Gps??

[V8darren]

Hi all,:rolleyes:

Has anybody had experience with GPS units and could advise on them?

Basicaly I've been toying with the idea of getting one to use in the car on the road and also to use in the landy for greenlaning. I have no idea about GPS units, what are good makes, which ones do what, what would best suit being used between two vehicles or even the principles of how they work i.e. what software you would need, how you get the software onto them ect ect.

Any help with the above would be great.

Cheers

Darren

[seriesowner]

It's a bit like asking 10 people at random "what's the best car" (not 10 people at random on this forum of course!) But here's my tuppence worth:

I have heard that the TomTom range are not worth having (I'm sure somebody else will disagree).

I went for Garmin; the model I went for was the 276c (got it at a good price from Ebay). It connects to the pc via USB so transferring data is fairly easy.

However, if you're going this route, (no pun intended) make sure the software you get is "auto-routable". (more £££).This means you can download the maps to your GPS (oh and you'll also need a memory card, more £££) and then on your GPS unit choose a destination and it will auto-navigate you to it. If the software is not "auto-routable" you will have to map out the route on your pc first and then transfer it to the GPS.

I think first of all you need to determine your budget and then see what you can get for that (don't forget Ebay!);)

[DEANO3528]

I've got a perfectly good Magellan MAP330. with Mapsend Streets for all Western Europe. Well pleased with it's performance, although it can hog through the batteries when it's not in the motor (where it's hard-wired).
It does all I need for greenlaning

[El Stiemo]

Like above, it is a huge field and there are probably as many opinions as answers you are going to get from this. I've got a Garmin GPS V, does everything I need it to do. I wanted originally to have a flat screen permanently installed in the car, but: risk of theft and no mobility for hiking, mountainbiking, etc. Go for a handheld one, Garmin and Magellan are best known and most reputable, I think.

[Dew1911]

I would have said TomTom as I've used them loads of times and they've worked great, but I always use:



















The one fitted in my RR :p

[ROB 110 HICAP]

Not that I have, but some people use a laptop with Ordanance Survey 'Memory Map' 1:50,000 loaded plus a GPS Mouse (£40) so you can use the laptop in your vehicle and it plots you progress along the preset routes you plot into MemoryMap. You have a big colour screen to look at which is good for offroading, but securing the laptop is the issue (bumps & theft).

[Stephen]

My first GPS was a GARMIN 12, basic but solid and faultless unit totally adequate for hiking and such things backed up with a traditional paper map.

Then I bought a Magellan Meridian Platinum, a rather pricey unit. It allowed the installation of detailed road maps and had autorouting so had some use in the car as well as in the field. Did not get lost so often on the road but still needed support of a paper map whilst in the wild.

I also do geocaching (www.geocaching.com) where a GPS plays a central role in the sport.

Over time my navigation needs have changed.

I wanted :
1)Detailed colour mapping of the UK.
2)Voice ROAD point to point navigation.
3)The standard features expected of a handheld GPS unit (waypoints, plotting, various co-ords system,formats and datums)
4)Something I could use instead of paper (note taking etc)
5)Go anywhere without being tied to the car power.
6)WAAS/EGNOS corrections (accurate readings down to less than 3 metre)

So at the moment I have an IPAQ PDA. That is hooked up (wireless via bluetooth) to a holux 236 GPS unit (size of a match box).
The pda runs TOMTOM5 which gives me point to point voice navigation of the UK, EXCELLENT software.
The pda runs MEMORYMAP which gives me Ordnance Survey map in full detail which is very sweet for greenlaning.
The pda also runs various other navigation software (beelinegps/gspstuner) to bring in all the functionality of a normal basic hand held.
I also have all the software features that a PDA offers.

Not saying this is the best solution for you or anyone, just it is what I am using right now. There are still many times when I wish I still had my old GARMIN 12 in my pocket. And in life critical situations a real OS map, compass and basic navigation skills should never be replaced whilst electronics run on batteries, crash, smash etc...

If you check out the forums on geocaching.com (the UK section) you will find lots of advice on GPSr's.

[BigJim]

Garmin and Magellean have solid reputations in the boating community.
I use the basic garmin12 for yachting and general use, always as a backup to basic charts/maps.
Went sailing with a friend once who had all his charts etc on his laptop linked to a 12 channel gps, now on my wish list.
It showed the boat in the centre of the screen, with a line pointing dead ahead, if not sure whether feature (church, hilltop watever) was the rigth one, just turned the boat to point to it, and if the line on the screen went through it, that was the one!

If you can fix it conveniently, overcome the theft problem, that is what I would go for. Inverters to run the laptop/notebppk are not expensive now, nor are laptops, and the cheaper GPS are accurate and reliable. I would put my money into the laptop rather than the GPS.

[ROB 110 HICAP]

Hey thread hijack! SF tell us more about geocaching. I had a quick flick throgh the FAQ on the website. Looks like fun, nearest cache is only 1.3miles from me and I know the spot. I haven't got GPS (yet) but i reckon this could be for me. I have a laptop with Memorymap installed, if I get a GPS MOuse, would that work for finding locations or setting cashes? Or do I really need a handheld for it?

I think this will go well with my love of maps, greenlaning and isolated places....my wife will probably hate this!

[timbott]

There is no finer navigational system than a competent map reader in the passenger seat:)

cheers, Tim

[LandyV8]

If you want road navigation and off road maps i.e. OS maps, then you will need something like a PDA. If you go for something like a Tom Tom unit then that is road based only and as far as I’m aware you cannot load OS maps to it. I have a Navman Digi Walker with the tom tom software for road navigation and I use Memory map and Fugawi for the OS maps. Tom tom is very easy to use and I have never had a problem with it. Memory map is great. It can be expensive though depending on how many maps you want and what scale, but if you know the right person i’m sure you could acquire a copy. The unit I use has the GPS receiver built in to it so there are no wires hanging around to the GPS receiver. The only wire I use is the 12v power supply.

[LandyV8]

There is no finer navigational system than a competent map reader in the passenger seat:)

cheers, Tim finding a competent map reader is probably harder than finding the right GPS:D

[ROB 110 HICAP]

There is no finer navigational system than a competent map reader in the passenger seat:)

cheers, Tim
I second that Tim! But I have yet to find a navigator I have confidence in! I used to trail ride a lot with London bike couriers, and when they led we always got lost! Since then I always lead and navigate (I think thats why Ben Breese put 'leader of the pack' above my avatar),

I love OS maps and take them to bed for a read instead of a book and always find more and more info each time, history, archaeology, geography, names, geology, etc. (many a contour on the missus too) i love the visual information they contain. I enjoy transfering this to the scenery around and plotting the route reading the terrain. I think I will always use them, but GPS is becoming another tool to aid this, not replace it. I think commercial shipping must still plot on paper chart their location in addition to using GPS trickery as a backup.

[Stephen]

Hey thread hijack! SF tell us more about geocaching. I had a quick flick throgh the FAQ on the website. Looks like fun, nearest cache is only 1.3miles from me and I know the spot. I haven't got GPS (yet) but i reckon this could be for me. I have a laptop with Memorymap installed, if I get a GPS MOuse, would that work for finding locations or setting cashes? Or do I really need a handheld for it?

I think this will go well with my love of maps, greenlaning and isolated places....my wife will probably hate this!
Geocaching... using multi billion dollar military satellites to locate sandwich boxes full of Mc Donalds toys in muddy fields.
It is a good sport to combine the love of technology and love of the outdoors and takes you to lots of places you may never knew exist or had the excuse to go to before. It is what made me get a landrover as I was wrecking my 2 seater roadster kitcar bombing around Wiltshire lanes.

You could go caching with a laptop/gps/memorymap combo... I have before..buts it a bit over the top and cumbersome. A cheap or used handheld would be better then a 'gps mouse' also *MOST* hand held gps'r will connect to a laptop via a cable so you have best of both worlds. I used to use my old Garmin 12 via a cable on a very old P1 toshibia laptop using autoroute for in car navigation (we toured California like this, was a God send). The garmin 12 was more than enough for geocaching as a standalone unit. Much better (feature wise) and cheaper Garmins out there now.

[Dave Sumner]

I have a Garmin GPS 5 which is good, robust and can be used as hand held or in the car. It has to be loaded with maps which are supplied, will apparantly take OS as well. No voice prompt but quite good. I have trid it connected to a laptop which gives a bigger display.
I used it in France this summer, very useful. You do have to load the maps from a pc as it only has 20Mb internal memory.

SWMBO has a Mio 168 pda which she finds useful for her everyday work stuff. The gps mapping is very good on it, street level with voice prompts. We also put speed camera database on it!

We are going to put Tom Tom 5 on an additional card which will give us all of Europe.

It is worth looking around as there is so much on the market at the moment.

[timbott]

finding a competent map reader is probably harder than finding the right GPS:D

Personally I love reading maps and navigating, I would rather do that than drive, but I usually end up doing both - which bugs me:(

cheers, Tim

[rusty_wingnut]

ok thats it i gotta get one, after getting proper lost this morn i need gps. send me an idea, i got a poo phone so shall i get a pda and rig it or use my latop-a-rooney and a mouse?

[vinnie@mac.com]

I have been using GPS for mountain-biking and walking for years. These tools are fine as long as you also have a good map and a compass.

Tom Toms and most other car based GPS systems are only designed for road use.

A PDA with either GPS Built in or separate GPS unit will be far more useful in the long run.

Remember these tools help you often lose the signal in forests and they can lock up and stop working for a bit.

[Roger Whittle]

finding a competent map reader is probably harder than finding the right GPS:D

Ooooo, ooooooo, oooooo me sir! Me - I can do it sir! Scoutmaster me. For years an' years an' years. Grew up on 1"/mile maps me.

[BigJim]

Ooooo, ooooooo, oooooo me sir! Me - I can do it sir! Scoutmaster me. For years an' years an' years. Grew up on 1"/mile maps me.


I think map readers are born, not trained. Either it interests you and you can do it, or a white mist descends (in their brain) and there is then no hope. I have suffered for 40 plus years with a white misty one!!! SWMBO can manage to read out the instructions from a route, I set the trip and just before the number of miles comes up ask her what the route says, even then she can lose her place.

Anyone got a good GPS system and accept SWMBO in part exchange?

[Dave Sumner]

PDA systems are great, you can plot routes etc, worth checking before you set off.
We plotted a route to Scarborough for Easter, it routed us on a B road which is not suitable for caravans! (Narrow, steep and winding) so I reprogrammed it to avoid that road!

I can imagine truck drivers have to be careful using them because of weight and height restrictions on roads. You can put them in as pois (points of interest)

[J33P KN]

i've got an acer n35 PDA with sat nav. its got a built in GPS and you can use memory-map on it, which is OS maps at 1:50000. Works a treat. Memory-map is separate and you can just down load it on to an SD card and away you got.

Acer N35's are for sale at comet, etc. easy to pick up. Or try the memory-map website.

Cheers

[Lacy]

nearest cache is only 1.3miles from me and I know the spot.........my wife will probably hate this!

Arghhhhh.....you swine.....I had never heard of Geocaching before this thread.....Just had a look at the site.....there are 6 caches within 2 miles of where I live........now I'm gonna have to find them.......

Reminds me of 'Dartmoor postboxes' that I used to do years ago.....jus a much more up to date version and far more widespread.

[Stumpy Doofleer]

I have a Navman PDA with Memory Map really great for off roding because it shows your route on an ordance survey map that you can dowload onto you pc and load up later to follow that route again. We have Tom Tom GPS systems in the trucks at work, and they are totally crap in Edinburgh or Glasgow if you go between two buildings then it loses the signal, not had any probs with the PDA losing a signal. And also the tom tom's are suppossed to be programed with low bridges helpful when your truck is 13ft 6" and it only shows one bridge which is the second most hit bridge in the UK and no others, had to reverse a few times as it sent me down roads I couldn't pass with the truck. With the Navman you can download all the speed camera locations aswell, which cover the mobile cameras, red light cameras, and normal Gatso's. This stops you from being nicked in a few years time when the government are thinking of outlawing radar detectors:D .

[AJC]

It's a bit like asking 10 people at random "what's the best car" (not 10 people at random on this forum of course!) But here's my tuppence worth:

I have heard that the TomTom range are not worth having (I'm sure somebody else will disagree).

I went for Garmin; the model I went for was the 276c (got it at a good price from Ebay). It connects to the pc via USB so transferring data is fairly easy.

However, if you're going this route, (no pun intended) make sure the software you get is "auto-routable". (more £££).This means you can download the maps to your GPS (oh and you'll also need a memory card, more £££) and then on your GPS unit choose a destination and it will auto-navigate you to it. If the software is not "auto-routable" you will have to map out the route on your pc first and then transfer it to the GPS.

I think first of all you need to determine your budget and then see what you can get for that (don't forget Ebay!);)

Hi,

Out of interest, what size data card do you have for your 276c (128 or 256)? What percentage of the UK City Select data can you get on each?

Cheers.

AJ