Gspr Comparison Questions

[+drbugs]

Hi,

I'm researching my first GPSr. My primary requirements are both geocaching/hiking, and autorouting on the gpsr. At a later time I might play games with tracklogs on googleearth type of stuff, generating stats on hikes, etc. Geek stuff, but not as much a requirement.

 

The units I'm contemplating are the Garmin 60cx, the magellan XL, and the Magellan 500/600 (not sure if I really want the sensors). At this point, I feel that whichever receiver I choose, I will be happy, but the engineer in me wants to dig in the mud a bit.

 

Some of the questions I have include:

1. Do the XL and the 600 have the same receiver? Robert Lipe's initial comparison convincned me how good the magellan receiver in the 600 was. I'm assuming if they are the same recevier, they should have comparable performance.

2. DirectRoute vs Mapsource (CS/CN). I've read many posts that garmin has the edge in autorouting (I'm assuming this is autorouting on the device), but have not found much details as to how the garmin routing is better.

3. Screen configurability. I've seen some complaints as to the 4 screen limit of the explorist, but not sure exactly what this implies.

4. Training mode. I've thought I read somewhere that the explorists have a training mode (work without satelites to learn how the gpsr works). If true, does the garmin have a compariable mode?

 

Thought I would take a random shot by asking this. Would anyone be interested in doing a side by side comparison of gpsrs? What I'm thinking is finding volenteers who have different receivers that are close geographically to do a bit of hiking with each other in different conditions, and compare overall performance. Some of the ideas I was thinking for tests would be:

1. John Muir woods north of San Francisco (or some other compariable place). Very heavy tree cover. If we could get some volenteers to hike it, note satellite locks, etc, and maybe even compare tracklogs, this would provide an interesting comparison of dense wood performance. The Muir woods is just a suggestion, since I expect it would have pretty dense cover even this time of year. Any other suggestions for locations?

2. Hiking in a downtown (read tall buildings) environment. Maybe use autorouting to navigate to several different locations? I'm thinking like LA/Manhatten/chicago type of downtown (let's make the GPSr sweat a bit).

 

I figure the test wouldn't be as scientific as what Robert Lipe has done, but it would be if nothing else a very interesting project. Anyway, just a thought.

 

Any rants/raves/suggestions/comments appreciated!

 

Tx for listening to me ramble.

[+geognerd]

I will answer questions 2 and 3. I started an excellent topic a while back that would answer your Garmin vs. Magellan autorouting question. Unfortunately I can't find it via Google search of the forums. If I find it when the forum's search function comes back, I'll put up the link. One thing you should know about Magellan is that the basemap is not routable. So if I was going from Chicago to Los Angeles, and I wanted to be routed the whole way (with no side trips), I'd have to download all the detail maps along my planned route between Chicago and LA. With the Garmin, you could get away with only loading the Chicago and LA detail maps, and the receiver could use the basemap to route you on the interstates and US highways in between. There are more differences that are outlined in that topic I cannot find. You may want to check out robertlipe's review of DirectRoute.

 

As for #3, Garmins have a trip computer page. It'll show stuff like the time you have spent in motion, time stopped, and average speed. It's offers more customizable fields than the eXplorist. On the eXplorist you can only customize two fields on the compass page and map page.

[+Miragee]

From everything I have read, I think the 60Cx should be your choice.

 

I have the Garmin Vista C and love the auto-routing feature. I like being able to choose the Pages that are most useful to me and put them in the order that is most convenient for me.

 

The Trip Computer is really handy. I try to reset it whenever I set out on a cache hunt to see how far we really travel.

[+JohnnyVegas]

As far as number 4, magellan includes a basic help menu in the GPS itself. If you have a question about a basic function you can find it in that menu.

[+GOT GPS?]

Explorist 500, best small Geocaching GPS.

 

Explorist XL, best GPS with large high resolution screen for mapping

 

Map60Cx, Best GPS for Trip Data screen for Fitness activities like jogging, and biking.

I am hearing now that possibly we may be able to load custom POI into a Map60Cx ??

This would be so cool if I could load up to 3000 POI in a 60Cx.

[+geognerd]

I started an excellent topic a while back that would answer your Garmin vs. Magellan autorouting question. Unfortunately I can't find it via Google search of the forums. If I find it when the forum's search function comes back, I'll put up the link.

OK, here's the link to Magellan Vs. Garmin Autorouting. There is some great info in that topic.

[+drbugs]

I started an excellent topic a while back that would answer your Garmin vs. Magellan autorouting question. Unfortunately I can't find it via Google search of the forums. If I find it when the forum's search function comes back, I'll put up the link.

OK, here's the link to Magellan Vs. Garmin Autorouting. There is some great info in that topic.

Ah, excellant post. That helps a lot. Tx for digging that up!

 

FWIW,that makes me lean towards the garmin, since the autorouting is actually a key requirement for us. Tx to everyone for your help!

 

Randy