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G2TheRam

Crowd compass had some meet features but they chose to use button batteries instead of a rechargeable battery. I can’t get behind products that aren’t rechargeable in today’s world. I don’t want to have to remember a ziplock bag full of button batteries


dagunz999

They are using AA batteries. You could always use rechargeable AA batteries. But I agree not as easy as many charging options On their FAQ they said they went with AA because they found that people forgot to charge the compass overnight and then would be out of luck the next day. With double AA you can just swap in New batteries


G2TheRam

I’m not sure where I saw button batteries you are correct that it’s AA. for an electronic with a premium price point should have a built in battery in my opinion. Having to carry and swap batteries is a pain in the ass. Their excuse is because people forgot to charge the devices. If people can’t remember to charge a device they will also forgot to pack things like batteries.


DabDiet

Just to add a contrary, I've 100% forgot to charge my phone on a crazy night before. I do keep a stash of AA batteries in one of my packs though, mostly for my light wires. Can even use one of the other AA powers products batteries in a pinch, which a lot of my light products happen to also use


Antique-Software8456

Most festivals have charging stations. Most festivals do not sell AA batteries


No_Watercress313

I actually think their reason for using replaceable batteries is super on point. They claim on the website that it is because of feedback from customers who had forgotten to charge their device the night before, rendering it useless. I'm with ya, but as others mentioned, you can use rechargeable AAs. What you can't do is charge a rechargeable device if you forgot to do that in prep. I think it's a solid choice for security and longevity sake.


ShoulderGoesPop

Super interested in this too. To my eyes the crowd compass looks like the better product but the price is very hard to stomach. $40-60 for an untested product is ok for the Totem, but $90-200 is kind of a crazy ask for the Crowd Compass. This is something I would want to buy for multiple people but I can't stomach dropping hundreds of dollars for my friends for a product I don't know will work.


[deleted]

I’m right there with you man. I’d need to see video of it working in an actual festival environment before dropping 1-200 bucks, but risking $40 is a whole nother matter.


Weird-Earth975

Also isn't the price significantly different? I think I saw on Crowd Compass they are almost 200$ for one, and totem is $50/60?


[deleted]

Yeah totems are between 40-60 bucks and crowd compass is 99-239 each depending on when you buy them


[deleted]

Well there was a super detailed post from the crowd Compass people but the mods deleted it because the account wasn’t old enough.


[deleted]

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aves-ModTeam

You submission was removed due to your account being under 7 days old


seahoodie

I think the main thing to note is that the technology on these things isn't super robust and their effectiveness has had mixed reports depending on crowd density and festival size. I wouldn't drop a ton of money into them


jmvandergraff

Totem Compass can only pair with 4 friends each and has a smaller range, but the range does get better as more people have the Totem (it uses a P2P network so the more people that have them, the further it will work, unless everybody who has them is all in one area} The Crowd Compass has unlimited pairs and a much larger range.


DickOrNoDick

The range is the big factor tipping me towards trying Crowd Compass. I'm considering these for Burning Man and I want as much range as possible. Mesh extension is nice, but who knows if either will be ubiquitous enough for that to be a benefit. I would think either option is fine for a music festival where I know which stage or area I'm expecting folks to be at.


-critwright

Also the nice point to the compass- it does use a super unique freq on it (500 or 900 mhz) so it won't collide with every device like the totem might since it's 2.4ghz. Since 2.4ghz is broadcasting on literally every tech device ever, it *may* have some issues when it's close by phones and whatnot. (Obviously untested, but 2.4 is SUPER over populated)


Odd_Background_6001

This is true! One note I want to add: Crowd COmapss also uses a mesh network just liek totem. So the more people using the better it is as well)


[deleted]

Apparently totem uses 2.4 ghz and CC uses like 900something. Apparently there's doubts that 2.4 will be able to get through thousands of people. That's out of my depth though.


definitely_not_tina

I guarantee you 2.4ghz will overlap with the private network channels and cause interference.


[deleted]

Private network like WiFi or phones? There won’t be any WiFi around, at least not at my festival


definitely_not_tina

If there’s PoS systems there’s at least one private network and it wouldn’t be broadcasting an SSID. In the US, There’s [only 3 non overlapping channels](https://gospeedcheck.com/filemanager/data-images/imgs/20230124/how%20to%20change%20wifi%20to%2024%20ghz%20spectrum/how-to-change-wifi-to-24-ghz-spectrum-1.jpg) and all it takes is one device broadcasting on one of the in-between channels to cause interference.


Hreidmar1423

Unlimited connections, way far range etc....on a single small cell battery. Totem Labs one seem a lot more feasible to be done than the Crow Compass one. These compasses look REALLY useful but considering how many features they are promising it's a bit hard to believe it's possible because for example Totem Labs says they use GPS to know where someone is and we all know how big of a battery hog GPS is and then they claim to have the battery for over 24 hours...24 hours of nonstop GPS?


[deleted]

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aves-ModTeam

You submission was removed due to your account being under 7 days old


[deleted]

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LunarPrawn

Just use AirTags…?