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Advice On Gps Unit


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Well i have just started dipping my toes into the world of GPS and geocaching and need some advice. Until now i have been using a bluetooth gps reciever along with my nokia 6630. i have tried a couple of different programs but for caching power navigator seems to be useful enough for me. However i have since changed my phone to a nokia n80 and this program does not work on it. So it is making me think its time to change to a proper GPS unit of some description. now here in lies the problem i have not got the slightest clue as what to look for how much to spend new or second hand??? so any advice would be gratefully recieved.

 

Thanks for taking time to read my post.

Donny B)

Edited by Donmoore
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Well i have just started dipping my toes into the world of GPS and geocaching and need some advice. Until now i have been using a bluetooth gps reciever along with my nokia 6630. i have tried a couple of different programs but for caching power navigator seems to be useful enough for me. However i have since changed my phone to a nokia n80 and this program does not work on it. So it is making me think its time to change to a proper GPS unit of some description. now here in lies the problem i have not got the slightest clue as what to look for how much to spend new or second hand??? so any advice would be gratefully recieved.

 

Thanks for taking time to read my post.

Donny B)

 

I use an Etrex Legend as well

 

Fine for geocaching - and if armed with Map Source you get mapping (roads) and can upload waypoints too

 

About £80 on Ebay from the USA

 

And is relatively bounce-proof!

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I would use a Legend, and get mapping for my phone.

I use a legend. and a pda with anquet mapping.

Most people seem to prefer Memory Map, but i coudn't afford that.

I bought Anquet GB national parks 1:50,000 £19.95

As i do most of my walking in the Lake District it's ideal.

GPSR's with good mapping are very expensive and not really necassary for caching.

Edited by dpoet
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I concur with the sage advice already given above.

 

Garmin have a superb aftersales service - they regularly replace damaged units with new ones well after the warranty period. For a personal example, I sold off my 18 month old Vista C and after a few days the buyer complained that the rubber surround was coming loose. Garmin took it back and issued a brand new replacement. They even provided the new buyer with a code to enable City Nav Europe to work with the replacement unit (I had used the spare "unlock" to enable CN to work with my original Vista C).

 

Having owned virtually all the various eTrex models, I would also recommend the Legend as the best compromise between facilities with price. It has a high resolution screen, internal memory for street level mapping and comes with a data cable. If you can get hold of a Vista, that has 24 mb of memory compared to the Legends 8 mb.

 

All you need then is some Metroguide software to provide the street level road data, a PC (pref with a serial port already - so an older model will be fine) - and you're set!

 

Of course, you do not need these extra features - but you will want them when you see them. I started with the basic yellow eTrex many moons ago, now after lots of buying and selling, we have a StreetPilot 2610 for the car and a Vista Cx that shares the City Nav software that came with the Streetpilot. So now we also have an auto-routing Vista on the handlebar of my pushbike...

Edited by Sue and Bernie
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Thank you all for your swift replies. All roads seem to point to Garmin. legend perhaps? i live in northern ireland so do any of these units i.e the legend come with maps with northern ireland on them?

i love bells and whistles but also don't like spending money i don't have.

 

As to the N80 comment it is not a windows smarthpone and i thought it was symbian but it won't let me install my power navagation program which is symbian. So any further thoguths on packages which can be used on a N80 would be good too.

 

Remember knowledge is power so please share all your knowledge with me.

 

Donny

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Hi there.

 

As you already own a bluetooth gps unit why not get a cheap PDA, I think you can get palm based ones quite cheaply off ebay. You'll be able to go totally paperless too. I know they aren't as hard wearing as dedicated GPSr's but unless you are into rock climbing or something similar batteries and waterproofing are relatively surmountable issues. Think of all the gigabytes of maps you can store too on flash memory.

 

P.S. i'm new at this too, but i have a bluetooth gps unit which i use with my old sony ericsson p800 very well. I use nhGPS and memory map os 1:25000. I plan on updating to the p990 when it comes out and when i can afford it.

Edited by droolian01
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