GPS - Cheapest GPS for location (long and lat)

Author

Cheapest GPS for location (long and lat)

2007-07-03, 3:33 pm

Can someone suggest a suitable GPS device - preferably a wrist worn
device - that will:

1. give me my latitude and longitude
2. act as a compass
3. direct me to a given point if I enter it by lat and long (or
Ordnance Survey ref in the UK)

I have been looking at the Garmin devices, which are geared to personal
training. They have a feature to get you back to your starting point,
but I want to get to the next [unvisited] point that I specify. This is
for walking paths across hills where there are no paths, or several
paths which may not be mapped correctly.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Dominic Sexton

2007-07-03, 10:33 pm

In message < GJ6dnefaD411OBfbRVny
ugA@bt.com>, mr <nospam@thankyou.com>
writes
>Can someone suggest a suitable GPS device - preferably a wrist worn
>device - that will:
>
>1. give me my latitude and longitude
>2. act as a compass
>3. direct me to a given point if I enter it by lat and long (or
>Ordnance Survey ref in the UK)
>
>I have been looking at the Garmin devices, which are geared to personal
>training. They have a feature to get you back to your starting point,
>but I want to get to the next [unvisited] point that I specify. This
>is for walking paths across hills where there are no paths, or several
>paths which may not be mapped correctly.
>
>Thanks in advance for any help.

Pretty much any of the non-wrist worn models will do what you want. Of
the wrist worn models I think only the Garmin Foretrex series will act
like you want.

I personally use a Geko 201 which does the things you want with no extra
frills / complications. I would recommend it unless you are wanting to
use it under dense tree cover much of the time in which case I would
recommend one of the newer models that use the SirfStar III chipset.
--
Dominic Sexton

Nick Hopton

2007-07-04, 3:33 pm

Dominic Sexton wrote:

[color=darkred]
> Pretty much any of the non-wrist worn models will do what you want. Of
> the wrist worn models I think only the Garmin Foretrex series will act
> like you want.
>
> I personally use a Geko 201 which does the things you want with no extra
> frills / complications. I would recommend it unless you are wanting to
> use it under dense tree cover much of the time in which case I would
> recommend one of the newer models that use the SirfStar III chipset.

Just to mention that the Geko 301 does what the 201 does and it has a
built-in magnetic compass too (which means you can still use the compass
when you're standing still, or under thick tree cover).

--
Nick Hopton,
Caversham, Reading, England.

2007-07-06, 3:33 pm

Further question...

Thank you for your responses and recommendations. Can you tell me the
relative merits or otherwise of Garmin versus Magellan? Looking for
retailers in the UK, the Garmin devices seem to be more easily obtained.

But I understand that the Magellan units are 14-channel, as opposed to
12-channel for most of the Garmin sets. Does this make a big difference
to the time to get a signal - from cold, in particular?

Also, it seems to be hard to find a retailer who stocks a full range so
that I can try them and compare. There seem to be so many units, with
differences that don't make much sense to me. It looks a bit like the
mobile phone market :-)

I quite liked the look of the Magellan eXplorist range - the 300,
although I think it is discontinued or superceded by the 210. Does
anyone have these or know if they are better/worse than Garmins in
Europe, and which, if any of the exPlorists is recommended?

Thanks,

Mark.

Nick Hopton wrote:
> Dominic Sexton wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> Just to mention that the Geko 301 does what the 201 does and it has a
> built-in magnetic compass too (which means you can still use the compass
> when you're standing still, or under thick tree cover).
>

Dominic Sexton

2007-07-07, 10:33 am

In message < lYudne82QfFD4xPbnZ2d
nUVZ8sGvnZ2d@bt.com>, mr
<nospam@thankyou.com> writes
>Thank you for your responses and recommendations. Can you tell me the
>relative merits or otherwise of Garmin versus Magellan?

Both have some good models. Garmin has a bigger range and bigger share
of the market.
>
>But I understand that the Magellan units are 14-channel, as opposed to
>12-channel for most of the Garmin sets. Does this make a big
>difference to the time to get a signal - from cold, in particular?

No real practical difference. Some of the recent chipsets do much better
than the last generation. The SirfStar III which Garmin uses in some
models if highly regarded for getting and keeping satellite lock under
difficult conditions.
>
>Also, it seems to be hard to find a retailer who stocks a full range so
>that I can try them and compare.

If you are anywhere near the sea you may find a better selection in a
yachting supplies shop. They used to be more common in the sailing
fraternity but I don't know if that is still the case.

>There seem to be so many units, with differences that don't make much
>sense to me. It looks a bit like the mobile phone market :-)

Yes it is getting that way. If you have your eye on a few receivers I
would Google for them and see if you can find reviews. That might help
you narrow it down a bit.
>
>I quite liked the look of the Magellan eXplorist range - the 300,
>although I think it is discontinued

I believe so. I also think that the 300 (along with the 200 & 100) has
no computer interface. You may think you don't need one but if you have
the option I expect you will find yourself using it with your PC.

> or superceded by the 210. Does anyone have these or know if they are
>better/worse than Garmins in Europe, and which, if any of the
>exPlorists is recommended?

I'm not familiar with the latest eXplorist family so can't comment on
them.
--
Dominic Sexton

Keith Sheppard

2007-07-08, 7:33 am

The only other question you might like to consider is do you want the unit
to be able to display a map on the screen. You may think this is
unnecessary but mapping units aren't a lot more and it's surprising how much
more meaningful your position and bearing information can be when presented
in the context of local landmarks. The downside is that the mapping unit
itself is only the start of your possible expenses because you may want to
buy maps for it. The alternative is to make your own, which is time
consuming. If you were to consider DIY mapping then I would recommend
Garmin simply because there is a lot more software available for Garmin map
format than Magellan.

Keith

LinkBot