Overview
The Garmin GTU 10 is Garmin's entry into the GPS tracking business and
so far we really like what we see. The GTU-10 is a small device
you place or attach to something you want to keep track of. It
can be a car, an item of property, your child or a pet. It allows
you to see where the item is, through an Internet search or an app for
your Droid or iPhone. It transmits the data via a cell phone
connection and the carrier is AT&T. So far, the item is only
available in the United States. There are some versions being
developed for use in Europe. This article deals specifically
with the US version. The GTU-10 was released in February 2011 and
currently lists for $199. Check discount prices here
The GTU is just three inches long, 1.3 inches wide and less than
an inch thick (.79)
Side view of the GTU 10. It weighs 1.71 ounces
It's smaller than a fun size candy bar, which these days just keep getting smaller.
The GTU comes with a case, you
can zip the tracker in.
The power button is at the top, USB to the left of
the LED.
The UBS connection is under the rubber cover which says Garmin
There is no
display or other controls. It's listed as waterproof.
Registration
You must first register your unit at myGarmin to get it to work.
You will be required to plug it in with a USB cable to your computer,
during the registration process. This will also update the unit's
firmware. You can give your tracker a name and can have multiple
trackers tied to a single account if you want.
The location information of your tracker is not available to the
public, only to someone who can log into your account or if you add
their email or cellphone for a text message. (Geofences only)
Service
In an era of contracts and up front charges, it is refreshing to see
Garmin is not requiring any activation fees, contracts or early
termination fees. The GTU 10 comes with a free one year
subscription service for the data plan. You can renew it for just
$50 a year. Included is an unlimited number of "locate" checks on
your unit. You also get what Garmin calls Standard Tracking,
where you can look up the last ten locations where you have sent out a
"locate" request on the tracker. This goes back up to 24 hours.
If you want to be able to go back up to seven days to see the
locations of where "locate" requests have shown the tracker to be, AND
have it record the location of your tracker at regular
intervals, you can buy Deluxe Tracking. This is just $5 a
month and can be purchased month to month as needed. You can read more on
Deluxe Tracking, later in this article. Overall, I think the
service charges are very reasonable and the GTU 10 is affordable
to use.
.
Settings
There are no controls on the tracker itself, other than the power
button. The display is a dual red/green LED and there are some
blinking codes to indicate its status and battery strength. All
of the changes to the unit and settings are made via either the phone
app
or through your myGarmin account. You can change the geofences,
notifications, frequency of checking location, all online. These
changes are then sent to the unit, but can take up to 24 hours to take
effect. To get the changes immediately, you can simply power
cycle the tracker. You can have more than one tracker and monitor
all of them through your myGarmin account or the app.
Battery Life
There is a lot of flexibility in the battery life of the GTU, depending
on how much you want to get location data from it. Heavy use
(which checks GPS location every 30 seconds) means it will need to be
recharged in less than
24 hours. But limited use, could go as long as four weeks.
I have found that the
average user will need to recharge every three days or so. If you
leave the GTU connected to the power cable in a car for instance, it
will
provide constant use. The battery is not user replaceable and so
it is unclear what the long term batter life is like. You can
request a text or
email message to warn you when the unit's power is low. These warnings
seem to be sent out when the battery is at 20 percent. You can
also request a 'power off' message. These will be sent if someone
physically turns off the tracker, but do not appear to be sent when the
unit completely runs out of battery.
Standard Tracking
You can monitor your tracker's location, via the myGarmin webpage under
your own account or from an app for your iPhone or Droid. It will
bring up your location on a map, with an option for aerial view.
The web page is lacking in a lot of data provided on the app.
There is also no way to export or download your locations or
track to a .gpx or similar file. This will hopefully be possible
soon. The Spot Messenger
website
does a good job of letting you do more with track data and I would like
to see something similar from Garmin for the GTU. You also cannot
share your data with anyone, without giving them your personal login
information (except a geofence notification to email or text)
App
An added plus to the GTU, is that there is a phone app for both the
Droid and iPhone platforms. This gives you the ability to check
on the tracker's location, remotely.
The app is found in the app store for Apple and is listed in the market
for the Droid as "Garmin Tracker." It is a free download.
The app is in its early stages, and has a couple of minor glitches, but
in my experience with the Droid version, it works great. It provides much more data than the web page,
such as GPS coordinates, altitude, speed, and GPS accuracy. Here are screen
shots of the data you can get.
Geofences
The GTU allows you to create up to ten geofences. These are
created via the webpage or on the app. Using a map, you can
create boundaries for the tracker and be notified when the tracker
enters the geofence, exits it or both. You can customize these for your
own needs. For example for a pet, you can use your property line.
For a child, you could create the route they walk to and from
school and get notified if they leave that area. For property,
you could set the geofence to notify you if your ATV or boat leaves
your city. The possibilities are endless. It doesn't mean
if your pet steps off your property, you will immediately get a
message. But from my testing, you will be notified if your pet gets
more than 100 feet away from the boundary. The alerts will
depend on how often you have your unit set to check its
location. It should never be more than 15 minutes. In the
heavy use setting, it has taken about two minutes to get a message that
the tracker has exited the geofence. I can then get its current
location. I typically get a message within five minutes of the
tracker leaving my property on the 'balanced' power setting. A feature missing from the geofences
is a speed alert. For example, a notification if your teenager goes
faster in the car, than a speed limit you pre-determine.
Hopefully this feature will be added in the future.
Deluxe Tracking
For five dollars a month, you can add Deluxe Tracking. For
the extra data you get, it is worth it to me and Garmin makes it nice
by allowing you to buy it month to month, so you are not locked into a
full year, if you only need it occasionaly. Deluxe Tracking
however, will decrease
battery life in the GTU. It is because the unit appears to
send out an updated location every five minutes or so. You
can look up track points at those intervals. Deluxe
tracking also works on
the phone app, but it takes some time to download more than a day's
worth of data. You can find
out more about Deluxe Tracking by following this link.
Service Area
While the tracker has a high sensitive GPS receiver, it won't get a
satellite fix typically in big buildings, parking garages, malls, etc.
It will however give you the last location it has data for.
An important thing to consider as well, is that you must be in
the coverage area of the cell provider, for the tracker to be able to
transmit the position data when requested. This means the tracker
is not something you can put on a boy scout, hunting dog or camp
trailer, if they in a remote area with no AT&T cell coverage. Here is Garmin's map for coverage in the USA via AT&T.
NuLink
Garmin does have a couple of GPS navigators which are connected to the
internet, including the Nuvi 1690 and 1695. With the GTU,
you can use those nuvi units to see where your tracker is located and
even to navigate to it. You can set this up, in your myGarmin
account.
Software
Garmin typically makes firmware improvements for new products. So
far, I have encountered no serious bugs or glitches in its use. I expect
the web interface in the myGarmin account will get some improvements.
The app does seem to work well on my Droid phone. My unit
shipped with version 2.40. Check here for the latest firmware version which must be updated via Garmin's WebUpdater.
Privacy
Questions
of people secretly placing a GPS tracker on someone's car for instance,
continues to be a topic of discussion around the country, when it comes
to privacy laws. Police have used GPS trackers, without first obtaining
a warrant and the courts have not ruled consistently yet, if this runs
afoul of the fourth amendment. It is safe to say that most people
would feel it is an invasion of their privacy, to be tracked without
their knowledge or consent. With the GTU-10, it only works if you
have it
registered to you on Garmin's website, and so it cannot be used in
anonymity. If someone
finds it, there is a good chance they or law enforcement may eventually
track you down and you will have some explaining to do. This will
hopefully discourage people from misusing this device. And
forcing a
tracker onto a teenager, spouse, employee etc, with them knowing you
are watching their every move, can damage your relationship with
them. Just a couple
of thoughts to consider with this technology. Here is a recent article involving the legal ramifications of GPS tracking, you can read and it includes links at the end, if you want do to more research on this issue.
Pros
Small
Reasonable price
Accurate
Easy to use
No extra fees, contracts, etc. on the service plan
Contact via email or text, in addition to phone app or webpage
Cons
From my perspective, Garmin has got a lot of things right with the GTU. Here are a couple of things to consider:
Does not work if you leave the coverage area of the cell provider. (unpopulated areas, mountains, etc.)
Cannot replace built in lithium battery
Possibility of misuse by secretly invading someone's privacy
No emergency or distress button
No option to export track data to .gpx or .kml file
Does not include either an AC or a car charger cable-- these must be
purchased separately. (Other USB cables seem to work however)
Summary
I am very happy with my purchase of the GTU 10. I expect I will
own another one soon. The next time I go to Disneyland, I will
have one attached to my four year old boy for sure. From what I
have seen with the GTU, I can say I am very satisfied. I am
hoping Garmin will also get into the satellite tracking business,
similar to the Spot Messenger. For more information and the specs, here is a link to Garmin's official product page. There is also a Garmin mini-site, where you can do more research on the GTU 10.
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