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Sunday, October 31, 2010

And The Winner of the HHH's Great GPSr Experiment Flash Mob Is....

Everybody getting ready to start our Flash Mob geocaching event.
HeadHardHats's Great GPSr Experiment Flash Mob (GC2GM3X)

First off I want to thank everyone who attended yesterdays Flash Mob geocaching event hosted by Geoness and myself. We personally had a blast meeting up with everybody including a bunch of new geocachers where this was their first event ever. Way Cool!


Over all we had about 25 geocachers in attendance and tested over 30 different GPSr units. What I liked about this test was these were GPSr units that are used each and everyday by actual geocachers. So in my opinion this is as real as it get when it comes to in the field testing. Our Flash Mob geocaching event was held with a perfect blue sky in an open field. Couldn't ask for better testing weather.

Observe the rarely photographed GPS Two Step In Action
Before actually marking our flags and in true Flash Mob tradition everyone participated in doing the GPS Two Step and calibrated our units to peek performance. It was really fun to participate in this rarely photographed ritual and we caught it all on film and will be featured in a upcoming GeoSnippits video.

After everybody's eye balls stopped spinning it was time to get an assigned flag and start the GPSr experiment itself.


Right from the beginning a pattern started to form around Ground Zero
In no time you could see where the spread of potential ground zero markings was forming a pattern. We had a good selection of GPSr devices from hand helds, smart phones and even automobile units being tested.

The most common GPSr unit tested was the Garmin 60CSx. As for the smart phone side we had several different models and applications being used.


Here is the percentages of GPSr brands used:
Garmin       70.97%
Motorola      9.68%
Delorme       6.45%
Blackberry   3.23%
Iphone          3.23%
Magellan      3.23%
Samsung      3.23%

Geoness and HeadHardHat gathering the flag data
At the very end of the Flash Mob we handed out a bunch of prizes which included some free lanyards and some of my HHH and GeoSnippits pathtags.

Before we knew it the Flash Mob was over and everyone  broke off to do either some more geocaching in the park or to follow some other adventures of the day.

When all was said and done it was time for Geoness and I to start collecting the data. We marked ground zero and set marking tape to visually give a grid that I could easily duplicate on my graph paper. We used a measuring line that was marked every five feet to get our bearings and record each flag as we passed by. After a whole lot of circles and marking of information we finally recorded them all.










This shows how many GPSr units fell on the grid.










We will show exactly which GPSr unit and exactly who did well or not in another upcoming post.. Be sure to check regularly to see the interesting results.

As part of the Flash Mob event the person who was found to be closest to ground zero would win the event prize. This geocacher would be a featured in a GeoSnippits Video for both You Tube and to be seen on Michigan Magazine TV (RFDTV Network).

And The Winner Is....

Mike Huska (Mhuska)
Mike was using a Garmin 60CSx and was less than one foot from ground zero.

Congratulations Mike for winning our Great GPSr Experiment Flash Mob Event. Everyone will be seeing you soon on GeoSnippits!


Mike Huska (Mhuska) our Flash Mob GPSr Winner
















UPDATE:
You can now see all the stats as to which unit fell where at this link:
http://headhardhat-geocache.blogspot.com/2010/11/update-great-gpsr-experiment-stats.html


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3 comments:

The Hekawi Tribe said...

That looks like it was a lot of fun! I use a Garmin Oregon 400t and can't wait to see if the 400t was one of the GPSr and how it did.

Congratulation to Mike Huska

juicepig said...

Interesting! However you fail to mention which unit was used to mark the original set of coordinates.

I suspect if you had marked it with a Magellan, you might have found that Magellan units were closer to the mark. (Just a suspicion!)

It would be neat to see which unit would be closest to the mark using a surveyors GPS with milimeter accuracy..

Unknown said...

I too would like to see how "ground zero" was marked.