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Which Gps


davenjulie

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Hi

 

I know it prob been asked before but Im a complete novice

 

Q1 being new to all this which Gps is best to start with? not an all singing all dancing kind of thing, but a good basic one really till I get the hang of it, and how much are they?,

 

Q2 I notice when I search for caches theres a link to send to garmin so is garmin better,

 

TIA

 

Dave

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Hi

 

I know it prob been asked before but Im a complete novice

 

Q1 being new to all this which Gps is best to start with? not an all singing all dancing kind of thing, but a good basic one really till I get the hang of it, and how much are they?,

 

Q2 I notice when I search for caches theres a link to send to garmin so is garmin better,

 

TIA

 

Dave

 

I'm using a Garmin extrex (yellow brick), a nice simple and cheap unit to use if you're just starting out.

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Hi

 

I know it prob been asked before but Im a complete novice

 

Q1 being new to all this which Gps is best to start with? not an all singing all dancing kind of thing, but a good basic one really till I get the hang of it, and how much are they?,

 

Q2 I notice when I search for caches theres a link to send to garmin so is garmin better,

 

TIA

 

Dave

 

I'm using a Garmin extrex (yellow brick), a nice simple and cheap unit to use if you're just starting out.

 

Thanks TBOS, for the quick reply, do you have a link please,how much are they and wheres the best place to get one, how does the send to garmin work

 

TIA

 

Dave

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A geocache is represented just as waypoints. A waypoint is a co-ordinate so where I am, caches tend to be N53 nn.nnn W3 nn.nnn. All geocache mode is that when you find a geocache, you mark it as found and it will then offer you the option to find the next nearest geocache. This does tend to be (I may be corrected) a Garmin feature.

 

This geocache mode method works for me - but other cachers (Hazel!) find this odd! :)

 

But if you upload / enter co-ordinates into a GPSr (GPS receiver) , those co-ordinates could be for a car park, a hotel, a tree, a building, a nice place, a cess pit. But YOU know it takes you to a geocache. When you get to GZ (ground zero) you know you have about 10 - 15 metres of GZ to find a little mouldy plastic box full of cheap trinkets. But it has a log book and maybe a (and if not, ALWAYS carry a spare) pen to show that you have found the cache.

 

The eTrexH has been a popular starter unit. But this does not have the geocaching mode. Which may or may not be a big thing. The cheapest model with geocaching mode is the eTrex venture HC I err on the Venture HC to be honest because it has a USB interface to link up to your computer so it just makes life easier in general. But at the end of the day money talks. More money, more bells and whistles but you can still cache (because it is only co-ordinates) on the cheapest units out there.

 

Look out for bargains on eBay too.

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Hi

 

scottpa100 thanks for the info that's a lot clearer now

 

thurs night gang :lol:

 

hiho9 thanks I'll check out the gps 60

 

The Hungry Caterpillars deffo up for meeting other members and I'll take a look at the Colorado, although I think the Garmin eTrex H/C, is what I'll get at first, as I am unsure, as to what I will require exactly, its only been 4 days since I discovered geocaching.

.

Members of the photography forum I go on, are getting interested we've even talked about trying to set up a Tog geocache, were we can find caches that reveals a location or subject, to go and photograph, or something like that, then post the images up.

 

Dave

Edited by davenjulie
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I'm using an IPAQ RX 5720 PDA. It's got everything you need for caching, and includes Tom Tom for the UK

 

I paid about £150 for it (new). I was talking to non caching friend last evening and he recently bought a couple on ebay for about £80 each. If you can get one for that price I go for it.

 

Bob S

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Hiya I;m not sure where abouts in Lancs you are, but there's an event on tonight in Chester...

 

Be a chance to meet other cachers and grill them about their GPSs.

(personally, I use a 60C but I want to pick up a Colorado or an Oregan when I go to the states later in the year)

 

Event page

 

This event is usually just a few beers, a meal and a chat - nothing fancy.

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Tom Toms are ok for drive bys or caches on a road. Other folk have used them for that type of cache including me, where they let you down is putting in co-ordinates that are not on a road. they just point in a blank space and leave it at that.

 

However you coud use the Tom Tom and a print out of the map from the cache page then using the clue you should be ok. For a while at least.

 

I use an old Yellow Brick (not even a HC version) and it does me fine. I do hunger for flashier units but am happy to plod on and enjoy it my way.

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Hi

 

i started offf with the "yellow brick" but i got a little bored of the display too quick as it didnt really give me what i was looking for on the display which was a mapping unit.

 

I moved up to the venture cx and saved up for the topo as this unit had an expandable memory. Once i did this it made the unit come much more alive and actually gave the land some definition on the screen instead of just the normal yellow, bearing in mind water isnt shown on the yellow map as standard only on the topo addition. Once the topo is on i could just have a quick look at the map before i went to the cache to get a feel for what the land is like.

 

One problem for me was the manual compass built in to this unit, when standing still it wouldnt give a bearing. You have to move to get a bearing. i do also use this for walking so i found it a little annoying.

 

So at that point i moved up to the colorado as i was doing more caching and wanted to go paperless due to a couple of occasions when i didnt print off all the cache details and this resulted in a minor disagreement with the better half!! Still having topo on this unit was great as the screen was bigger had a faster processor when zooming in and out. The paperless caching is cool, all the details appear on screen even the hints are there as well if u get really stuck.

 

At this point i did use the picture viewer to take some kids i borrowed on a picture trail to the cache, made it more fun for them and let there parents worry the thingy they were holding was £300.

This is where i point out i found the jog wheel on the colorado a pain to use, editing info in to the unit and saving waypints with different names was a long drawn out process.

 

Then along came the oregon, when reading the pre release data i thought the touch screen would be rubbish to be honest. The colorado was released with loads of software glitches and i expected the oregon to have some as well. How wrong could i be, had the unit 2 months now. Touch screen is fast and responsive, menus change really quickly and editing waypoint data is so simple in comparison to the colorado. The screen covers the majority of the unit and means the buttons and keyboards are big and its easy to tap the right letter. paperless geocaching is just as good as ever they have just refined some of the menus to tart it up a little.

 

Overall i love the oregon i think the touch screen makes navigation of menus easier than the previous toggle keys on my previous etrex units. People do moan the screen isnt bright enough on the oregon and colorados, well truthfully they arent but if you can get over that probably being the only niggle then thats good.

 

My recomendation is to start on the venture hcx as this can add mapping which is a good way forward, or simply spend as much as you can afford but dont push your self too far.

 

Hope this helps Paul

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Hi

 

I know it prob been asked before but Im a complete novice

 

Q1 being new to all this which Gps is best to start with? not an all singing all dancing kind of thing, but a good basic one really till I get the hang of it, and how much are they?,

 

Q2 I notice when I search for caches theres a link to send to garmin so is garmin better,

 

TIA

 

Dave

 

I bought the Garmin Trex H and it is spot on. If there are any discrepancies its usually the co-ords that are slightly out. Gets you within 2ft of the cache. :huh:

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I'm using an IPAQ RX 5720 PDA. It's got everything you need for caching, and includes Tom Tom for the UK

 

 

i also have an ipaq but mines the rx5935 with memory map but it starts getting expensive...

 

We are totally new to this and have just brought the Garmin etrex vista HCx, just found out how to turn it on to find you spend all that money and need to buy maps for it!

Is this true ?

 

Many Thanks

 

Clint

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A geocache is represented just as waypoints. A waypoint is a co-ordinate so where I am, caches tend to be N53 nn.nnn W3 nn.nnn. All geocache mode is that when you find a geocache, you mark it as found and it will then offer you the option to find the next nearest geocache. This does tend to be (I may be corrected) a Garmin feature.

 

This geocache mode method works for me - but other cachers (Hazel!) find this odd! :ninja:

 

But if you upload / enter co-ordinates into a GPSr (GPS receiver) , those co-ordinates could be for a car park, a hotel, a tree, a building, a nice place, a cess pit. But YOU know it takes you to a geocache. When you get to GZ (ground zero) you know you have about 10 - 15 metres of GZ to find a little mouldy plastic box full of cheap trinkets. But it has a log book and maybe a (and if not, ALWAYS carry a spare) pen to show that you have found the cache.

 

The eTrexH has been a popular starter unit. But this does not have the geocaching mode. Which may or may not be a big thing. The cheapest model with geocaching mode is the eTrex venture HC I err on the Venture HC to be honest because it has a USB interface to link up to your computer so it just makes life easier in general. But at the end of the day money talks. More money, more bells and whistles but you can still cache (because it is only co-ordinates) on the cheapest units out there.

 

Look out for bargains on eBay too.

 

Thanks - really useful post.

 

Geocache mode - is it usual/necessary to delete Found caches or does the unit just ignore them once marked as found?

 

I've been looking at Etrex Legend Hcx, which I notice gets a few mentions on this thread - and is slightly cheaper at handtec than on GPSW - and handtec has a few more related products.

 

Does anyone know if South America (Ecuador) basemaps are available anywhere?

 

Some dumb questions :( :

 

I'm slightly confused that there is "no" internal memory yet it stores waypoints - does this mean you must buy an SD card to store anything .

 

And is the turn-by-turn routing on roads any good or is the screen a bit small? And does it accept postcode and grid refs for this feature.

 

Feel free to answer any other questions I was too dumb to ask...

 

Thanx - Rob

 

PS I might need to change my autosig :ninja:

Edited by Sagina nivalis
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Geocache mode - is it usual/necessary to delete Found caches or does the unit just ignore them once marked as found?

Geocaching mode is just a gimmick to hook in Geocachers and is lame at best. You will probably want to set up custom icons for different cache types. Geocaching mode is only capable of using one icon, so I would advise to forget it.

I've been looking at Etrex Legend Hcx, which I notice gets a few mentions on this thread - and is slightly cheaper at handtec than on GPSW - and handtec has a few more related products.

 

Does anyone know if South America (Ecuador) basemaps are available anywhere?

The base map is what your Garmin comes pre-loaded with. Base maps have almost no detail and are inaccurate. AFAIK you can't buy base maps. You would buy a "proper" map to load onto MicroSD.

Topo UK is routing, Topo US is not, so make sure you check. Examples of mapping detail is available on garmin.com. Check there for map availability too.

Some dumb questions :grin: :

 

I'm slightly confused that there is "no" internal memory yet it stores waypoints - does this mean you must buy an SD card to store anything .

All Garmin products have some internal memory AFAIK. Maps, tracks and POI are held on MicroSD card, waypoints and routes on internal memory. This is why there is a limit to the number of routes and waypoints while tracks and POI are almost unlimited.

All models come with a tiny (64MB) MicroSD card, but they are so cheap now it's unreal. A 2GB card will hold all of Topo UK. If you don't buy maps why would you buy a mapping GPSr?

And is the turn-by-turn routing on roads any good or is the screen a bit small? And does it accept postcode and grid refs for this feature.

No voice, but I managed for a couple of years with it. Like most sat nav the screen zooms in on the junction as you approach, so it's pretty clear.

Feel free to answer any other questions I was too dumb to ask...

 

Thanx - Rob

 

PS I might need to change my autosig :grin:

Any of the later generations of Garmin products what you want well. i.e. eTrex H series, GPSMAP60C(S)x and Colorado/Oregon, though some eTrex models can't handle maps.

I would definitely buy Topo UK mapping. It's not perfect, but it's the best you'll get on a Garmin. I'm sure you have plenty of OS maps anyway. :D

Differences in models are easy to research and well documented on this site as well as the Garmin site.

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TVM for all that :grin::grin:

 

Agentmancuso reminds me there is free UK mapping here: http://www.ukgeocachers.co.uk/garminoverlays/index.php

 

Topo mapping isn't a must-have, but probably would become one the minute I bought a non-mapping device...

 

I'll probably go with Legend Hcx or Vista. The only difference being Vista has electronic compass and barometric altimeter? Neither of which sound v useful even to a hill man.

 

PS I got round to checking out (thread originator) davenjulie's Flickr page - some interesting images!

Edited by Sagina nivalis
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For Ecuador, you might get something here.

 

I haven't looked too closely, but they'll probably be able to point you in the right direction.

 

As for the geocache mode, well it's pretty enough if, like me, you only tend to have the handful of caches that you might do this weekend stored on it at any one time. But if you're downloading large Pocket Queries then the one icon limitation will probably make it too constricting.

 

And as someone else said - though it might have been in the other place - Mapsource is duff.

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