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Spy Gear Wireless Tracking System Review


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#1 Oni Kadaki

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Posted 14 May 2008 - 09:37 PM

http://www.toysrus.c...oductId=2649297

(Ompa has given me the ok to make a seperate thread for this, I am aware there is an old one)

My girlfriend got me this little gadget for my birthday. I was first introduced to spy gear by her younger brother, and have since been interested in the applications of the various spy gear products for nerf wars. I have used some of the other spy gear products before, and I have to say this one takes the cake. But, i'm getting head of myself. First, the basics:

The main unit has three led lights on it; next to these lights is a "screen" on which you can note the locations of the three sensor units using a dry-erase marker. When a sensor detects movement, the corresponding led light goes on. You can also set it to sound an alarm and notify you which sensor was tripped via an electronic voice. These two features allow you to be quiet when necessary, or you can simply pocket the main unit or clip it to your belt and wait for it to notify you via the alarm if you're not terribly interested in stealth. The sensors themselves have a range of 5 feet, and will detect movement in a single direction within that limited range. One last, but important, feature to note is that you can reset the sensors with a button on the main unit, as such, if a sensor is triggered by someone other than your opponent, you don't have to manually reset it. Now, onto practicality:

As you can imagine, the 5 foot range makes this gadget most useful in narrow chokepoints. Unfortunately, I have yet to test it in the arena we use at my university, which is a maze of narrow, concrete hallways. As such, though it theoretically should be very effective there, i'm wondering if the concrete won't render the gadget useless. However, in the testing that i've done at my girlfriend's house, i've found that a well placed sensor is both very reliable for alerting you to someone's presence and discrete enough to be hard to detect if you're not specifically looking for it, and very tough to disarm without tripping if you do detect it. As such, they are very useful for securing key points in indoor locations. Further, I suspect that, in larger, longer-lasting indoor fights, they will be very useful to cover your tracks and give you the peace of mind that comes with knowing if anyone's planning to catch you from behind.

In conclusion: These are definitely worth considering if you do indoor wars. For outdoor wars, they're rather limited in usefulness.
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#2 Twitch

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Posted 14 May 2008 - 10:09 PM

I've had a set of these for a few months now and found the device to be rather amusing, and effective in certain buildings. (Many of the building my group utilizes are largely comprised of reinforced concrete, which seems to significantly decrease the range for it to function, as one would expect.) Mostly using it exactly as one would expect; knowing when someone or a group of people have walked past a certain point then ambushing. Placing one near the flag in a CTF game also works to alert when the flag has been snagged. If your group plays in a building not comprised primarily of reinforced concrete, it certainly has it's uses. An added note; attach a good suction cup or comparable implement and you an stick them to some ceiling, windows, etc. in which people are less likely to look once they start checking beneath each step and around each corner. Definitely worth looking into if you play n an appropriate arena.
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#3 notthedinkus

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Posted 14 May 2008 - 11:10 PM

I purchased a set of these about four years ago when they first came out. It seems that they have changed the design some, as the old one was much bigger and clumsier. Anyways, my friends and I used to have a spy club, and we would set these up arround our houses. They work great, but I have run into some problems with drawing the map on the screen, as it is usually confusing and not very usefull.
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#4 Omega

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Posted 14 May 2008 - 11:37 PM

Memories, dawg. Memories.

I got one of those for a birthday a long time ago. It was a lot clunkier, but it was the best for thwarting sister-related raids.
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#5 eddieoctane

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Posted 15 May 2008 - 12:56 AM

I remember Spy Gear. Wild planet has, and will continue, to kick ass. I had the goofy piece of "spy" headgear when I was little. It had a little LED light on the left that flipped out and turned on when I pressed a button. On the right side it had a little "scope" gizmo that had 2 or 3 sets of cross hairs.


What I really want to do is integrate the camera off of this into some sort of gun-cam. The ability to see around corners and such amuses me.
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#6 dooda

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Posted 15 May 2008 - 12:05 PM

I used to have a set of these but i stuvk them in the fridge. :blink: i think that the new spy missile screecher thing would work as a titan to.
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#7 imaseoulman

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Posted 16 May 2008 - 09:08 AM

I am a security system technician and I spend my summers installing home (sometimes business) alarms. I've seriously considered rigging up an outdoor alarm to tell me where people are going, but even thought the motion detectors (body heat sensitive) have wide angle surveillance and fairly long range and will work just fine through concrete and most other common barriers, I don't see a need for it. Unless the outdoor field was HUGE and there was a lot of brush and you were trying to track some one down, but then you are limited by the 150' of wireless communication range.

In sum, even if a motion sensor could function outdoors, it would probably be easier to just look around the field to see where everybody is.

However, using equipment meant for home security (you can get cheap sensors at Radio Shack I think) would be VERY effective for indoor wars. Maybe, I could put together cheap kits/instructions on how to set these up for indoor wars. Would anybody be interested?
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#8 Ambience 327

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Posted 16 May 2008 - 09:25 AM

Sounds intriguing. I'd be game to at least know what kind of kit you could put together and how much it would cost. I'd say don't buy anything just yet - but get your ideas together and let us know what you intend, then you would get a better gague of who would be interested in your kits.
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#9 AlaskaRecon

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Posted 18 May 2008 - 08:00 PM

What if you hooked up a security camera too one of them? Alarm goes off and camera comes on. you would need a security person but isnt that pretty much the job of the defense in a CTF game where it is the only real practical game to use it in?
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#10 EbolaMuteOne

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Posted 01 June 2008 - 05:57 PM

I got this for Christmas some years ago, and it never worked. But I did get the Communication HUD system with my friend a little over a year ago, and it works great, surprisingly. Especially in night wars for a little fun haha
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