junkman46935 Posted October 24, 2006 Share Posted October 24, 2006 Our family is seeking a nice entry level GPS module. I have been following GeoCaching for some time now and have moved to the Tucson area. Geocaching seems like a family activity that could be alot of fun while being educational and inexpensive. At least after the initail investment... If someone could offer us a nice entry level GPS at a nice entry level price we would be forever grateful. We would like to find and place Caches and would learn responisbility, hiking, survival, and Geography. Our children are 7.5, 2.5 and .75 years old... thanks for considering selling us your GPS at a low price Quote Link to comment
+m.pedersen Posted October 24, 2006 Share Posted October 24, 2006 Our family is seeking a nice entry level GPS module. thanks for considering selling us your GPS at a low price Well, I won't sell mine, but I will recommend it. It's a Garmin ForeTrex 101, and it's absolutely incredible. Small, light, simple to use, and gets and holds lock in situations where I didn't think it would. The only time it has failed me has been in a building which, despite getting 4 bars of cell signal on the other side of the wall I sit on, gets zero signal where I sit. Not too bad, really. Oh, and the total cost? $130 (unless you want to start paperless caching. Depending on what you have, and what you need to get, paperless can get up to about $250 pretty quickly when you include the ForeTrex). Quote Link to comment
+HaLiJuSaPa Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 Welcome to the world of geocaching! We do it with our 5 and 2 year old and find that it is exactly as you describe. In addition it also gets them out of the house for some exercise, and you learn over time that they can do longer hikes and climbs than you ever expected and helps to really builds their confidence and self-esteem. When we told our pediatrician about this activity she very highly recomended it. If you are not going to do it to the extent where manually entering waypoints becomes a big bugbear, we strongly recommend the Lowrance IFinder GO. It is the cheapest GPS to buy new (can often get it online for as little as $65), and if you're not sure, you can buy it on eBay used for less and sell it in the end if you do not like it. Despite this, it has great satellite reception and even a (admittedly very basic) base map of major roads and a few streets, something no other GPS under $100 has. And WAAS capability for better accuracy! It's one major downfall in my view is the lack of ability to transfer waypoints from a computer. It is technically possible, but it involves getting an NMEA cable that will only work if your computer has a serial port and a little bit of "hacking" (or at least understanding conversion between waypoint formats and NMEA code). But we rarely do more than 1-2 caches/weekend if that, find it hard to do more with small kids, so we don't mind manually entering the waypoints and find this GPS to be a great bargain! If you search the forums for "Lowrance IFinder GO", you'll find lots of other posts by us on this great product. Also look for our review on epinions.com (under our old name of "hairymon"). Good luck and cache on! Quote Link to comment
+TheBattons Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 It's one major downfall in my view is the lack of ability to transfer waypoints from a computer. It is technically possible, but it involves getting an NMEA cable that will only work if your computer has a serial port and a little bit of "hacking" (or at least understanding conversion between waypoint formats and NMEA code). Actually, Lowrance now offers a data cable (or you can make one from an old serial mouse. and www.pfranc.com offers a simple serial to USB converter.) Check here I made my own cable, it worked well. But I do agree, the iFinderGO is a GREAT starter GPS, with it's low cost and included WAAS....hard to beat that.... Quote Link to comment
+HaLiJuSaPa Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 Actually, I had heard that Lowrance always sold the data cable (it's the "NMEA" cable I had referred to), but that transferring waypoints was a bugbear. Was it pretty easy for you? Because if so I might get one, thanks. Quote Link to comment
junkman46935 Posted October 30, 2006 Author Share Posted October 30, 2006 Thank you and I did buy the Lowrance IFinder GO and I did it on this board from a premimum member(the battons) It should arrive today or tomorrow! and as a bonus it includes the cable for transfer of waypoints!! Looking forward to many caches and lots of fun! Also we are currently looking for a place to stash our own cache... what about the park? Downtown patagonia? thanks junkman Quote Link to comment
+TheBattons Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 Actually, I had heard that Lowrance always sold the data cable (it's the "NMEA" cable I had referred to), but that transferring waypoints was a bugbear. Was it pretty easy for you? Because if so I might get one, thanks. I just fired up EasyGPS (don't recall the settings I used, but if you need help, drop me a line, I'll see if I can recall what I did) and sent 'em over. Was pretty much a no-brainer, a good thing with me junkman46935, didn't know it was you that I was talking with...same goes for you, give a shout if you need help transferring waypoints... Darrell Quote Link to comment
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