New Ice Fishing Product - TEST GROUP FULL!

[scarkner]

Many of the people here at FH know that I am an inventor. In my spare time I have been developing a product that is targeted mostly at ice fishing, but is also designed to be used year round.

You may have have seen "bite alarms" before that can be attached to a rod. There are several flavours of these things, each quite specialized. For example the Carp version is built into the rod stand and senses when the line is pulled out of a catch. There is a tip-up on the market where the stand lights up when it is set off. There are also a variety of vibration sensors that attach to your rod tip and beep or flash when they detect the tell tale tap-tap-tap vibration of the fish biting.

What makes mine different?
The sensor itself contains TWO sensors - A tilt sensor is included that can be used on any Tip-Up or Tip-Down. Whenever the sensor moves from a horizontal position to about 45 degrees, it triggers the alarm. The sensor also includes a very sensitive vibration sensor that is sensitive enough that I hope (still testing) that it can be mounted farther back on the rod (instead of at the tip) and would be useful for shore fishing, trolling or any other situation where you have a rod that is propped up. When a fish bites the sensor flashes and beeps (not too loud) and after about 30 seconds the beeping stops, but the lights continue to flash for about an hour so you know you had a bite.

One of the big selling features is that this system should work with any rod, tip-up, tip-down, any season, and any style of fishing where having your rod monitored would be useful.

The sensor is also wireless. It uses an ultra-low-power link to a pocket-sized receiver. It should reliably reach about 100 feet.

The receiver can monitor four sensors, it also beeps (not too loud) and flashes lights to tell you when a fish is biting.

But there's more...

The system is going to be "military hard". The sensors in particular will be very durable and waterproof (the prototypes won't be quite so durable yet). Many of the units on the market (especially from Rapala) die instantly if they get wet, which is pretty dumb for a fishing product!!!.

The system has HISTORY - If you miss a bite, that's OK, the receiver and the sensor will continue to flash for about an hour to let you know that you missed a bite. This is useful so you know that you should check your bait or that you might have a little perch on that isn't strong enough to keep the tip-down tipped. When you press a button on the sensor, it resets the alarm on both the sensor and on the receiver unit.

The receiver also tells you the signal strength and rough battery level of the sensors so you know it's working. This is super useful at night when you are in the shack.

The sensors also put out a tiny pulse of light every few seconds so when you are night fishing it helps you to locate your tip-up.

The sensors and receiver are linked, so other people using them should not interfere (this is one of the things I am hoping to get feedback on).

The sensors are very low power, a single coin cell should last the entire season (depending on how often you leave it flashing with a fish on). I am targeting around 300 hours of use per cell. Again, I am looking for real-life feedback here.

The receiver uses two AAA batteries and I am targeting about 130 hours of use per set of batteries.

I used an early prototype last winter and it certainly helped us to not miss fish. Many times we would be out chatting on the ice and would hear the beep and be instantly on the rig, even if it was inside the hut where we couldn't see it.

WHY did i not use Bluetooth connected to a smartphone?
- Bluetooth uses a lot of power, so sensor was too big to put on a rod.
- Phones dont like to connect to many bluetooth devices at the same time.
- Several people on this board have expressed concerns about using Smartphones when fishing as they don't work well when cold, and work even worse if you drop them down the hole.

WHAT I NEED FROM YOU:
I am looking for a FEW people who are willing to be testers this winter. I am looking for the following:
- Avid fisher, ideally I would like these to be used at least TEN times this winter (I know many of you will go even more).
- I would like at least half of the group to be night-fishers too.
- I would like at least one person who group-fishes and would therefore be using 6 to 8 rods at a time.
- People located in the Bells-Corners area or regularly fish at Shirley's Bay, OR you have to be willing to come to my place near bells corners at least once during the season (since there is a strong chance the units will need at least one software update over the winter, I don't want to go all over town collecting units).
- Willing to provide feedback, ideally by email after each outing. I would like to know about both problems and success with the product which should, I hope, improve your fishing hook-up rates.
- Willing to track how many hours you used the product and log how many fish you caught and which ones you feel were "helped" by having this product.
- At the end of the winter let me know what you think the product is worth so I can figure out if my build costs are going to match with market price expectations!

Units will be provided free of charge.
I will need to get all units back at the end of the winter (to disassemble them looking for any signs of water damage, etc.).

I hope to have the prototypes completed and ready to go by January 1st at the very latest.

If you have questions or suggestions feel free to post them here.

If you want to be considered for the trial, please send me a PM and let me know how you fit into the selection criteria above.

Here is a video I posted last year (this doesn't show the wireless receiver, but you get the idea of how it works).

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6538077/dadlose.mp4

Thanks!!!

Steve.

[MichaelGA]

Really cool idea.

[scarkner]

Great response from the FH Community!!!!

The test group is now FULL! In fact, I had to increase my orders for some components!

If you were really desperate to try the product out let me know in a PM (please include your personal email address) as I would still like to have people for brain-storming and focus grouping the product. Also if there are extra samples then might be able to loan them out.