I need a better GPS device!

[Destrin]

Hi,

 

New guy looking for a bit of advice. I went off on my first geocaching adventure this weekend just gone and this went reasonably successfully (3 out of the 4 targets found!)

 

However, this did teach me that my TomTom Go 910 is a thoroughly inadequate device for geocaching apart from driving to the nearest parking space! It doesn't seem to update frequently enough or when you make small adjustments to your position. Moving three steps then turning it off and on again seemed to be the best approach and this was just frustrating.

 

I'm looking at buying a more 'geocachers' oriented system to supplement the TomTom which has done perfectly as a purely car routing device for the last few years. I did a quick browse of the sites linked in the sticky threads and the Magellan eXplorist 600 seemed to shine out as being the 'best' one for what I needed however every site I've checked to locate one seems to say they are no longer being produced?

 

I figured the community here would have a good grasp of the best sort of thing purely for geocaching. I already have a great road tracking GPS in the form of my TomTom so I'm really looking for advice on what would be a great system for just tracking coordinates more precisely. Something you can see moving when you are walking around and preferably gives you a compass or pointer showing you which way to go. I wondered if the smaller wristwatch style devices might be good for this sort of thing or whether they were sub par in terms of reception quality?

 

I'm sure this question has been asked a thousand times and sorry for the newbieness but the advice sites do seem to be a little bit out of date on this topic so I'd appreciate any advice with some more up to date information.

 

Many thanks!

[+briansnat]

Since you have a TomTom for road use, you just need a basic unit like the Garmin eTrex H (around $89). Make sure it's the H though. That indicates that it has a high sensitivity receiver. There is a similar model that sells for the same price but doesn't have the good receiver.

 

If you decide you would like maps on your GPS (Topo maps do come in handy for geocaching), you can step up a bit and get a Venture HC (which is around $150) and Garmin's Topo 2008 software (which is around $60).

[+JohnTee]

Destrin,

 

A lot depends on what your budget is. You would certainly do well with any of the Garmin eTrex H Series. As you get into the upper end of the eTrex H Series you start getting into mapping/routing capbability, which, owning a Tom Tom, you probably don't need. They don't come with maps, unless you get it as a package.

 

Another very popular Garmin is the Map 60CSx.

 

The 'H' Series have a 'patch' antenna with a High Sensitivity Chip while the Map60 has a QuadraHelix Antenna; both seem to be comparable in performance.

 

The newer Garmins have a geocaching feature, which won't help you find caches any better than any other GPS, but can be a nice feature.

 

Cache On!

 

JohnTee

[mdg2003]

Briansnat, where can I find Topo for 60 bucks? I paid 80 bucks and thought I had found the best deal. I am looking for CN and wonder if you can direct me to the best site. Thanks

[+briansnat]

Briansnat, where can I find Topo for 60 bucks? I paid 80 bucks and thought I had found the best deal. I am looking for CN and wonder if you can direct me to the best site. Thanks

 

I saw it for $63 on Amazon.com last month. Right now it's $78 there. Their price fluctuates a lot

[mdg2003]

Hehe, two bucks more.... Ok, I can live with that! What me cheap? Nooooooooooo

[+mvigor]

Are you sure the HC model will load maps? Don't you need the HCx? I have the HC and can't find an SD card port in mine. It does have 24MB of internal memory, but the maps seem to be sold on SD cards.

Edited January 30, 2008 by mvigor

[+Miragee]

The Topo maps are sold on CD. The City Navigator maps are sold on DVD. Those are worth purchasing if your GPS unit can "auto-route." My older Vista C had 24 MB of map memory and that was plenty of map space for travel to my usual cache adventures.

[+briansnat]

Are you sure the HC model will load maps? Don't you need the HCx? I have the HC and can't find an SD card port in mine. It does have 24MB of internal memory, but the maps seem to be sold on SD cards.

 

The HC will load maps. That 24 megs of memory is specifically for maps. You don't need an SD card to load maps.

 

Garmin sells maps preloaded on SD cards and on CD.

[Destrin]

Thanks for all the advice guys!

 

Just looking through some of the options, what is the sort of map that gets included as a 'basemap' with a device like the 60CSX? I live in the UK and I certainly travel to Europe a fair amount. Looking at the Topo maps availabe it doesn't look like Garmin even produce topo maps for mainland Europe. Not to mention that the maps for the UK alone are almost the same price as the unit itself! Also, is the basemap usually set to the region you buy it in? For example if I were to buy one on my trip to the states in a months time, would I be stuck with something full of US maps that aren't that relevant to me?

 

I was thinking that if I was going to get another one then something specialised for hiking that did elevation maps etc would be worthwhile but to get maps for my area looks to be a very expensive proposition never mind managing to get maps that'll cover the world!

Edited January 31, 2008 by Destrin

[+tokencollector]

Garmin makes the most "popular" GPSr units, but other brands (Magellan) may be just as suitable. I've owned both and each beats the other in some ways. That said, I am very happy with my Vista HCx. The basemap isn't great - but I don't think any GPSr ships with decent basemaps.

 

IMO, Garmin's Topo maps are the pits! My older Magellan's topo program is vastly superior to Garmin's current maps. It's $80 I wish I hadn't wasted - I never turn them on anymore. The routable maps are great though. The turn-by-turn sometimes gives less than optimal directions, but if you're not familiar with the local roads you'd never know. I've used it often in unfamiliar cities and have little to complain about. The navigation maps are expensive - especially for Europe, but if the European program is anything like the US program, it is useful beyond geocaching. I've used it for finding gas stations, restaurants etc in unfamiliar areas.

 

Button placement may not be as important as you think. My Magellan had rockers and buttons on the bottom which I thought were quite useful. I was dubious about the buttons on the top and side of my Vista. I'm quite used to them now and can navigate pretty well with them.

 

Memory is great. Units with expandible memory (SD, micro SD) cards are great - especially if you want to load maps into the unit. I could get topos of most of the US on my Magellan with a 1 GB card (I think the new maps are bulkier). I have the entire US and Canada nav maps plus TOPO maps for most of the eastern US on my Vista's 1GB card.

 

For geocaching, I thought an electronic compass was overkill. I'm now very glas that I spent the extra $20 for that feature.

 

Look at the different manufacturer's units in your price range and think about the functions that you'd find most useful. Had the new Magellan's come out a few months later, I might have one today. I'm still happy with my Garmin though.

[+tokencollector]

I'll add a bit more detail on the basemaps. I recently took my Vista to Korea. The basemap was useless. Jeju island (a pretty good sized island) appeared as ocean. Likewise, when I cached with my Magellan in France, the basemap was useless. But, as I said earlier, neaither basemap is great in the US either. Both will have major cities, interstate highways and some other major highways, but that is about it.

 

If you want a useful map, you will have to spring for the add-on maps - either navigational or topo.

 

BTW, my Garmin topo comments above refer to the topographic features of the map (the topo's lack enough detail to be truly useful). the roads on the topo map are fine, though not routable.

[+Night Stalker]

I have never really looked at the basemap on my 60CX, just enough to see that it showed the freeway and the most major roads. I have used topo maps to navigate with. I liked the Magellan better because I could see the names of intersecting roads as I approached them making it easier to drive to where I wanted to cache. I now use auto-routing and boy does that make a difference. I never realized how much time I wasted looking for the jump off point for a cache. With gas prices as high as they are this can make quite a difference in how much caching you can afford.

[benya]

My friend has a Magellan 500 and its great for both driving and caching.

[+the hermit crabs]

Briansnat, where can I find Topo for 60 bucks? I paid 80 bucks and thought I had found the best deal. I am looking for CN and wonder if you can direct me to the best site. Thanks

 

I saw it for $63 on Amazon.com last month. Right now it's $78 there. Their price fluctuates a lot

Yes, quite a bit. I just checked my email receipt, and saw that I paid $59.10 for it in October from Amazon. I don't think it was listed as any type of special deal at the time, it was just the going price then.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Thanks for all the advice guys!

 

Just looking through some of the options, what is the sort of map that gets included as a 'basemap' with a device like the 60CSX? I live in the UK and I certainly travel to Europe a fair amount. Looking at the Topo maps availabe it doesn't look like Garmin even produce topo maps for mainland Europe. Not to mention that the maps for the UK alone are almost the same price as the unit itself! Also, is the basemap usually set to the region you buy it in? For example if I were to buy one on my trip to the states in a months time, would I be stuck with something full of US maps that aren't that relevant to me?

 

I was thinking that if I was going to get another one then something specialised for hiking that did elevation maps etc would be worthwhile but to get maps for my area looks to be a very expensive proposition never mind managing to get maps that'll cover the world!

 

The basemaps for the 60 and 76 GPSMap series are pretty useless. However, the basemap that is included is a "world map". In other words, I found it just as "useful" when I was in the Netherlands, Rome, and South Africa, as it is at home (U.S).

 

There are several basemap products from Garmin and for the most part there is a set for the U.S., one for Europe, and a few other areas as well for each map series. It looks like they've got a Topo map specifically for Great Britain. There are also "City Navigator maps" which are good if you want tons of waypoints as well, and a "Blue Chart series" (lakes, oceans), and a few other specialty maps. If you look at their "Maps" link off the main page you can look at all their maps and get a sample view to see what kind of detail you can expect. You might find that the City Navigator Europe map will meet most of your needs.

 

I'll be curious to see if they introduce an international version of the new Colorado series (which has the US Topo 2008 and shaded relief worldwide basemaps). It can also store GPX files directly on the unit so you can have full cache listings right on your GPS. It's quite expensive though.

[+izzyvet]

You had asked about the "wrist type" GPS recievers. I found my first 50 or 60 caches with my Garmin Forerunner, which I use for running. I could load waypoints directly from my computer, but it only held 50 waypoints. No mapping on it either. I used it for geocaching because at the time it was all I had and it worked great!! It had the benefit of being very "stealthy" as it was right there on my wrist like a watch. But with no base map it was kind of hard driving around to find the caches. I now have a Legend HCX with the City Navigator and use that exclusively. It holds 10 times more waypoints and I can see the roads and map information near the cache, making it much easier to drive to where the cache is.

 

Soooo, depending on your needs, and since you already have a GPS for driving (I use my Legend for that now) you might consider a Forerunner if you are a runner or cyclist.

[Fluxuated]

I can't rave about the Garmin GPSMAP60CSx enough. I have it, with TOPO Maps installed. I just got it during the week, after using an Older Garmin 12XL, that'a bout 14 years old now, it did the job, but not like the 60CSx. I was out today with the kids, and a River prevented me from getting to the next cache, so I zoomed the map down and followed the river on the map page to find a suitable crossing spot. Try doing that with a No Map capable GPS, and it's accurate.

 

I also have a Garmin NUVI, which I use for driving to get close to the cache, then jump out with the 60, to go get it.

 

It's pricey, but seems to be the GPS of choice at the moment, without going nuts and splurging on a Colorado.

 

Good luck in your quest.