Never lose your car again!

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Ecco GPSIf you do what I do everytime you go out and forget where you’ve parked your car, or have major trouble in finding your way back to your hotel, then worry no longer.   The ECCO GPS Keychain will help to show you the way.

This staggeringly small GPS system is set to revolutionise the way you find your way back to…well, wherever it is you started.

All you need to do is ‘lock in’ your starting location, then when you come back, simply follow the ECCO’s LCD display back to your car, or hotel.

The ECCO’s internal battery recharges via USB, but don’t worry about carrying your laptop around at the same time, as the charge lasts for a month on standby and almost two weeks if you use it for ten minutes every day.  Not bad!

The ECCO GPS keychain costs £69.99 and is available from Firebox

9 thoughts on “Never lose your car again!”




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  2. -OR- if you have android or Iphone install a car locator app that basically does the exact same thing. Prices range from free to $3.99 save $$$

    PROFIT 🙂

  3. That’s a pretty awesome little GPSr unit! Too bad that it will not work in the main place it would be useful: multi level shopping centre car parks! Also in reality you would get out of your car and then need to wait for a minute or two for the thing to get a location lock before you could record where you are leaving your car.

  4. @Mark – Here is the link for the item on the site, it’s available at the moment: http://www.firebox.com/product/2387/ECCO-GPS-Keychain?via=cat

    @gheymann – At the moment, I’m not an Android, or iPhone owner… Blackberry yes, so unless there’s a BB app I can use that would save some $$’s then I’d opt for this.

    @Damian – Although I haven’t reviewed it, I’m guessing it may lock onto to a GPS signal pretty quickly… plus, I have kids and have to sort out a few things before I get out of the car anyway, so by the time I’m ready to go shopping or whatever, the signal will be locked in. I guess everyone is different though!

  5. All – the good news is that this is usable where cell phones are not. Try leaving your car at the top of a mountain and hiking around for a few hours.. finding your way with a cell phone would be impossible unless you’ve got reception.

  6. Jay- it doesn’t matter how quick a unit will lock onto a signal if the signal is not there (as in a multi-story or underground car park). The GPS signal is extremely weak and it takes very little to block it.

  7. @Dave – Great point there…. my BB provider in the UK is T-Mobile. It’s definitely not the best provider and loses it’s signal quite often!

    @Andrew – Point taken. Although, I think if you park in an underground car park or multi story you’d have a better idea of where you parked as most floors are numbered. Plus, they’re typically not as large/wide compared to a normal outside car park, where it would be much harder to locate your vehicle. I do think the ECCO would struggle underground though, for sure! 🙂

  8. Your other commenters mentioned the disadvantages of this ECCO.

    The biggest advantage of having a separate unit is that the GPS device has its own battery and doesn’t drain your smartphone battery. This is particularly interesting if the GPS device has data logging capability and stays on all the time, since it’s much easier (needs less signal power from satellites) to maintain a lock than to acquire a new one, so its quite possible to get a location if the GPS already had a lock, while it may take minutes or even hours to acquire one.

    There are other similar devices that are much cheaper:

    Bushnell Backtrack (http://www.bushnell.com/products/gps/backtrack/)
    Grand daddy of cheap simple waypoint finder gps devices. Larger than keychain.

    Navin miniHomer (http://www.semsons.com/namiwagpspof.html)
    Less than half the cost, waterproof, supports datalogging. User interface isn’t as simple though.

    GlobalSat GD-101 GPS Director (http://www.semsons.com/glgdgpsdi.html)
    About half the cost, waterproof. User interface isn’t as simple and its a lot larger than keychain size. GlobalSat’s is not a newcomer to GPS devices.

    Navibe BackTrack GPS (http://www.buygpsnow.com/Navibe_BackTrack_GPS.aspx)
    Less than half the cost, waterproof, temperature. User interface is not as simple and its a lot larger than keychain size. This is a rebranded QStarz QFinder GF-Q900, QStarz has been around the block too.

    An alternative idea: GPS tracker. You can get a GPS tracker with cellular interface for roughly $150-$200. You can send it a message and get back its current location. Never have to remember to hit a button when you leave the car (on the other hand, maybe car is in poor cell signal area), but you need a second GPS device to find your car, but that device could be your phone (but then, maybe poor GPS reception won’t allow your phone to acquire a lock).

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