Looking for a car unit to assist in geocaching

[+chameleon family]

We are looking to purchase a car unit to

 

a) Compliment our Garmin etrex for geocaching when in towns and cities not familiar to us

 

For general trips (ie. drives down to Florida different cities in canada)

 

So we are looking for a unit that can have coordinates inputted manually for geocaching,

has decent maps of Canada and US preloaded, we would like it to speak the

street names when indicating turns and something that is not terribly expensive. ie. over $600.

 

I have heard the units that use the sirfstar (sp?) chips are better for accuracy.

We have a macintosh computer, so compatability would be a bonus but not

necessary.

 

Thoughts between Tom Tom, garmin, Magellan.

[robertlipe]

If you want a dashtop that supports waypoint transfer, Magellan is out; that leaves Garmin, Lowrance and TomTom.

 

Sirf matters much more in the woods and urban canyons than the road. But if you're hell-bend on Sirf on the dash, that excludes Garmin. Otherwise, their streetpilot 27xx- once combined with Mac and Geocaching compatible s/w such as GPSBabel would fit the bill.

 

The SP26xx and 27xx are very nifty geocaching street navigators. Their on-board solution to the "travelling salesman problem" (i.e. "here are 20 caches, take me the best route") are cool, but not without excuses.

 

Learn more about Sp2xxx models than you ever wanted to know from the GPSPassion forums.

[+JA1]

It seems to be really difficult to get info on some of these features. I had been doing some reading on the Magellan CrossoverGPS and it seemed to be promising, but Robert's comment about the lack of ability to do waypoint downloads makes me wonder if it would be a winner in the long run. It would be nice to have a list of units which allowed you to enter latitude and longitude manually or which downloaded waypoints or had other desireable features that I have not even thought of considering.

 

PS Did some more research. The Garmin 26xx line is discontinued and the 27xx line is $900 - $1300 which is way above the target price.

Edited March 17, 2007 by JA1

[UNICENTER]

You may want to have a look on nuvi 300 or 310 (with Bluetooth which gives you hands-free). The nuvi is coming with SiRF III (much more sensitive than the old models like Street Pilot C320). SD slot, touch screen, possible to add waypoints, also finding a place by entering longitude and latitude. Plus some additional functions like MP3. The size of the screen a bit smaller than Street Pilot 2610. If you are looking for a bigger screen you may consider nuvi 660. Hope it helps

[+PFF]

As Moris indicates, only two or three of the NUVI models support entry of a destination by coordinates. If this is important, check the instruction book under ENTERING A DESTINATION before purchasing. The improved sensitivity of the newer models will be a "plus", but all of the models are adequate for on-road travel.

 

-Paul-

[+cjf]

Have you considered a Garmin Quest? That's the unit I use when I'm driving around. My primary Geocaching GPSr is a eTrex Vista, which I use after I get to the cache location.

 

The Quest doesn't say street names, but you do get verbal directions ("In 300 hundred feet turn left"). You can manually enter coordinates. I've also used it to find geocaches on occassion when I didn't want to haul two GPSrs on trips.

 

A big bonus is that the Quest and eTrex use the same mapping program so I only need to know one program!

 

Not sure about the chip. I just know I've been happy with my Quest and eTrex combination. Oh, and it is within your price range. (Another bonus! )

 

Have fun shopping!

[+storm180]

I use a Magellan 6000T or a Magellan 760 depends what vehicle I take. I can load all my poi's (geocaches) into the unit ahead of time. When I prep my handheld gps for my caches using GSAK I also make a seperate file for conversion for my magellan roadmate. Load it in and activate my poi file on the roadmate and I am off.

[+Night Stalker]

I use my 60CX for both auto navigation and geocaching. If you are only interested in car navigation with the option of adding waypoints, you might look at a used 60c or 60cs. These are excellent all around units though they do have some issues under heavy tree cover. You would need to add City Navigator to your purchase for point to point navigation. Most of my 1200+ finds were with my 60CS. It is nice to tell it to take me to a cache and have it nagivate me to the closest parking place. Saves a lot of time.

[+2scooters]

I have a Mio C310. It lets you import GPX files with their Mio Transfer application, placing them in subfolders, which you can choose to display directly on the map. Works great,anywhere I drive I can see all caches near me and street route to them quickly. Not only that but it is cheap ($199), fast, and very accurate with room for thousands of caches.

 

You can also manually enter coordinates, the only thing it doesn't do in your requirements is speak street names, it only speaks "turn left at next street" but that works very well. It comes with maps of Canada and USA plus there are maps of most of Europe, South Africa, Australia, and other countries available.

Edited March 17, 2007 by 2scooters

[robertlipe]

Responding to a couple of posts above without attribution.

 

It's true that 26xx are discontinued. Look in the forums I mentioned and you'll find they offer some features that 27xx don't. Refurb 26xx's (with full warranty and current maps) are great bargains. I didn't take into account the USD vs. Canadian dollar, but 2720's have a street price of about $450USD these days - less on a refurb.

 

Even in the nuvi models that don't let you enter coords from the front panel, you can copy your PQ's to them. So they're probably not what you want for multis or puzzles but they're fine for driving to the starting place. (Since the question was about a car GPS to "assist", I didn't think to call that out.)

 

For power caching, I still use either a 2610 or a 2720 over a Nuvi just becuase they have a more powerful routing engine than in the C3xx or Nuvi lines. One via point at a time doesn't cut it for me. The remote control is very handy, too.

 

Crossover allegedly has a firmware update in the overn that'll give it the ability to read .gs files and therefore geocache points. That should make it more viable as it'll then work with GPSBabel and programs that use it, such as GSAK. I can't speak to the routing engine on current Magellan dashtops.

[cleo43]

TomTom Go910 at 575$CDN has all the criteria you asked for and more (it has an European map too).

[+chameleon family]

I was actually looking at the Tom Tom One, which is around $379 canadian and has the new sirf chips and you can enter long.lat manually which as stated, only some of the garmin nuvis allow, the streetpilots dont seem to have that function. The Tom Tom also has Macintosh software, which allows easier management of routing/maps etc. since I dont have a PC. The only drawback is that it uses the Telemap software as opposed to the NAVTEQ which is suppose to be far superior for North America. TeleAtlas map has better Euro maps, apparently, which doesnt really help me. The Tom Tom One is also very portable and slim, much like the NUVI's and not like those odd shaped C330-550's garmin has.

 

Has anyone used the Tom Tom one, and if so, are they happy with the TeleAtlas map software?

I'm talking North America of course.

Edited March 18, 2007 by chameleon family

[UNICENTER]

That is a good question about the software. Before you buy anything you have to know where (and how?) you want to use it. If you are planning to use it only in Canada, The US and Europe, that is fine with TomTom. But if you are planning to use it in different parts of world, would be easier to get software for Garmin than any other. I have no experience with TomTom so I am afraid cannot give any suggestion.

Edited March 18, 2007 by Moris