Barryvox Pulse owners thread.

[sfotex]

So I picked up a Pulse last night and I'm pretty stoked on it. Who else is rocking one? Any tips or tricks that haven't been covered in the beaconreview.com, etc?


(I'll delete this if there's another thread about the pulse, I found a lot of info about the pulse here, but no dedicated threads about it..)

[Jer]

I'm still torn between the DSP, S1 and Pulse.

What made you decide on the Pulse?

[nomensteven]

I love my pulse. Probably because it is what I practice with but no complaints it gets the job done.

[Jer]

Well, that was quick. Looks like I'm one of you guys now.

[sfotex]

I'm still torn between the DSP, S1 and Pulse.

What made you decide on the Pulse?

I have a pulse and a DSP. I like the glove friendly buttons on the pulse over the DSP. They're both great units, I think it comes down to personal preference. I haven't messed with the S1 before, but several people have told me the UI is confusing at times...

[AltaPowderDaze]

I have a pulse and a DSP. I like the glove friendly buttons on the pulse over the DSP. They're both great units, I think it comes down to personal preference. I haven't messed with the S1 before, but several people have told me the UI is confusing at times...

same here. i've got both units and prefer the pulse for easier searches and the ability to go analog when needed. i know a few pro guides/ex-patrollers that have an S1 that they gave upon after a month of use. confusing signals and slow were what i've heard about it. the S1's were free to them and they gave them back.

[skifishbum]

I like the scan button on the pieps. Some times it wont flag older beacons, or give the wrong # of signals but the scan button is always on the money.

[Jonathan S.]

The S1 and Pulse are very similar in terms of their functionality, but vastly different in their UI. (In other words, they're capable of doing the same things, but go about it in different fashions.)
By contrast, the DSP is more of a "traditional" design (in the sense that the Tracker's at-the-time-radical design is now kind of the baseline) yet with signal separation and marking/masking. I've also found the beacon count & marking/masking to be less reliable than with the S1 and Pulse, a disparity that becomes more pronounced when searching for old F1 beacons.
(Hah, that took me only four sentences, as opposed to the several pages I'm working on right now for the same thing!)

[khyber.pass]

I'm still torn between the DSP, S1 and Pulse.

What made you decide on the Pulse?

FYI I had both the Pulse and the DSP out during some beacon practice over the weekend. During a proximity multiple burial, the Pulse became confused between the two signals and was not able to switch from one to the next. The DSP handled the situation perfectly. This was without using the mark function. We had a fleet of Pulses and they all reflected the same problem; only one DSP.

I own both, they are both very solid beacons, upside of the Pulse is that you don't need to hunt out firmware upgrades (though there is one coming in 2009, that basically allows a 'simple' mode and updates a few things). The Pulse can also default to analogue mode and it has the heartbeat monitor. That said, the DSP has a slightly longer range and better management of multiple burials.

[Jonathan S.]

FYI I had both the Pulse and the DSP out during some beacon practice over the weekend. During a proximity multiple burial, the Pulse became confused between the two signals and was not able to switch from one to the next. The DSP handled the situation perfectly. This was without using the mark function.

I am confused as to this confusion. Do you mean the Pulse did not display both signals? Was not able to mark one? Or...

I own both, they are both very solid beacons, upside of the Pulse is that you don't need to hunt out firmware upgrades (though there is one coming in 2009, that basically allows a 'simple' mode and updates a few things).

The DSP firmware upgrades are always posted at LibertyMountain.com once available.
Pulse firmware has been upgraded twice in the two years since its introduction:
http://www.mammut.ch/en/avalancheres...ryvox_faq.html

[khyber.pass]

^^ Sorry for not being more clear. The Pulse showed two beacons. It led the searchers toward one ok. But then moving away from that beacon, it was unable to distinguish a second signal *even when standing on top of the 2nd beacon*.

By contrast, the DSP showed two beacons and led me to the first one. Moving away from beacon 1 it switched to beacon 2's signal at about 20 metres and honed in on the new signal.

The two beacons were about 40 metres apart.

[Jonathan S.]

So was it like this:
- two targets, about 40m apart from each other
- Pulse initially shows two victims
- searcher goes to first beacon and marks it
- now the second beacon's signal disappears?

[khyber.pass]

^^ Not quite, as we weren't using the mark function (on purpose, to make things more interesting). So:

- two targets, about 40m apart from each other
- Pulse initially shows two victims
- searcher goes to B1
- searcher walks away from B1
- keeps walking
- 40m away, actually standing on B2 by fluke, still shows signal of 40m from B1

Pieps:
- two targets, about 40m apart from each other
- DSP initially shows two victims
- searcher goes to B1
- searcher walks away from B1
- keeps walking away, at ~25m, signal switches to B2
- searcher walks to B2

The DSP switched from B1 to B2 without marking. The Pulse was unable to 'get off' B1 signal.

[Jonathan S.]

Okay, so to clarify:
- Pulse always showed two beacons in its list.
- However, Pulse did not switch over when it should have to what was actually by then the closer signal (as the searcher moved from one beacon to the other).
- Searcher could have scrolled through the list to the other beacon (as well as marked the first beacon).

[Greguar]

Is anyone else concerned about where the pulse harness keeps the beacon?

It seems that no matter how I adjust it the beacon ends up right over my heart, I feel like if I took a big impact that thing could give me cardiac arrest.

[AltaPowderDaze]

Is anyone else concerned about where the pulse harness keeps the beacon?

It seems that no matter how I adjust it the beacon ends up right over my heart, I feel like if I took a big impact that thing could give me cardiac arrest.

mine sits either low on my abs or can be swung around to the back below the kidneys.

i'm not too worried about the motion detection being fooled by the location.

[khyber.pass]

Okay, so to clarify:
- Pulse always showed two beacons in its list.
- However, Pulse did not switch over when it should have to what was actually by then the closer signal (as the searcher moved from one beacon to the other).
- Searcher could have scrolled through the list to the other beacon (as well as marked the first beacon).

Yes.

(And yes again as I need more than 8 characters).

[Jer]

Besides the rad price on the Pulse, the other thing that kinda turned me off about the S1 is the flip-up. That's a big moving part and it just looks fragile to me. Damn, I gotta get down to the Big City and pick that thing up.

[goodtimes]

- Searcher could have scrolled through the list to the other beacon (as well as marked the first beacon).

I think the scroll feature is a real strength of the pulse. When searching for old analog signals it provides the reliability that the mark feature doesn't.

[PowderAlltheTime]

Is anyone getting the firmware update?

[Jonathan S.]

I received my upgraded beacon the other week.
In brief, now allows an entirely different mode, almost kind of a DSP-esque simplified multi-burial functionality. Also some tweaks to the regular mode (including a more clear distinction between, say, "30" and "3.0").
I'll eventually update my WildSnow.com reviews, but in the meantime:
http://www.mammut.ch/en/newfirmware.html
http://www.mammut.ch/images/P_BARRY_MANUAL_EN_2009.pdf

[sfotex]

Another update. I busted the battery box on my pulse and sent it back to Mammut, they sent me a new unit. Seems like the new unit has some ghosting issues, especially when I put it side by side with my pieps. Any ideas?

[Jonathan S.]

What are you using as your target beacon(s)? Ortovox F1 beacons have a tendency to cause ghosting on any signal separation beacon, although I've found it to be more pronounced on the Pieps DSP. (I haven't tested the Pulse 3.0 in this regard yet.)
And are you getting ghosting from just a single target beacon, or is that when you have multiple target beacons?

[stevenc]

Besides the rad price on the Pulse, the other thing that kinda turned me off about the S1 is the flip-up. That's a big moving part and it just looks fragile to me. Damn, I gotta get down to the Big City and pick that thing up.

That is my biggest complaint about the S1. It was really annoying duing a mock burrial to have a giant beacon flapping around while digging fast. I never even though of this until I dug with it open.

[sfotex]

What are you using as your target beacon(s)? Ortovox F1 beacons have a tendency to cause ghosting on any signal separation beacon, although I've found it to be more pronounced on the Pieps DSP. (I haven't tested the Pulse 3.0 in this regard yet.)
And are you getting ghosting from just a single target beacon, or is that when you have multiple target beacons?

Target really wasn't anything. Basic scenario was I would turn my beacon to receive and it would pick up a signal even though nothing seemed to be nearby. I would wander around and try to lock onto something but no go. My pieps worked fine when I switched over to it. When something came online it locked on ok. My concern is that this could confuse the hell out of me when I'm trying to pick up a signal during a coarse search.

If anyone in SLC has a pulse I would be intersted in doing a side by side comparison.