GPS - Worldwide GPS?

Author

Worldwide GPS?

Justin

2008-02-06, 3:33 pm

I'm not sure which GPS's I should be looking at. I think I'm beyond
TomTom's abilities. I'm from the US, but my dad and I are probably
going to use it in Northern Canada for a fishing trip.
It has to be somewhat easy to use since he will be going out early with
his friends and catching the bis fish... while my sorry XXX sleeps
in... probably until 8am.
Then at some point my brother and I are going to go on our own road trip
around Europe.
So... if there a unit out there that one can add maps too as needed?
Is a unit like that pricey? Are there any known units that are the best?

Andrew

2008-02-06, 10:33 pm

On Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:22:20 -0500, Justin <no@becauseihatespam.org>
wrote:

>So... if there a unit out there that one can add maps too as needed?

Tomtom.
--
Andrew, contact via http://interpleb.googlepages.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
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T Shadow

2008-02-06, 10:33 pm

"Justin" <no@becauseihatespam.org> wrote in message
news:fod1di$pbj$1@ai
oe.org...
> I'm not sure which GPS's I should be looking at. I think I'm beyond
> TomTom's abilities. I'm from the US, but my dad and I are probably
> going to use it in Northern Canada for a fishing trip.
> It has to be somewhat easy to use since he will be going out early with
> his friends and catching the bis fish... while my sorry XXX sleeps
> in... probably until 8am.
> Then at some point my brother and I are going to go on our own road trip
> around Europe.
> So... if there a unit out there that one can add maps too as needed?
> Is a unit like that pricey? Are there any known units that are the best?

Just a few thoughts

If it's going to be used out in the weather getting one that is waterproof
is a must. A non-working GPS doesn't even make a good anchor. I have a 14
year old Garmin GPSIII so guess what brand I recommend for durability? Not
all Garmin are waterproof though. This raises the starting price
considerably.

TT6 on my IPAQ doesn't record a track which is very useful for finding your
way back. The old Garmin has a feature that helps guestimate fuel usage.
Might be useful with the more constant throttle setting of boat.

I'd start with Garmin then see how others stack up.

I'll leave the map question to others.

Justin

2008-02-07, 10:33 am

Andrew wrote:
> On Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:22:20 -0500, Justin <no@becauseihatespam.org>
> wrote:
>
>
> Tomtom.

Interesting, but isn't Tomtom only for roads? The fishing trip I was
talking about complicates things as they don't have roads up that far north.

Jack Erbes

2008-02-07, 10:33 pm

Justin wrote:
> I'm not sure which GPS's I should be looking at. I think I'm beyond
> TomTom's abilities. I'm from the US, but my dad and I are probably
> going to use it in Northern Canada for a fishing trip.
> It has to be somewhat easy to use since he will be going out early with
> his friends and catching the bis fish... while my sorry XXX sleeps
> in... probably until 8am.
> Then at some point my brother and I are going to go on our own road trip
> around Europe.
> So... if there a unit out there that one can add maps too as needed? Is
> a unit like that pricey? Are there any known units that are the best?

I consider my Garmin GPSMAP 76Cx to be about as versatile a GPS receiver
as you can get. It is rugged, waterproof, runs on two AA cells for a
day or so, and uses microSD memory cards to store supplemental mapping.

I travel all the tims with several different type of supplemental
mapping for different uses. I can switch from one to another on the fly.

I usually have street and high mapping (MapSource City Navigator North
America, CNNA), topographical mapping (U.S. Topo, 1:100,000 mapping),
and marine charts for use on boats (MapSource BlueChart Americas).

The 60/76 Cx/CSx GPS receivers use the SiRF III chip set and are top
performers for both sensitivity and speed, they come with a North
American base map that includes all major highways and some major road
in urban area, will autoroute the roads on the base maps and, of course,
on the supplemental CNNA details maps.

The display is small but excellent, it is adequate for use in a car and
easy to use in a car because of the audible alarms and navigation
screens used during over the road navigation.

It will interact with a PC for uploading and downloading waypoints and
routes, and tracks. It will record tracks for weeks or even months on
end as long as there is some free space on the memory card.

It will not do voice prompts, it will not play music, it will not answer
your phone.

Garmin has several types of optional mapping and offers that for a good
part of the world, at least until you get will off the beaten track.
The supplemental or additional detail mapping is not free and you don't
get any of it with your GPSMAP 60/76 receiver. They have no idea what
kind of mapping you want to use so they let you choose that later.

Jack

Blondie

2008-02-08, 7:33 am

The newsgroup nazi has spoken, woooh

"Andrew" <spamtrap@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:f6ekq3p013a9od1
m9q4tquvi41mqep014n@
4ax.com...
> On Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:22:20 -0500, Justin <no@becauseihatespam.org>
> wrote:
>
>
> Tomtom.
> --
> Andrew, contact via http://interpleb.googlepages.com
> Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
> please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
> Check groups.google.com before asking an obvious question.

Andrew

2008-02-08, 7:33 am

On Thu, 07 Feb 2008 09:12:33 -0500, Justin <no@becauseihatespam.org>
wrote:

>
>Interesting, but isn't Tomtom only for roads? The fishing trip I was
>talking about complicates things as they don't have roads up that far north.

Yes, your post wasn't clear that you required off road navigation.
--
Andrew, contact via http://interpleb.googlepages.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
Check groups.google.com before asking an obvious question.

Simon Slavin

2008-02-08, 10:33 pm

On 06/02/2008, Justin wrote in message <fod1di$pbj$1@aioe.org>:

> my dad and I are probably
> going to use it in Northern Canada for a fishing trip.
> It has to be somewhat easy to use since he will be going out early with
> his friends and catching the bis fish...

That suggests a handheld device such as Garmin's GPSmap series. This is
waterproof, runs off of changable batteries, and incorporates tidal and
fishing information. It incldes functions like the ability to retrace
your steps without landmarks. Your dad will, of course, want the North
America mapset.

> while my sorry XXX sleeps
> in... probably until 8am.
> Then at some point my brother and I are going to go on our own road trip
> around Europe.

That suggests an automative unit such as Garmin's nüvi series. This takes
its power from the car, though that charges an internal battery that lasts
a few hours. It does most of its navigation by letting you type in place
names or postcodes. The unit isn't waterproof: it comes with a dash
mounter and expects to spend most of its time in a car. It does routing
stuff and speed cameras, and such things. You would, of course, want the
European mapset.

> So... if there a unit out there that one can add maps too as needed?

Yes. You add maps to both units. Very expensively. But they're suitable
for different purposes. Trying to find one unit with both sets of
functionality and both sets of maps will probably cost you more than
buying two separate units that don't overlap in what they offer. And you
can eBay the European one when you get home and get some of your money
back.

Simon.
--
http://www.hearsay.demon.co.uk

Jack Erbes

2008-02-09, 7:33 am

Simon Slavin wrote:

<snip>
>
> That suggests an automative unit such as Garmin's nüvi series. <snip>

We can agree to disagree on the need for a nuvi if you already have a
GPSMAP "x" series handheld. The only things the nuvi can offer that the
GPSMAP does not have is a larger display, voice prompts, and some of the
other non-navigation related brain candy features.

The nuvi will come preloaded with mapping that can be added to the
GPSMAP for a fraction of the cost of a nuvi. The nuvi will not do
multiple destination routing, you cannot upload routes from a PC. And
you cannot store routes on the nuvi unless you buy one of the high end
units at prices approaching US$700.00-US$1,000.00. And for that you get
to store only a maximum of 10 routes and have a mediocre
implementation of what can be done with the GPSMAP as far as using the
routes.

Upload the European mapping to the GPSMAP handheld, plug an optional
power adapter into the dash, and the excellent Route Detail and Turn
Preview pages will get you through the labyrinths of the worst British
roundabouts, the pandemonium of the big round madhouse on the Champs
Elysees, and everywhere else with ease.

When you get to where you are going you unplug the GPSMAP, store the
power cable out of sight, and there is a good chance that your car won't
show any invitation to be broken into while you are afoot.

The GPSMAP's SiRF III chip set will be your best chance at maintaining a
fix in the inner city canyons. It will drop the fix occasionally but it
will recover quickly enough. The nuvi? Tape it to a broom handle and
hold it as high as you can, you might have a chance with it. And don't
forget to keep an eye on the battery level, you'll have to rush back to
the car and recharge it every few hours or so.

So there you are, are out on foot with your world class handheld,
following foot routes to all the tourist spots that were previously
stored as waypoints on the GPSMAP. How did the waypoints get there?
You found the spots and placed the waypoints during a planning session
on your laptop's MapSource City Navigator Europe install. You have that
because you bought your European mapping on a DVD, not per-installed to
a nuvi. You get nothing on a DVD when you buy a nuvi in most cases.

>
> Yes. You add maps to both units. Very expensively. But they're suitable
> for different purposes. Trying to find one unit with both sets of
> functionality and both sets of maps will probably cost you more than
> buying two separate units that don't overlap in what they offer.

Not very expensively, not so. And different purposes is exactly what
the OP said he wanted to do. With one unit.

A GPSMAP 60/76 Cx will cost about $300. Topo Canada, U.S. Topo, and
City Navigator North America will each cost your around $100 at street
prices. You're now up to $600 and ready to go anywhere and do anything
in North America. Add City Navigator Europe V9 at it's MSRP of $300 and
you're at $900. Which just a little more than the cost of a high end
nuvi. Add one or two microSD cards, upload some maps, and off you go.

And if you had bought the nuvi you would still have a buy a handheld to
do the outdoors stuff that needs the waterproof, rugged, simple power
model.

And tracks. We have not even talked about tracks. Would you like to
document virtually every step of all your travels (lat/long, date/time,
and elevation) for the entire journey? The GPSMAP will do that for you,
the nuvi will not. And if you have the mapping installs on a PC you can
revisit your travels on a PC and see them displayed over the maps.

I hear all the time here that a handheld is not suitable for navigation
in a car. But it always comes from people that either have never tried
it with a GPSMAP or that are mentally locked into the perceived need for
all the unneeded for navigation and impractical on a handheld features
that are in the dash mounts.

If there is such a thing as a worldwide GPS it is the GPSMAP 60/76 Cx/CSx.

Jack

Mark Hewitt

2008-02-11, 10:33 am

Jack Erbes

2008-02-11, 12:33 pm

Mark Hewitt wrote:
<snip>
>
> There isn't currently an ideal all in one unit. The likes of TomTom is
> excellent for roads and other devices are excellent for off road. Or you can
> get an all in one device that sucks at both.
>

I try to be objective about it all. To not advocate one specific brand
or model without considering the merits. And if possible I like to have
some experience with the various models. So I really can't
comprehend why you would insist that one device (implying that would be
the handheld I mentioned I think) would suck at either off road or on
road navigation.

Do you have one like that?

Have you ever used it both ways?

If the criteria is that you are presented with clear, explicit, and
timely turn by turn guidance, for both on road and off road navigation,
the GPSMAP 76Cx certainly does that. And can do it with any or all of
Garmin's supplemental mapping products.

I use both handhelds and dash mounts at various times and places and
realize that each has strong points that make it a better choice for one
specific use or the other.

So when it comes right down to it, if I'm going to be in a car and stay
in a car it makes sense to me to use the GPS receiver that is best
suited to that. But if I want to do all the things that the OP
mentioned in the first post, and want to do it with one GPS receiver, I
don't see how anything other than the handheld could be considered.

And why does the TomTom keep getting mentioned here? The TomToms are
good for road navigation but no other mapping is offered for them, they
simply won't do anything except road navigation. So, in my book, they
are eliminated from consideration for that reason alone.

If you focus on some of the navigation related features, don't you find
it a little ironic that the handheld I mention is actually more capable
than the TomTom and the majority of the newer Garmin models that are
specifically intended for use in cars?

Jack

Bert

2008-02-11, 10:33 pm

I agree with Jack ...I have a Motorhome an ATV a Boat and a car I can use my
GPS map 60cx in any one of them
with the appropriate Map software

larry@fishing.net

2008-02-12, 4:33 am

On Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:11:53 GMT, "Bert" <Nospam@home.com> wrote:

>I agree with Jack ...I have a Motorhome an ATV a Boat and a car I can use my
>GPS map 60cx in any one of them
>with the appropriate Map software
>
I also have to agree with Jack. I have a GPS III, a GPS V, 2 2610's,
a 76CSx and s Humminbird combo units in my boats. If I could have
only one it would be the 76CSx.

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