How Bout' Them Rhino Units?

[+Hunt]

I've been looking at those Garmin Rhino units and they have recently come out with some pretty cool ones with the electric compases and barometers and altimiters and increased ranges of GMRS comunication and the ability to locate a friend with the same units is pretty cool too. But is it a good unit to go for in consernes to geocaching?

[+Marky]

I would hazard to guess that the 520 and 530 rinos would make excellent geocaching finders. I couldn't find anywhere in the specs how much internal memory the 520 and 530 have for maps.

They seem to have similar features to the 60C and 60CS.

 

--Marky

[+JohnnyVegas]

I've been looking at those Garmin Rhino units and they have recently come out with some pretty cool ones with the electric compases and barometers and altimiters and increased ranges of GMRS comunication and the ability to locate a friend with the same units is pretty cool too. But is it a good unit to go for in consernes to geocaching?

increased ranges of GMRS comunication

If you want increased range you may find yourself disapointed with GMRS, it is not all that is cracked up to be. It is still line of site comunications, regardless of the power output. If there is a hill or a building in the way, they are not going to work. When a manufacture states a range for a radio they are refering to the legel allowed range for the frequency.

 

if you want to comunicate with someone your best bet would be a Ham radio, the license is easy to get (it is a very easy test).

[+Marky]

if you want to comunicate with someone your best bet would be a Ham radio, the license is easy to get (it is a very easy test).

When Kenwood or Yaesu comes out with a handheld rig with built in GPS, I will be the first in line to buy a couple.

 

--Marky

[+Sevateem]

I was thinking of getting one. Then I saw that they have thier own built in battery. No popping in new AA's in the field. Other than that they sound good to me. Like a 60CS with radio.

Garmin looks like it is going to non-replaceable batterys in thier new models. If they would just copy Magellan with the SD cards and keep AA battery's they would be going in the right direction.

[+Cymbaline]

56MB of RAM in the 530, that much I know. Same as a 60CS.

 

For that matter, the The 530 is Rino-ized (radio) 60CS with a smaller screen

 

I'm sticking with my Rino 130, won't be upgrading - I like my AA rechargables. The color screen is nice, though. Plus, I already have a 60CS for the truck/travel and the Rino for caching.

[+allory]

in the specs and accessories areas for the rino 520/530, they list an alkaline battery pack and rechargeable AA batteries.

 

http://shop.garmin.com/accessories_for_pro...ku=010-00392-01

 

http://www.garmin.com/products/rino530/spec.html

[yeeoldcacher]

The units do have the ability to use AA, they just come with the lithium battery pack, which is a pretty good deal. We get the best of both batteries.

 

AA accessories for the Rino 510/530

[+Hunt]

the lack of expandable memory does not sound good indeed! and do they have handheld HEM radios or are they like a CB radio?

[+scottjl]

i saw a friend's rhino.. personally i didn't care for the design. my 60cs has many buttons on it (though i'd like a few more). getting around takes a few presses of various buttons. on the rhinos they scale back the number of buttons and some are for the voice functions (push to talk) and some for the GPS functions. a lot more was done using on-screen menus. in the end, it was longer to navigate around the GPS on the rhino than a few quick button presses. now everyone would have a different take on this, but i didn't care for it.

 

also the 520/530 has the ability to hook up to an EXTERNAL battery pack. that lion battery is internal to the unit and can't be swapped out. you can download the owners manuals http://www.garmin.com/products/manual.jsp?...ct=010-00392-01 and see for yourself.

 

they're a nice idea. but i'll stick with separate radios and GPRs. yes. two things to carry around. but you don't lose one device and lose everything at once.

[CenTexDodger]

 

also the 520/530 has the ability to hook up to an EXTERNAL battery pack. that lion battery is internal to the unit and can't be swapped out. you can download the owners manuals http://www.garmin.com/products/manual.jsp?...ct=010-00392-01 and see for yourself.

 

I am not sure that is entirely correct. It comes with a detachable li-ion battery pack. It goes in just like the battery door on a 60cs. One of the optional accessories is an alkaline battery pack, that uses 4 AAs and goes on in place of the li-ion pack. (see page 102). Also for whatever reason, when you are using AAs instead of the Li-ion, your transmit power is limited to 2 watts whereas you can have up to 5 watts with the li-ion (page 1).

 

If I did not already have a 60cs, AND I had buddies that had them, I would seriously consider one of these. They are high in coolness factor in my book.

Edited September 26, 2005 by CenTexDodger

[+Team Rubicons]

I just purchased a Rino 530 yesterday and all I can say is WOW!!!

 

I mainly bought it for backcountry jeeping and then I saw the Jeep Contest which also provided a link to this site.

 

The functions of the unit are wonderful. and the Geocache feature is really nice for tracking and documenting each cache.

 

The battery is a 16 hr battery and is detachable for battery swapping. Memory is 56 Mb which should allow me to save around 50 Caches and the entire Colorado Topo mapset.

 

My son loves the Grachical interface for the satellites too. We will test it out today on our first cach outing.

Edited October 11, 2005 by Rubicon-1

[rynd]

When Kenwood or Yaesu comes out with a handheld rig with built in GPS, I will be the first in line to buy a couple.

 

--Marky

Ditto

[vagabond]

there might be a cellphone battery that could be interchanged for the li-ion battery like the explorist users found out

[spyder40]

Rubicon-1,

 

What accessories did your 530 come with? Car charger, PC interface cable, etc or is everything extra? Will the 120 cables work with the 530 (I have the car/PC combo cables)?

[stevesisti]

I've been looking at those Garmin Rhino units and they have recently come out with some pretty cool ones with the electric compases and barometers and altimiters and increased ranges of GMRS comunication and the ability to locate a friend with the same units is pretty cool too. But is it a good unit to go for in consernes to geocaching?

increased ranges of GMRS comunication

If you want increased range you may find yourself disapointed with GMRS, it is not all that is cracked up to be. It is still line of site comunications, regardless of the power output. If there is a hill or a building in the way, they are not going to work. When a manufacture states a range for a radio they are refering to the legel allowed range for the frequency.

 

if you want to comunicate with someone your best bet would be a Ham radio, the license is easy to get (it is a very easy test).

Whether you have a "Ham radio" license for the available channels, or GMRS. your still in the same boat. If it's a handheld, my understanding is the line of sight limitations applies no matter what frequency you use. Sure some frequencies can travel marginally further, but without a change in antenna height...5 watts is 5 watts. Are you saying that a handheld Yaseau or Kenwood would get further range than 5 watt handheld GMRs radio ? I'd be surprised if that were true.

 

To be able to talk handheld from one side of a mountain to the other is always problematic...and the 5 watt "mileage" claim of 5 miles doesn't even work straight line of sight on an open body of water...in the woods the reach is even worse. Nothing wrong with that...it's just that people really expect to be in the woods and get a hold of someone 3 mi away....doesn't happen.

 

If your expectations are reasonable, the short "reach" is still convenient in a lot of applications...eg. skiing, boating, etc.

[vagabond]

I've been looking at those Garmin Rhino units and they have recently come out with some pretty cool ones with the electric compases and barometers and altimiters and increased ranges of GMRS comunication and the ability to locate a friend with the same units is pretty cool too. But is it a good unit to go for in consernes to geocaching?

increased ranges of GMRS comunication

If you want increased range you may find yourself disapointed with GMRS, it is not all that is cracked up to be. It is still line of site comunications, regardless of the power output. If there is a hill or a building in the way, they are not going to work. When a manufacture states a range for a radio they are refering to the legel allowed range for the frequency.

 

if you want to comunicate with someone your best bet would be a Ham radio, the license is easy to get (it is a very easy test).

Whether you have a "Ham radio" license for the available channels, or GMRS. your still in the same boat. If it's a handheld, my understanding is the line of sight limitations applies no matter what frequency you use. Sure some frequencies can travel marginally further, but without a change in antenna height...5 watts is 5 watts. Are you saying that a handheld Yaseau or Kenwood would get further range than 5 watt handheld GMRs radio ? I'd be surprised if that were true.

 

To be able to talk handheld from one side of a mountain to the other is always problematic...and the 5 watt "mileage" claim of 5 miles doesn't even work straight line of sight on an open body of water...in the woods the reach is even worse. Nothing wrong with that...it's just that people really expect to be in the woods and get a hold of someone 3 mi away....doesn't happen.

 

If your expectations are reasonable, the short "reach" is still convenient in a lot of applications...eg. skiing, boating, etc.

Its called repeaters, all the difference in the world

[tossedsalad]

It has been a long time since I did much with radio, but different frequencies do not travel the same. CB is a good example. It is high enough that it does not bend around mountains well, but it will do so to some degree. It will also "skip" off of the ionosphere so that you can talk to Texas from Virginia if you get lucky. Much higher frequencies, do not bend around hills much at all. That is why VHF TV (>50 MHz) travels line of site. UHF frequencies are even more so line of site so that you can sometimes get channels 2-13 behind a hill, but almost never 14 or higher. The highest frequencies won't work with anything in the way, including a tree. They actually get absorbed by the moisture in the leaves.

 

GMRS radios are around 500 MHz (~ UHF TV) so they are pretty much line of site while the HAM rigs can operate at much lower frequencies to give them better ability to bend around obstructions.

[+The Jester]

...and the 5 watt "mileage" claim of 5 miles doesn't even work straight line of sight on an open body of water...

I don't know what water you were testing over, but I easily got 6-7 miles over open water with the FRS power (1/2 watt, I believe). And I know of one case where FRS contact was over 100 miles between radios. Line-of-sight means exactly that, if you can see the other party the radios will talk to each other.

[+Team Rubicons]

Rubicon-1,

 

What accessories did your 530 come with?  Car charger, PC interface cable, etc or is everything extra?  Will the 120 cables work with the 530 (I have the car/PC combo cables)?

It came with the USB Cable, Streets base maps, Charger and cable,

 

Very Basic! and NO CASE! I also use a car PC to Handheld setup in my car too.

 

I used it today on 2 Caches (my First ones) and it was dead on. I was literally within 6 feet both times. Once I got one of the weighpoints zeroed out, I simply lined the compass out in the projected direction and followed the path for the projected distance.

 

For a first timer I was impressed with it.

 

One of the nicest things is the programmable screen functions that allowes you to fly through the screens in a flash. By pressing the "talk Button" you can real quickly navigate to the different screens. Map, Geocache locator, altitude and compass!

 

Very nice device! My son and daughter figured it out in about 10 minutes and were on their way to the second cache n their own!

Edited October 12, 2005 by Rubicon-1

[rynd]

Are you saying that a handheld Yaseau or Kenwood would get further range than 5 watt handheld GMRs radio ?

Yes!

 

As has been said Repeaters make a world of difference.

 

Also:

Cross band repeater

Changeable antenna.

Digipeaters

Amplifiers

Satellites

Higher quality

More/better power options

And someone on the other end that actually knows how to communicate can literally be a life saver.

 

This is just for starters there are so many other advantages.

[+Coastiegirl04]

I like my 120, if i wanted to upgrade (honestly won't be til the things breaks on me) i would go for the 130, cuz i think a color screen would be nice, but i have been using the 120 for as long as i have been caching, My sister uses garmin gps3+ it kind of diffcult punch in the lat. and long. and it takes for ever to do!!

i think that the amount of buttons on the rinos is fine i don't get confuse on what button is suppose to do what... its simple and easy i like it!

 

Coastiegirl

[+leatherman]

I like my 120, if i wanted to upgrade (honestly won't be til the things breaks on me) i would go for the 130, cuz i think a color screen would be nice, but i have been using the 120 for as long as i have been caching

 

Coastiegirl

The screen isn't the only thing upgraded with the newer models. The processor, memory and antenna have been improved with every new model.

 

I definitely want a faster processor. When I pan the map on my 120 it is incredibly slow. It freezes to rewrite. It's just not very fast.

 

I am glad I waited to buy a second Rino though.

[+MACseekers]

I am borrowing my friends Garmin Rhino 120 and I love the GPS component, but the radio is not very good. The sound quality on both ends is poor compared to my Motorola Talkabout radio (sounds like it's in a can!). Have you guys compared the radio component with another radio to compare the sound quality? Is it just my radio or do other Rhinos suffer in the sound quality?

[+StarshipTrooper]

I am impressed with the Rino line, in general. They are very robust. They take a lot of abuse and just keep working. My 110 has been dropped many times, used in rain, cold, heat, and now spends a lot of time clamped to the handlebar of my trail bike. It has never had any problems.

 

The GPS features are very easy and intuative - once you've played with it awhile. There really isn't anything I'd change about that. And the receiver seems as accurate and sensitive as any.

 

The FRS/GMRS feature is not as good as my Motorola walkabouts, but sound quality is much better with a hands-free mic/earbud setup. Range is not a big deal to me, because we use them as they were intended - for short-range communication. The position reporting feature is really cool, if you truly have a use for it.

 

If I were getting a new one (which I will do eventually), I'd skip right up to the model that comes with the NOAA receiver.

[CenTexDodger]

Are you saying that a handheld Yaseau or Kenwood would get further range than  5 watt handheld GMRs radio ?

Yes!

 

As has been said Repeaters make a world of difference.

 

Also:

Cross band repeater

Changeable antenna.

Digipeaters

Amplifiers

Satellites

Higher quality

More/better power options

And someone on the other end that actually knows how to communicate can literally be a life saver.

 

This is just for starters there are so many other advantages.

Do the RINO units not work with repeaters? someone is going to have to help me out here.

[vagabond]

Are you saying that a handheld Yaseau or Kenwood would get further range than  5 watt handheld GMRs radio ?

Yes!

 

As has been said Repeaters make a world of difference.

 

Also:

Cross band repeater

Changeable antenna.

Digipeaters

Amplifiers

Satellites

Higher quality

More/better power options

And someone on the other end that actually knows how to communicate can literally be a life saver.

 

This is just for starters there are so many other advantages.

Do the RINO units not work with repeaters? someone is going to have to help me out here.

simple answer NO

[TwoRavens]

Are you saying that a handheld Yaseau or Kenwood would get further range than  5 watt handheld GMRs radio ?

Yes!

 

As has been said Repeaters make a world of difference.

 

Also:

Cross band repeater

Changeable antenna.

Digipeaters

Amplifiers

Satellites

Higher quality

More/better power options

And someone on the other end that actually knows how to communicate can literally be a life saver.

 

This is just for starters there are so many other advantages.

Do the RINO units not work with repeaters? someone is going to have to help me out here.

simple answer NO

 

They with GMRS repeaters (from the Garmin web site):

Channels: 7 FRS, 15 GMRS, and 8 GMRS repeater (using GMRS frequency in the U.S. requires a FCC license)

[+Team Rubicons]

The Garmin Rino does have repeater capability. Channels 15-22 GMRS are established repeater channels. They are sub coded as GMRS 15r through 22r to denote repeater channels. I have not tested these channels out yet as I would need to find another Rino user to do this with. Rumor has it that with the repeater channels the distance is a moot point as long as you are within the transmission range of an active repeater on both ends.

 

The repeater service is not available on the Canadian distributed Rinos but is readiliy available for use in the US. FCC licenses are required over the GMRS repeater and standard channels.

 

Anyone in the Denver area want to put this to a test?

Edited October 28, 2005 by Team Rubicons

[+Renegade Knight]

I like the 530. I wish Garmin had kept the best of the 60's though. The buttons, the screen and hte 1000 waypoint memory. As it is it's better than a 130 but not enough to upgrade if you already have one. I swear that extra step just eludes them and they have a good GPS but not a Great one.

[+Cymbaline]

I like the 530. I wish Garmin had kept the best of the 60's though. The buttons, the screen and hte 1000 waypoint memory. As it is it's better than a 130 but not enough to upgrade if you already have one. I swear that extra step just eludes them and they have a good GPS but not a Great one.

Strangely, I actually prefer the buttons (or lack thereof) on the Rino better than I do the 60CS. Owning both, I can manually enter waypoints and search for POIs faster on the Rino than I can on the 60CS. My fat fingers always have a problem with the rocker switch on the 60.

 

The screen you can't do much with - it's a Rino form factor. I'm with you on the waypoints, though; should have been 1000, not 500, and form factor doesn't have anything to do with it. Just use a different (higher capacity) chip.

[+Renegade Knight]

...My fat fingers always have a problem with the rocker switch on the 60. ...

Good point. My comparison is a GPS V which has a larger rocker. What little I've used a 60CS the rocker is more sensative to miss-direction than the one on the V. It does need to be a bit larger on the 60.

[+powaybob]

We own 2 Rino 120 (I think). WE do not like them as the one button interface stinks and is hard to use for geocaching. What logic system devised the menus I'll never understand.

 

The GMRS requires an FCC license and fee for legal use. If you have an older version it will not send location in GMRS mode- you have to upgrade the software in the radio to do that.

 

We have not seen much use for them in geocaching. We use a Magellan Meridian and Magellan Explorist and since we are both looking for the same cache we can generally just talk to each other. THe Magellan interface is much easier to use. GSAK makes creating the right kind of files to load the cache locations too.

 

I am a licensed amateur and do have 2M/70cm radio in the trucks and often carry an HT with me. 5w with unrestricted LOS can go 5-40 miles; 50 w up to 100 m, but that would be from a mountain top. Repeaters are very common for 2M and extend range and reliability. A lot of SAR folks get amateur licenses and use 2M for their activities here in San Diego county. You are almost always in range of a repeater here whether in the coast, mountains, or desert.

 

I'd really like to see Icom, Kenwood or Yaesu come out with a 2M radio/GPS like the Garmin, but none is planning one as far as I know.

 

I do mess around with APRS but that is more to track where we went than to find caches.

[+StarshipTrooper]

We own 2 Rino 120 (I think). WE do not like them as the one button interface stinks and is hard to use for geocaching. What logic system devised the menus I'll never understand...

Is that so? Then would you like to sell them? (Cheap, of course - since they stink so bad...)

[+Tizom]

I just dropped my gps yesterday and I don't think it is going to make it. I have already done some research on the 520/530's. I seriously considering buying one of these. IF any of you reading this thread own one and can find just cause for me NOT to buy one please post your thoughts. I need to buy one fast and get back in the geocaching zone or I might just croak.

 

Regards,

Tizom