Garmin ALPHA 100 + TT15X Combo

Garmin "X" Series Collars

The TT15X is a track and train collar while the T5X is tracking only. Both collars are compatible with the Astro 430, all four Alpha handhelds, and the PRO 550 Plus. They can be tracked from multiple handhelds at the same time and can be run at the same time as TT10, TT15, and T5 collars.

Please note that Garmin's "X" collars are NOT compatible with the Astro 320 or 220.

The "X" collars have the same physical design as Garmin's regular size collars, but with several upgraded features:

Longer Battery Life -- up to 80 hours of run time using the 2.5 second update rate

Garmin Express Update Option -- you can update your "X" collar's software with Garmin Express

Sleep Mode -- you can put your "X" collar into sleep mode using Alpha handhelds, extending battery life even longer

Collar "About" Screen -- on Alpha 200i and 200 handhelds you can check your "X" collar's software version

Extended Battery Life

The biggest improvement on these collars is longer battery life.

Every time we talk with Garmin, battery life is a topic. With the "X" collars they have drastically increased battery life and added options to stretch it out even longer if needed.

We are seeing between 60 and 80 hours of run time off a single charge with a 2.5-second update rate. Setting your collar on a 5 or 10-second update rate will push it past 80 hours, and a 2-minute update rate will give you over 130 hours.

This will be especially helpful for folks with big running dogs or in lost dog situations. An "X" collar set in Rescue Mode drops down to a 2-minute update rate when the battery reaches less than 25% capacity, giving you the maximum possible time to locate a lost dog. More battery life = more time.

There are few things more useless than a tracking collar with a dead battery.

Keep in mind that this extended battery life option doesn't change my take on charging your collars.

I still recommend that you charge them after every use.

I want you to have the maximum battery life available if you need it. The only way to make that happen is to charge your system before each use. Also, keep in mind there has not been a change in the handheld batteries, so you will still need to charge them pretty much every night anyway.

Updating Your Collars with Garmin Express

With the "X" collars, you can now update both your collars and your handheld with Garmin Express.

This eliminates the need to have multiple programs installed to keep your system up-to-date. I prefer Garmin Express for several reasons, but not being able to update everything from one program has been a hassle. Now every new dog tracking product can be updated using Garmin Express.

Sleep Mode

The "X" collars have a Sleep Mode option just like the Garmin MINI collars.

Sleep Mode allows you the option of using your Alpha handheld to shut off both radios in the collar (GPS and handheld communication), significantly extending battery life. The collar searches every few seconds for a turn-on signal. Once you give the signal from your handheld, the radios turn back on and the collar returns to normal communication mode.

Note that you must be within range to activate the collar.

This is a specialized feature that really isn't going to be used by most of our customers. It's designed for situations where either you can't get to a dog in time to pick him up and are forced to leave him out overnight, or you are intentionally leaving him out and want to preserve battery life.

We have a few folks that like to leave their collars on their dogs all day while hunting, even when moving around in their vehicle, and Sleep Mode lets them conserve run time. I'm not sure if it's still necessary with the longer battery life, but the option is there.

Folks with livestock protection dogs will like the Sleep Mode feature. It will give you extra-long battery life while still keeping up with the location of your dogs.

"About" Screen

The "X" collars give you the ability to view your collar software data on your Alpha 200i or Alpha 200 handheld.

This means you can check the software version from your handheld without the use of a computer. Not a giant deal, but it's a feature that we had back in the Astro 320 / 220 days, and it's nice to see its return.

I'm extremely pleased with these new collars.

We always want more range, longer battery life, and more durability from our tracking collars.

While we only get one of the big three updated here, it's an important update -- perhaps the most important -- and it will make finding lost dogs easier.

Transcript from Steve's Video

So this is the GARMIN TT15X. If you're familiar with the TT collars, it looks exactly like the current version of the TT15. The X collars have three major differences. The first difference is gonna be battery life. And that's the most important difference here. The battery life on this collar is substantially better than what we have in the TT15s right now, and it blows the TT15 MINIs out of the water.

In a two and a half second update rate, you're looking at between 60 and 80 hours of run time off of a single charge. The variance in there is gonna depend on a couple of things. Whether you run your lights, how much you're stimming the dog. Depends on what you're doing.

There's a difference too, between straight run time, and then you turn it on and turn it off, you'll get some differences there. But it's substantially longer than what we've had before, and that's a big deal, especially in a lost dog situation. The other. Two things. One of them's a giant deal. One of 'em is one of those things where it just depends on what you do.

The next big deal is that you can update the TT15X collars through Garmin Express. Prior to the 15X collars, you had to use Web Updater to update your collars. And so now everything that Garmin has on the market can be updated through Garmin Express. So that's handy, cuts down on the number of programs you have to have.

And then the last new thing is that the 15X has the sleep mode function for the collars, which we've had that in the MINI 15s, but we have not had that in the regular 15s. So the 15X has sleep mode. For most people that is not a big deal. But for folks that have dogs that are, that are out a long time and they're either intentionally not recovering them at the end of the day, or they can't get to them at the end of the day and they need to be able to leave them out overnight, the sleep mode option allows you to power down the collar so that it's no longer using its radio functions. And then when you return to the area all you have to do is go back into it and wake the collar up.

When you're looking at the collar, you go into your menu and right here, we have adjust sleep mode. And so you select that and then you are gonna go, I'm gonna put this collar to sleep. And so if you watch it, it's going to shut down. Okay. So basically it is lost all communication with the collar and it, that way, your, your battery's just not being used hardly at all.

And what the collar's gonna be doing is that it is going to wake up and look for a wake signal. And so what's happening is there's a rotation. And what it's doing is instead of constantly broadcasting and pulling GPS signals, it's waiting to wake up for a radio signal. So when you get back in the area, you want to turn it back on, you go back into your menu and you adjust collar sleep mode, and we're going to wake and now it's gonna take a second for it to update.

There you go. And you'll notice that the GPS has not quite come on yet, takes a second for it to pick back up. But basically that allows you to power down the radio signals on the collar so that it's no longer doing GPS or MURS communication. And that's going to drastically improve your battery life.

Garmin ALPHA 100 Handheld

When Garmin bought Tri-tronics, we knew an all-in-one GPS / Ecollar system was coming, and the result was the Garmin ALPHA 100: A GPS tracking collar by Garmin with an E-Collar from Tri-Tronics.

Track and train from a single screen. One handheld. One collar.

The Garmin ALPHA improves upon the GPS features of the best-selling Garmin Astro and combines them with the functionality of the best Tri-tronics dog training collars.

GPS improvements include faster update rates, touch screen, longer battery life, rescue mode, "buddy" tracking, tracking up to 20 dogs, and my personal favorite - the direction option in the Compass screen.

E-collar improvements give you the full functionality of a $500 remote trainer for only $250 more than the price of the Astro alone. You can either recreate your favorite Tri-tronics e-collar or build a custom set-up with the perfect stimulation types and settings for each one of your dogs.

And there's a new user interface with the touch screen. Instead of using toggle switches to change dogs, and intensity dials to select stimulation levels, the touchscreen interface lets you customize your ALPHA collar as much or as little as you want.

All-in-one, combination products tend to be the worst of both worlds. Seldom does combining two products into one lead to a piece of gear that's as good as either of the originals.

Fortunately, the Garmin ALPHA is more than just a GPS and an e-collar stuck together.

A lot of work went into designing the ALPHA resulting in an elegant system with very intuitive controls. The folks at Garmin were very responsive to our feedback in what we wanted in a COMBO system.

Emergency Alert

The Emergency Alert function lets you send your location and an emergency alert message to other Alpha users in the area.

Steve Snell

Review Summary

4.8

24 Reviews

83% (20)

17% (4)

0% (0)

100% Recommend this product (24 of 24 responses)

By Mike G.

Elkton, Maryland

Alpha 100, tt15x

April 20, 2023

This combo works as it should. It's a great do it all collar that is great for training and tracking.

Pros

It's a buy one and done product as it does Training and tracking.

Cons

May need some updates out of the box, but, it's as simple as plugging it in.

By Frank

Chino Hills, CA

Alpha 100

January 12, 2022

I have used the Alpha 100 for 3 years. I like it because itâ€™s easy to track and train the dogs. The battery lasts all day. I always charge after a full day to be sure. I have tried the Alpha 200, but found myself going back to the 100. I use this Garmin with mini tt15 collars and they have worked well together. I never hunt or train without them!

Pros

Easy to use.
Long battery.
Multiple training modes.

Cons

Sometimes I have to pair the collars with the 100 again.
Way more function then I need.

By Mike

California

Great product!

April 21, 2023

These callers are a game changer for training your dog, and in the field

By Thomas S.

Garmin Alpha 100

February 16, 2023

Great outfit really enjoying using this product.Very happy with the ordering process,received the item quickly.

By James

Arizona

Great collar

January 10, 2023

Has everything you need. Tells you where your dog is. How far away, which direction he is, if he is on point. I like that it tells you the dogs stats. I was shocked to see my dog ran 16 miles my last hunt. I am mostly glad it has the vibrate feature to get my dogs attention. Then I only need to use the shock if he does something bad. Definitely the best collar Iâ€™ve ever seen.

Pros

Has all the features I want

Cons

Hard to understand all the features. Luckily I can Google whatever I need to learn.

By Jesse

Lawrenceville, GA

Sophisticated and Bulletproof

May 18, 2022

I've been buying and using training collars since Tri-tronics was a standalone product. I've also depended on Garmin GPS products nearly as long. The merger of these two great companies has given dog owners the best of both worlds. More recently, I've owned both Dogtra and SportDog collars. Both brands have their strong points and weaknesses.

The Alpha 100 and TT15X are a big step up. The construction is heavy duty, the daily compass calibration is quick and easy, the collar-handheld range is way beyond any distance I will ever need, and I appreciate the collar's strobe lights that allow me to keep track of my dog in my large pasture at night. I no longer need occasionally to shock my hunting dog in the field because the vibration function is strong enough to get his attention. There's also a tone option. Updates are simple: Download the app, plug the units in and follow directions.

I have mounted the short antennas on both the collar and handheld. As a partial test of the effective range between them I left the collar on a table and drove away with the handheld. They were still communicating with more than two miles between them. There is also a longer set of antennas included in the package.

The handheld is feature rich with as many functions as any GPS user could ask. I have little or no use for many of those options, but found it easy to set up an initial waypoint (to find my way back to my truck), played with the option to record my dog's actual tracks on the hunt and, most importantly to me, set up two different displays to keep track of him in the field and to alert me when he's on point.

When I visit my rural property for an extended stay, I routinely keep the collar on my dog as insurance that I won't lose him. The batteries have been reliable from dawn to dark before needing a charge.

I've had the unit only a week or so and am still discovering new features. What I haven't found are any negatives. I do wish, though, that the "on point" alert remained longer on the display.

When un-packing and inventorying the package I found the Y-adapter was missing. Gun Dog Supply sent a replacement cable the same day.

EDIT: After six months of use, I can confirm my initial review with the following exceptions:

1. After performing a software update, all the handheld data fields disappeared. My call to Garmin's support team confirmed that this "hiccup" had been seen previously; the remedy was to do a hard reset, after which the handheld had to be setup from the factory settings all over again.
2. The handheld was on a lanyard around my neck when the display swung into the side of my vehicle, resulting in a very small impact mark on the screen. Afterwards, the display remained frozen and the unit was unresponsive. Garmin had me send it in as a swap for a used (re-certified) replacement at a cost of $200+. So, I'm deleting "...Bulletproof" from my review heading. I now have a protective screen cover installed on it.
It's still a 5-star product; just fix the updating glitch and recommend a protective screen cover.

By Dot

Idaho

Lots of features

April 15, 2022

Only limitation is it is difficult to change correction levels on the e collar.

Pros

Very intuitive operation. Nice size. Love the audible and vibration notification when dog on point.

By Anonymous

Glenwood Springs CO

great colar system with GPS

October 6, 2021

This makes keeping track of dogs easy. I love how easy it is to program.

By Adirondack D.

Hague, NY

Absolutely awesome!

September 14, 2021

Bought this for my FBECS when he gets into thick cover out of site and for the extreme remote areas that hold the grouse and woodcock heâ€™s after. Simple to use and setup, very intuitive and the initial training sessions with it have been great. Canâ€™t say enough thank youâ€™s to Steve and his team for the videos to review and quick shipping and service.

Pros

Very simple to setup and accurate in remote terrain

Cons

None yet

By Karen

garmin alpha 100 with TT15 mini combo

August 12, 2021

I bought this for my daughter's dog. I have had these for 2 years for my dogs. Often you can't see dogs in the woods even though they are close by. This let's you know where they are. Also nice to have if you bush whack. You will never get lost. You can also use for geocaching.

Pros

Always know where dog is.
You never get lost.

By Mike

Arizona

No more lost dogs on point

September 27, 2020

What a great device could have used this decades ago. Simple to understand and easy to use.

By Kurt

North dakota

Great tool

September 21, 2020

I bought this so I can tell were my patterdale terrier is when I cut her lose and also for training purposes. I haven't used it much yet but so far love it. With it on her it is just a little loose but I haven't had a chance to see if I can get the GPS unit to slide just a little more on the collar.

By KYLE B.