Navin MiniHomer Mini Review (£16 GPS and STRAVA content)

Righty, after the demise of my edge 305 I decided I didn’t really need or want the gazzilion functions and the mapping wasn’t much use si I’m swapping back to an old cateye strada cadence.

Which leaves a GPS and STRAVA sized hole in my life.

Enter the Navin MiniHomer GPS. I got it for £16 + £3.50 p&p off Ebay, RRP’s about $80, ebay prices range form £14-£36.

image hosted on http://www.canadagps.com but taken from the instruction manual.

It won’t do mapping, or find a route or anything like that, it’ll hold 5 waypoints (home, car, hospital, restaurant) if you download the software from the website. But it will hold arround 80 hours of GPS logs at 1 secons intervals, more than most smartphones can do without rnning out of battery very quickly. Battery life is 10 hours apparently and chargeing takes 3.

On the subject of downloads, to use it as a logger requires the download of the latest firmware, so you’ll need a USB cable (see below).

The website lists waht seems like 99 different uses, but mainly it points you back to your car/hotel if your in an unfamiliar city (as the crow flies, it doesnt do a trail) and GPS logging. The rest are either derivitives of this or you can plug it into a laptop and use it as a sat nav, but you’d need a big dashboard obviously!

Added onus over for example a garmin is the electronic compass, so it should still work when stood still or moving slowly.

First impressions:

Small, about the size of a matchbox car,
Only 2 buttons,
Supposedly waterproof, but plastic buttons and rubber cover over the usb dont fill me with confidence, so I won’t be dunking it underwater to test, but apparently it’s IPX6 (or 6X, cant rememeber, basicly it’s certified waterproof and dust proof).
Supplied USB cable is a charger only, it wont talk to the PC, but it’s a normal mini (or is it micro?) cable so no big deal as 99% of people must surely have drawers full of these.
Keychain clip is smaller than I thought, I’d hoped to use a mini keychain carbiner to clip it to jersey pockets, camelpacks etc, more likely to use a lanyard now.
Can’t see any obvious way of bar mounting it, but that’s not the point as it wont really show any usefull info anyway.

Quite happy with it for £16.

2nd impressions:
Chargeing only took 2 hours, havent got a USB cable at work so wil have to wait till I’m home to see how accurate it is as a data logger and how long the battery lasts. I’m going for a ride after work and I’ll upload it to STRAVA.

IPX6 is not rated for dustproofing and is water resistant, not rated for immersion.

Odly I should know that as I used to test stuff to those standards!

Ok, a quick followup.

Firmware: requires an update from the downloadable ntrip software to enable datalogging. This is explained clearly on the instruction suplement ‘business card’, unfortunately I lost that and spent 2 hours trying to figure it out.

Useage: instructions are OK at best, there’s still features that make no sense or don’t have any instructions. Also the LCD is either badly translated or bought as a job lot as a lot of funtions rely on switching between AM and PM modes, which have nothing to do with the time of day. Doesn’t affect its use as a datalogger for rides though.

Startup is very quick, using it every day it picks up a signal quicker than I need it (i.e. I’ve never waited for it).

I’m guessing from the accuracy that it’s fine living inmy jersey pocket, can’t comment on it in a camelpack but I can’t imagine it’d be any worse, it’s so small and light though you could probably fassion something onto the top of a shoulder strap if there’s no webbing pockets for it.

Software: the ‘included’ ntrip software is a download, but shareware so only lasts 2 months. Apparently there are 3rd party free versions available which I’ll need when that runs out as the device doesnt suppourt any of the ‘normal’ GPX or googleEarth file formats. Saying that if it’s cheep I’ll possibly buy it as it’s very simple 1 click to import, and another to export to gpx. And it uses google maps so you can actualy make some use of it. Much much better than the useless software that came with my Garmin Edge.

Accuracy: Ok so it’s impossible to say for sure if the maps are correct etc, but it generaly sticks to the left hand side of the road on google earth and with recording set to 1 second intervals it’s probably fair to say it’s very accurate. And it’s yet to spazz out and draw straight lines like some strava+phone combo’s seem to do or give unrealistic top speeds.

Bottom line[/i][/u]
Would I buy it again: Probably. It’s clearly less usefull than an Edge200, but then it’s £55 cheeper even after you’ve shopped arround and used the £30 cashback. And if you’ve already got a simple speed computer then why do you need another one? The edge200 doesn’t do cadence or HR either (or power, but that’s gettign expensive).

So for MTB I think it’s ideal, speed/cadence are relatively useless offroad and unless you’re pro then the usefullness of the ability to log cadence/HR/power over a ride is questionable. I know I used to do this with my esge305, but once I’d used it to figure out where my ‘zones’ were it was less usefull than the STRAVA power guestimates which at least quantifiably tell you if you weally were faster today even if they dont accoutn for wind or 101 other things.