Findster - finally the road test!

If you read my first entry about Findster then you are probably back to see what happened.  So despite taking the Findster set all the way to Italy a back we just didn't need it.  But last week we had a trip to Legoland being in the middle of the school holidays this seemed the perfect time to give it a go.

Despite the units being fully charged when I went to test them that morning they were all showing low power.  So - this means they don't hold their power when in standby.  Luckily all units charged that morning in about an hour and a half while we were getting ready.  I packed them away powered down and turned them on when we were about 15 minutes away from the park.  Both units paired to my parent unit without any fuss.

Both boys love wearing the necklaces and I slip them under their tops so that they won't accidentally get caught on something as they are zooming around.

The Test

We had two opportunities to test the system since both boys have a tendency to disappear but thankfully have the common sense to wander too far.  On both occasions we could not see the boys in the mass of children playing and I hoped my phone would guide me.  Unfortunately both times it showed on the screen that the boys were over 20m away when the reality was that they were no more than 4m from where we were standing.  I think its because there is a delayed interval between the child units and parent units updating their location information.  This delay for a parent is no good because naturally at that moment when you lose sight of your kid you are already in a blind panic!

But despite that the biggest issue with the set is the battery issues we encountered that day.  Not only does the Findster app completely drain the battery on my mobile but the units failed to last the entire day.  At 5pm we left the park and you can see that both modules lasted until around 3pm.  Considering that we didn't get to the park until 11am - this basically gives you 4hrs of power with the modules.  Furthermore if I hadn't taken my external battery boost charger for my phone that would have failed as well (in the screenshot you can see that I have it charging but its sitting at 26%).  These two considerations are pretty heavily weighed against the Findster system in my opinion as knowing that you are basically killing your phone battery does not give you peace of mind on a day trip out and you can't fire the system up on demand either because the modules need time to pair - so that isn't an option.

The Verdict

Personally I don't think this system lives up to the hype and whilst this is probably perfect for finding lost pets when you go on walks (which is what the original system was designed for) as a system for keeping track of children it needs work.  I find the whole thing more stressful than it needs to be.  You couldn't grab the system 'on the fly' unless you keep the units charging all the time, but that really isn't practical.  The real worry here is that you could be in a situation where think you can rely on the system to keep your children safe but actually what happens is that you end up with both the phone and the Findster system not working due to depleted batteries which, frankly, that just puts me off using it.

Findster - the possible solution to the dilemma of keeping track of your children?

So our twins refuse to be kept on harnesses, leashes and any other of anti-child escape device we have tried and now that they are too big to be strapped down in a pushchair they  find nothing more fun than darting off in every direction at any chance they get got me thinking about if there were any possible technology solutions out there that could help with this dilemma.

I embarked on some serious research discarding nearly all that Google presented to me as most require subscriptions or SIMs cards = ongoing costs.  Which when you weigh level of usage with these ongoing charges it didn't justify the investment.  The cheaper offerings looked to be pretty unreliable and there just didn't seem to be anything inbetween.  

So I firstly decided to go low cost and ordered two ID bands from eBay which are worn on their wrists when we go out with a full explanation that this is the information in case they get lost.  There are a few different types available at a reasonable price some with clasps that cannot be opened easily.  So - at least this way I know when we go out that if they do get lost and are found that our contact information is easy to find.

But as a parent this isn't enough and I felt like I could do better.  It was after that thought and subsequent search on the Internet that I stumbled across Findster's Kickstarter projects.  I was intrigued by their ethos and belief that as a parent this sort of technology should not have any ongoing costs the system also looked simple to use and not bulky (as some other units were).

So I contacted Findster to ask if they were shipping to the UK and if they would be interested in being featured in my blog.  I received a fairly medium of the road response and indifference about being written about here since 'we are so popular that we sell out all the time thanks to Kickstarter'.  'Wow' I thought, 'They must be good' so placed the order and patiently waited.

The package arrived over a week later from Portugal.  The following video was made minutes after it arrived after which I put all three units to charge.  

Later that day I started to try and set it up hoping to be able to use if.  Unfortunately that has simply now been the case and I am beyond disappointed.  Three days later I am still no closer to having a working Findster system and having waited very patiently with their 48hr technical support response times my much awaited 'technical support' help was less help and more of an email that arrived while I was asleep (seems to be based west coast USA) containing lots of links to the Findster FAQs which I have thoroughly already pawed over in desperate quest to resolve this issue myself.  

Just to give some context to the level of frustration that I am experiencing right now I am going to reset everything to zero and demonstrate in a second video my Findster groundhog day loop which I am so disappointed about because I wanted this to be another great gadget!

UPDATE: Findster have been in touch.  It appears that they have sent me a Findster Duo Guardian module in error which is for their pet GPS tracking system and won't work with the Kids system.  So its going back and I await a new set to try again!   

Read the Road test and verdict here: http://kaosfusion.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/findster-finally-road-test.html