Basic Geocaching Gps Unit

[Rikis]

I'm surprised people tend to "overbuy" stuff here... Most of the time Geocaching needs only basic GPS capabilities, such as Go To feature.

 

PC connectivity is nice to have too, to speed up cache coordinate input. But is not really needed.

 

WAAS - I have heard that WAAS signal on the ground is limited, even so in the wooded ares, any input on that?

 

I have very old but trusty Garmin Emap GPS, with serial PC cable. Should I consider upgrading it?

Nice basic and cheap GPS unit with WAAS and VERY long battery life (more than 48hours) iFinder GO .

 

One of new alternatives with PC connection Magellan eXplorist 210 18 hour AA battery life, USB - gotta love USB.

Also love how all eXplorist line units look. Don't like that higher end units have built in battery, but this thread is not about higher end units anyway.

 

So - experienced geocathcers - are you using PC to transfer coordinates, or do it manually? Any comment on Explorist 210 "specific" geocaching software? (same as 400/500/600/XL)

 

Any experience with iFinder GO?

Thanks guys!

[+Timpat]

Since no one has jumped in yet, I would recommend any in the Garmin eTrex line for a basic geocahing unit. The ubiquitous Yellow is a good unit for $93 on Amazon.com, and the Legend is a good mapping unit for $140- less a $20 rebate- makes it $120.

 

Both interface with your PC for quick transfer of waypoints, tracks and routes. I've had my Legend for over 4 yrs and love it. Maybe a Magellan, or Lowrance, user will give some advice of their products.

[+embra]

The "necessity" of PC-to-GPSr waypoint transfer is in direct relation to the number of waypoints you want to have on the unit. If you hunt one or two a week, it's not a big deal to punch them in manually. But lots of us like to have hundreds of waypoints to choose from at a time...entering coords manually gets real tedious real fast in any number.

 

The Explorist 210 looks like a nice GPSr for the money, although since they just started coming on the market you may want to see the reports come in from the pioneers (early reports seem positive). However, don't buy it for the geocaching software...it's a step in the right direction, but it's only halfway to useful.

[+JohnnyVegas]

Since no one has jumped in yet, I would recommend any in the Garmin eTrex line for a basic geocahing unit. The ubiquitous Yellow is a good unit for $93 on Amazon.com, and the Legend is a good mapping unit for $140- less a $20 rebate- makes it $120.

 

Both interface with your PC for quick transfer of waypoints, tracks and routes. I've had my Legend for over 4 yrs and love it. Maybe a Magellan, or Lowrance, user will give some advice of their products.

The e-trex yellow would be a step down from the e-map.

 

A few people are now using the explorist 210 and from what they have posted so far they are happy with them. The 28mb of memory in the 210 is more than enough for most geocachers

 

I use a Magellan explorist 500, The battery is not built in, and it is not proprietary, Magellan is using a Motorola cell phone battery that can be found on e-bay for about $10.00 after shipping.

 

The differance in the 210 and the 500, the 500 has a color screen and an SD card slot to expand the memory of the 500 and the Lithium ion battery.

 

I like the geocache manager software in the explorist I like having the caches displayed on the GPS screen using the same icons that are used on the wev b site.

Edited October 24, 2005 by JohnnyVegas

[Rikis]

Hm, some useful and interesting info, I am glad to hear that high end explorist have removable Lion battery, somehow i thought its built in.

 

Too bad geocache manager software is not perfected yet... makers make it look like a big thing.

 

Any comments about WAAS question?

 

Maybe I should simply keep using my Garmin Emap....

[+Sputnik 57]

WAAS works pretty well. My EPE goes from 15-20 feet without it to 7-10 feet with it. You need to get a clear view of the sky for 30-45 minutes to let the almanac load. After that, it works well whenever you can get a lock on WAAS birds. I was hiking in very heavy tree cover this weekend and couldnt get it, even by adding my gilsson external antenna. But in what I would consider more normal settings, it does improve reception. YMMV.

[peter]

Maybe I should simply keep using my Garmin Emap....

That would be my recommendation. So far I haven't found WAAS to be all that useful since it's hard to get in places with poor reception and accuracy is usually good enough without it in areas with good reception. It should become more useful next year once the two new WAAS satellites that were recently launched get checked out and become operational.

 

The trend is for new GPS models to keep getting better and push down the price on the slightly older models, so if you can keep using the eMap for awhile there'll probably be better options next year.

[+jacobsen1]

I would just use the emap until it craps out on you. It's very simliar to the low end legend and gpsmap76 series, so I really se no reason to upgrade for the WAAS. WAAS will only help you as others have said, when you have good reception, and how often are you caching where your reception is that good. I bought a GPSMAP76 because I will be using it on the water in the summer, and then the WAAS will be usefull and it will have an excellent signal. I predict that Garmin will have to make some new models in the next year that will be "entry level" that will have more memory and USB in the lower price range (~$200 street) so if I were you I'd wait until that happens to upgrade. I was tempted to get a bigger better unit myself but figured I'd get the basic unit that has tides, and WAAS for the boat, and then in a few more years when the units have a ton of memory and fast connections for cheap then I will upgrade. $500 for 115mb of memory is rediculous to me.

[+embra]

I go along with the recommendations to keep with your emap if you're satisfied enough with it. My general theory of consumer electronics is to delay purchases as long as possible because they keep getting better and cheaper. When I can't stand it anymore, then I get something with the features that I have been able to make an educated determination about their usefulness to me. Repeat as necessary.

[+Thrak]

If it works for you, is reliable, and you have been satisfied with it then there is really no "need" to upgrade. Of course that never stopped me from building a new computer when I wanted one.

 

As for WAAS, I have a GPSMAP76CS (love it!) and I rarely enable WAAS. I don't normall get a lock from it anyway unless I'm up on top of a hill or on the rim of a canyon. In town I don't readily get a lock and I get close enough to find caches without it. When traveling through Montana I got a lock easily but it's pretty wide open there in "Big Sky Country".

[+briansnat]

PC connectivity is nice to have too, to speed up cache coordinate input. But is not really needed.

 

I think most serious geocachers find it to be essential. Not only for mass loading of waypoints, but for backing up the unit and loading firmware upgrades.

[Rikis]

All good advice:) Thanks guys!

 

More questions:

 

Mapping.??? Autorouting???

 

Is it useful to drive close to the cache? I actually its kinda waste of $$$ to get good handheld GPS for say 300-400-500$ and the add "optional" mapping software. I think this comes up close to dedicated car navigation GPS with hard drive and full data loaded.

 

PC connectivity - yeah, waypoints, firmware updates, but what is there to back up???

[+Sevateem]

Auto routing is great. This summer I was caching with my daughter and granddaughter in Michigan. Not knowing my way around, it was nice to be able to use the auto routing to get close to each cahe. Then at lunch time the grandaughter wanted to goto McDonalds. The GPS took us to the closest one.

The auto routing also comes in handy at the end of a day when done caching in unfamiliar territory. Put in "Home" and you are shown the way.

As to what to back up. I keep maps with all the found caches. It is fun to be able to look a map filling with little open treasure chests.

[+briansnat]

I actually its kinda waste of $$$ to get good handheld GPS for say 300-400-500$ and the add "optional" mapping software.

 

You might think its a waste until you actually have it. It is incredibly useful. My 60CS has become more than a simple GPS to me. It is almost a friend. I'm staying in a city away from home and needed to get to the supermarket today. I had to detour around traffic and instead if sitting there on the shoulder studying maps, it took me right to the doorstep of the grocery store. It is also pretty handy for getting yourself near the cache.

[Rikis]

Well what I meant is that for same or slightly more $$ you can get dedicated car navigation system, with all maps loaded.

 

This would get you were you wanna go without many map changes, uploads, with added benefit of bigger screen, touch screen, voice prompts....

Then just use the basic GPS handheld to find the cache when you are there.

Edited October 26, 2005 by Rikis

[+Maingray]

Understood But why keep TWO units updated with cache waypoints when you can autoroute to the cache by road, grab it and jump out car to get the cache....switching to a topographic map in the process. Much easier, and I bet more cost effective. Oh, and you've removed a tasty piece of kit from getting pinched from your car

As has been said, mapping and autorouting are not essential, but boy they soon become it.

What to backup? Stored routes you have made on the GPSr, stored auto-tracks on the GPSr, calendar entries on the GPSr, stored waypoints you made in the field e.g. when placing a muli-cache.... for all but very casual cachers pc connectivity IS a must have.

[kerecsen]

I used to have an eMap, and was very happy with it. The reason I finally upgraded was to get auto-routing and to get color.

 

Most low- and mid-end units are similar or inferior to the emap. If you want something that's worth the cost and hassle of an upgrade, you should consider at least a Vista C (or similarly featured magellan/lowrance). That would give you a compass, waas, color, water-proofing (all these useful in GC) and auto-routing (useful on the way to GC). Spending an extra 20 bucks to get waas unit as opposed to a non-waas unit may be worth it, but getting a brand new receiver just for that is dubious at best.

 

As for battery life, I used to get about 12 hours on my emap. Rechargeable AAs being cheap as they are, I hardly see a reason to upgrade to get an extra 6-12 hours.

Edited October 26, 2005 by kerecsen

[Rikis]

Thanks for the great tips guys!

I will keep using Emap for now, found 7 caches with it already:)

Love the PC connectivity too.

 

Usually while geocaching it says its accurate to ~20 feet.