The ideal handhelp GPS receiver

[Parsa]

One thing I've noticed is that successful manufacturers listen to the people buying their products. Bureaucrats love telling people what to do and what they need instead of listening to them, but a good business person should listen.

 

The ideal GPS receiver should include...

 

Let's finish this and maybe somebody out there will listen. Let's not include silly stuff like metal detectors and laser levels. Let's try to get the really useful stuff we can actually use and will need on a daily basis.

 

I'll start the ball rolling:

 

1) Wireless data transfer. The technology is here, and has been for a while now. Why do the manufacturers still insist on serial cables for NMEA data transfer, and USB cables for waypoints and maps? Get rid of the serial all together and have USB as an option. Bluetooth is an obvious choice. If a small Bluetooth receiver can send signals to a computer or PDA, a dedicated GPS receiver should be able to also. The same goes for data transfer. My Palm can do it, why not my GPSr?

 

2) Industry standard connectors. Why does my cell phone and my camera and my Bluetooth GPS have mini serial connectors, while my GPS receiver has some wacky proprietary connector that's awkward and weak. I should be able to pick up a new cable at any local store.

 

3) A sturdy unit. My old brick of a Garmin 12XL still beats out a lot of new units for sturdiness. Some of the units are not bad in this regard, but others are awfully poor.

 

4) Clear screens in daylight. This is improving on the units, but should continue to improve.

 

5) Cross platform use. There is absolutely no reason except for shortsighted greed that we should have to pay hundreds of dollars for proprietary software that only works with a couple versions of one operating system. The waypoint, track and route files should be simple text files, and maps should be in a common vector or raster format. We should be able to install our own calibrated maps into a GPS unit. I have been able to do this on my computer for years now, so why can't I do it on my GPS receiver. I shouldn't need the company's proprietary software to do it either. Any computer user should be able to work with the unit, whether they have Windows, Max OS X, Linux, or anything else. Take a lesson from the internet and make the software easy to use on any computer platform.

 

6) We need a few models that work well rather than a plethora of ones that only add a new feature or two. For instance the new Magellan Triton 300 has the ability to load maps, but is only 20 bucks more than the 200 that only has a base map. Who would be stupid enough to buy the 200? Honestly? (Most geocachers wouldn't buy anything lower than the 400 model anyway.) I'd rather see one unit with AA batteries, and one with a Lithium battery. That way the person heading off to Africa can choose the former, but the person who takes day trips in southern California can choose the latter if they want.

 

7) As stated above, the ability to load calibrated digital raster graphics into the unit would be great. It would be cool to be able to load aerial photos or geologic maps rather than using some vector data that's already two years old. The manufacturers have proven woefully bad at supplying maps and data for some locations on earth. We should be able to load our own information and maps and share them with each other in some common location. The receiver makers should stick to hardware since they have proven very slow with their software.

 

8) Keep up-to-date on storage technology. If an iPod can have 8GB or 16GB of flash memory, so should a GPS receiver. Additionally, I should be able to plug in the current standard card into the unit such as a normal size 8GB SDHD card.

 

9) It would be great to be able to add a lot of text to a waypoint. Text doesn't take up much storage, so why not let us load all the cache information we want into the unit? Then if you really want to make things useful, let us add photos to the waypoints also. This last is one thing the Triton did right.

 

10) More customizable screens and the ability to have user-modified layouts. If you can have skins and custom layouts on a cell phone or a web forum, why not on the GPS receiver? Some of the most successful programs made let users modify and enhance the program. I always remember the shareware game Escape Velocity, and how plugins let users practically rewrite the whole game to anything they could imagine. On a GPSr I'd at least like to have more options on what gets displayed and where. If you make a basic open structure, we can do all the work of making it cool.

 

11) A logical filing system and easy to navigate menus.

 

12) Have good customer support. No, they may be a nice human being, but I really don't want to discuss my problems with the guy on a graveyard shift in Delhi if I live in California. Update firmware promptly when bugs are found and when improvements are made based on customer feedback.

 

Parsa

[Parsa]

Sigh... I can't believe I made a spelling error on the title. If a moderator can repair this, please feel free to.

 

Handheld!!!

[+Klemmer]

13) A good quality (3-axis, like Magellan Meridian) magnetic compass. Yeah, I know I can use a separate one (and do sometimes). Hey, this is a dreamsheet, right? It is soooo much easier when the arrow points to the cache or benchmark when you are standing still, turning, walking real slow, etc.

[+sbell111]

1- Don't most units just have a mini-USB port?

 

2- same as 1

 

3- My experience with Garmin units is that they are as rugged as they need to be.

 

4- No problems with my Venture Cx

 

6- The manufacturers will always need several models in a range. A bare bones version will be needed for new users who don't want to gamble a huge amount of money. A feature packed version for people who 'need' every option and are willing to pay through the nose for them. The middle of the road versions for those of us who want certain features but don't want to pay for what they won't use.

 

8- Most of them take micro SD cards.

 

9- I'm pretty sure that if you load the caches as POI that you can add a greater amount of text.

 

10- Don't most GPSrs let you customize the display? I wanted speed on my compass page. A few minutes later, I had it there.

 

12- You don't own a Garmin, do you?

[+sbell111]

I want a Garmin GPS VI.

 

Just give me a Vista HCx in a Colorado-like case. Let me choose whether I want to use it in profile or landscape mode and give it a Quest-like cradle so it can autoroute me home (with voice).

[+Miragee]

Okay, I'll bite.

 

1) Wireless data transfer. -- I agree. If I can transfer the cache description from my old Palm m500 to a friend's Palm T/X, my GPSr ought to be able to send a waypoint to another GPSr.

 

2) Industry standard connectors. -- I have a Garmin Vista C and a Vista HCx. The connector it uses is that same as that for both an Olympus camera and Fuji camera I have, so this problem might be worse depending on the GPSr manufacturer.

 

3) A sturdy unit. -- I have been amazed at the abuse some GPS units have been subjected to, and survived. These include a Vista C, a GPS Map60CS, and a Map60CSx.

 

4) Clear screens in daylight. -- The screens on my Garmin color units are very easy to see, even in bright sunlight.

 

5) Cross platform use. -- I agree this is a great idea.

 

6) We need a few models that work well rather than a plethora of ones that only add a new feature or two. -- I agree this would be a much better way to proceed. I don't understand why one of Garmin's brand new models still uses the Serial Port to connect to a computer . . .

 

7) As stated above, the ability to load calibrated digital raster graphics into the unit would be great. It would be cool to be able to load aerial photos or geologic maps rather than using some vector data that's already two years old. The manufacturers have proven woefully bad at supplying maps and data for some locations on earth. We should be able to load our own information and maps and share them with each other in some common location. The receiver makers should stick to hardware since they have proven very slow with their software. -- This would also be very cool.

 

8) Keep up-to-date on storage technology. If an iPod can have 8GB or 16GB of flash memory, so should a GPS receiver. -- If the GPSr could have that much flash memory, would there still be a need for the data card? I agree it would be great to have lots more flash memory storage. As for the format of the card, since I never have to handle the card in my Vista HCx, the format of the card doesn't seem to be an issue . . . but maybe I just don't understand how this would be better if a different format was used. This is a problem for more things than GPS units. My cameras use xD format cards, my Palm uses SD cards, and the GPSr uses the Micro cards . . .

 

9) It would be great to be able to add a lot of text to a waypoint. Text doesn't take up much storage, so why not let us load all the cache information we want into the unit? -- Using Custom POIs and Garmin's POI Loader, quite a bit of text can be added to waypoints now. I can imagine being able to add lots of text would be useful for some people. Since I have to carry my Palm with me, and it can hold the entire cache description, I don't see a need for that much text on the GPSr. It would be way too hard to read . . .

 

10) More customizable screens and the ability to have user-modified layouts. -- Have you seen how many different ways you can customize the pages and the colors on a Garmin unit? A friend handed me her new Legend HCx the other day and I didn't recognize it. The colors were so different . . . It seems to me the Garmin units are very customizable since you can change the data fields on each screen. Although, it would be cool if you could somehow "Save" particular screen views so you could go from "Trail" to "Highway" with one click, instead of having to change the individual data fields most useful for the upcoming use of the GPS unit.

 

11) A logical filing system and easy to navigate menus. -- I have never found the menus on my Garmin GPS units to be difficult to navigate, once I familiarized myself with each button on the GPSr, the different pages, and their individualized Menus.

 

12) Have good customer support. -- Garmin already does this right. If you call, you get a real person who lives in Kansas, and they always do their best to help with your specific problem.

[jmundinger]

You forgot to add and all for $99.

[jim slim]

Reminds me of the rumored Garmin colorado

[+RRLover]

Parsa :

 

"Well said Fred!"

I agree wholeheartedly, it would seem that an equipment manufacturer,

teamed up w/ an good Open Source community, could put together a solution that would

shake the current 'model' from rafters to foundation. One hand held unit that's capable,

and plug-in options. It goes from base unit to full blown at owners discretion. The software

guys and the hardware guys would have a stronger bond than just the water-cooler.

 

Norm

[+RRLover]

Parsa :

 

"Well said Fred!"

I agree wholeheartedly, it would seem that an equipment manufacturer,

teamed up w/ an good Open Source community, could put together a solution that would

shake the current 'model' from rafters to foundation. One hand held unit that's capable,

and plug-in options. It goes from base unit to full blown at owners discretion. The software

guys and the hardware guys would have a stronger bond than just the water-cooler.

 

Norm

[Parsa]

Hi Miragee and all,

 

I didn't mean to imply that some particular models do not have these features. I meant to say that they really all should. Many units have strong features, but they may lack good ones that others do have. The Garmin customer support is pretty good, but Magellan's is generally thought to be poor. Many Garmin units such as the 60 series are very durable. My old 12XL workhorse still works fine though it looks a bit ragged around the edges. However, Garmin is also very proprietary, and if you're a Mac user they've only made a few attempts at utility software... no mapping software yet.

 

Okay, I'll bite.

 

2) Industry standard connectors. -- I have a Garmin Vista C and a Vista HCx. The connector it uses is that same as that for both an Olympus camera and Fuji camera I have, so this problem might be worse depending on the GPSr manufacturer.

 

The smaller Garmin units do, but some other units do not. The Magellan eXplorist and Triton units use a brass pin system supposedly designed to help keep the unit waterproof, but they are not really very user friendly.

 

8) Keep up-to-date on storage technology. If an iPod can have 8GB or 16GB of flash memory, so should a GPS receiver. -- If the GPSr could have that much flash memory, would there still be a need for the data card? I agree it would be great to have lots more flash memory storage. As for the format of the card, since I never have to handle the card in my Vista HCx, the format of the card doesn't seem to be an issue . . . but maybe I just don't understand how this would be better if a different format was used. This is a problem for more things than GPS units. My cameras use xD format cards, my Palm uses SD cards, and the GPSr uses the Micro cards . . .

We're always going to need more storage. People in the past probably couldn't conceive of why we'd need 500 GB hard drives in our homes. 8 or 16 GB is indeed large compared to what we have now, but it would be cool to have lots of maps, aerials, photos, audio files, etc, and that all takes space.

 

9) It would be great to be able to add a lot of text to a waypoint. Text doesn't take up much storage, so why not let us load all the cache information we want into the unit? -- Using Custom POIs and Garmin's POI Loader, quite a bit of text can be added to waypoints now. I can imagine being able to add lots of text would be useful for some people. Since I have to carry my Palm with me, and it can hold the entire cache description, I don't see a need for that much text on the GPSr. It would be way too hard to read . . .

I use a Palm also, but there are some places I'd rather not take it, and it would be nice to have everything I need for a trip in one machine.

 

10) More customizable screens and the ability to have user-modified layouts. -- Have you seen how many different ways you can customize the pages and the colors on a Garmin unit? A friend handed me her new Legend HCx the other day and I didn't recognize it. The colors were so different . . . It seems to me the Garmin units are very customizable since you can change the data fields on each screen. Although, it would be cool if you could somehow "Save" particular screen views so you could go from "Trail" to "Highway" with one click, instead of having to change the individual data fields most useful for the upcoming use of the GPS unit.

 

11) A logical filing system and easy to navigate menus. -- I have never found the menus on my Garmin GPS units to be difficult to navigate, once I familiarized myself with each button on the GPSr, the different pages, and their individualized Menus.

 

I think we are often content because we don't see how things could be better. I believe that with user participation in software content and structure, we will move toward improvements we can't imagine now. I think back to the older computer operating systems and they were perfectly logical and usable, but I'm not about to switch from Mac OS X back to OS 6.

 

12) Have good customer support. -- Garmin already does this right. If you call, you get a real person who lives in Kansas, and they always do their best to help with your specific problem.

That's very good, and I applaud them for that, but several thousand users like myself have been trying to get software for our computers from Garmin, and have been waiting for years with nothing but promises (or worse... condescension). Magellan on the other hand is likely to give you a different experience, and the manufacturers need to know that poor support is not acceptable, now or in the future. I was speaking generically, not about any one company.