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PIQ North Kiteboarding

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PIQ North Kiteboarding

Postby kjorn » Sun May 14, 2017 12:19 am

There isn't much info online about the PIQ so I thought we could dump what we know and any bugs in this thread.

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Re: PIQ North Kiteboarding

Postby kjorn » Sun May 14, 2017 12:23 am

The first thing to note is that they don't seem to know which way up the PIQ displays the info. As you browse around the site and look at the info booklet the images show the PIQ pointing both left and right:
piq.png
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piq2.png
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kite-realtime.jpg
It's pretty amateurish. So before you stick anything on your board, make sure it's the correct way up.

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Re: PIQ North Kiteboarding

Postby kjorn » Sun May 14, 2017 12:36 am

PIQ flashing icon -- or the bunny ears of DOOM as I call it:
ezgif.com-optimize.gif
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I do not know what the f*** it is doing here, but if you get to the beach and turn the PIQ on and see this blutooth (I think) icon, your session is fucked. This has happened to me a bunch of times.

Does anyone know how to fix this without having to pair it with the PIQ app? I don't use a phone, I use my Samsung tablet which I don't take to the beach. When the bunny ears of DOOM happen at the beach .... wtf ... how do you fix it? Why is it happening?

Honestly, it drives me crazy. The PIQ works sometimes, then they issue an update and it breaks by doing bonkers shit like this. It's like they are sabotaging their own product.

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Re: PIQ North Kiteboarding

Postby kjorn » Sun May 14, 2017 12:52 am

You can only set the welcome message during a firmware update. This confused the hell out of me trying to find the option to do it.

Also, it wipes your previous message each time you do the firmware update.

There is a tiny window of opportunity to set this message, if you wait too long the firmware gets updated and the welcome message box disappears forever :(
Screenshot_20170514-004528.png

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Re: PIQ North Kiteboarding

Postby kjorn » Sun May 14, 2017 12:58 am

Where did all my options go?

Answer -- some of them are invisible! Until you pair your PIQ and turn it on, then they appear. So if a friend tells you they have more options than you, try turning everything on. This breaks basic UX standard practice. Disable options that are not available at the moment -- do not 'hide' them. Psh.
Screenshot_20170514-004324.png
Screenshot_20170514-004425.png

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Re: PIQ North Kiteboarding

Postby kjorn » Sun May 14, 2017 1:02 am

Award for most pointless dashboard ever goes to PIQ. Just look at it, none of it makes any sense or is totally pointless. What are those charts even telling me? No one cares about the PIQ score, it may as well be a random number. And who the hell cares about total height?

Guess which parts of the dashboard are buttons that you can click and interact with. Answer - I have no idea. Some bits you can click on, other bits you can't.
Screenshot_20170514-005931.png
Look at it. None of it shows me any information that I care about. Which bits can I click on? What is going on? For a device that measures jump height they sure hide all that JUMP HEIGHT information away:
Screenshot_20170514-010826.png

They seem totally confused about kitesurfing. Sure with golf or boxing I guess you get better over time. With kiting it depends on the wind, the kite you are one, the sea conditions. Tracking the random number PIQ score is nonsense.

I want to love this little device, I really do. But it's not quite there yet.

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Re: PIQ North Kiteboarding

Postby kjorn » Sun May 14, 2017 1:27 am

Unlike the WOO, the PIQ will record multiple sessions. I'm not sure if there is a limit, but I've recorded two onto the device at the same time.

The PIQ button. Doing a long press turns the PIQ on. It displays the welcome message, then draws a kite (I think), then sunglasses, then KITEBOARDING, then GO. Then the cylon eye watches you as you kite.
tumblr_o0m5aoyzrH1ssuoa0o1_500.gif
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If you do no jumps for 5 mins or so it turns off (this won't happen in the sea.) Sometimes when the PIQ is on and you short press the red button it shows a weird symbol, like an X K and B all mixed into one. Not sure what that means.

Always turn it on right on the waters edge with the board laying flat on the sand. Turing it on up in the car park and walking down seems to f*** up the numbers.

Make sure you clean all the sand off the black rubber before you close the case. Sand will make it leak.

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Re: PIQ North Kiteboarding

Postby kjorn » Sun May 14, 2017 1:34 am

They should let you enter all the kites you use and the boards, then show you stats for each. E.g:
  • Best jump on 12m Mutany P
  • top 10 jumps on Screamer 10M + Tronic board
  • overview of your sessions at Beach XYZ this year (broken down by kite size)
  • compare your heights to other people at the same spot on the same day
There is so much data hidden away in the app but no real way of accessing it in an interesting way :(

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Re: PIQ North Kiteboarding

Postby Eckhardt » Sun May 14, 2017 9:20 am

Interesting topic. I am about our buy either a piq or a woo. I liked the display of the piq but now I am in doubt again.

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Re: PIQ North Kiteboarding

Postby kjorn » Sun May 14, 2017 10:21 am

Eckhardt wrote:
Sun May 14, 2017 9:20 am
Interesting topic. I am about our buy either a piq or a woo. I liked the display of the piq but now I am in doubt again.
It's better than the Woo. The app is worse. Social and leader boards are 100 times worse for PIQ.

Instant feedback on height will teach you what you are doing right and wrong. There is a huge range of factors that go into a jump. With the PIQ you can spend a session trying different edging techniques and comparing them. The Woo will record these jumps, but the feedback isn't there until you get out. Then you need to wait until the next session to practice what works.

Riding with the PIQ is more like this - - jump, 5m, crap, jump 7m, OK better, jump 5m, crap OK I see what I'm doing wrong.... jump 7m, cool, edging slightly more, jump, 8m, better. Send kite slowly, 5m, send kite faster, 7m, send kite super fast, 5m..... see how you get a feel of the variables? After 50 or 60 jumps, trying to remember what you did for each one using the Woo is almost impossible. A persons brain doesn't work like that.

One of the biggest surprises for me was that hitting 1 foot of chop boosts me way higher than the perfect flat water take off.


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