decided I don't really need alarms. I've tried the door alarms, and while they let you know right away, they let everyone one the lake know too. I would get every dog barking within miles of me. I sometimes use a thing that clips on the tip, its 2 bells and a light. The bells are nice when I'm jigging near by. I don't have to look as often.

[EngineerBob]

itsmeagain, I'm sorry you are disappointed with BlueTipz. We tested on at least 10 different devices before releasing it, and in the first month since release have had more people test on more phones than we ever could have tried ourselves. Android is incredibly fragmented, and we're struggling to get it to work with all the phones, Android OS versions, and carriers.

The challenge is that BlueTipz uses Bluetooth Low Energy, which is very new, and which Android didn't support officially until 4.3. However, Motorola and HTC both had phones working with BLE before 4.3 and put out their own libraries for some of their devices. Many of the carriers are holding their phones back and not upgrading to 4.3, so we've had some people with phones that should work but they weren't upgraded enough by their carrier. For example, some carriers have upgraded the Samsung Galaxy S3 to 4.3, and our app works, but other carriers are still at 4.1, so the S3 doesn't work. It's incredibly frustrating for us as well as you.

Getting the Motorola, HTC, and 4.3 versions working has been a priority and we will be releasing a new update in the next couple days that will hopefully solve the problems for most phones that are capable of BLE. Please hold out for a few more days, and if it still doesn't work we'll refund your purchase.

[fishermantim]

I thought that's what the flag was for???

Maybe if you hook up a remote alarm to your car stereo??? Oh wait, that could drain your battery.
Maybe get a car battery drain alarm to warn you when it gets low?
Wait, but how would you power that?

Oh the twisted web we weave.....


What happens when your alarm goes off and in your haste you phone goes down the hole?
Will the fish have fun setting off all your alarms for kicks???