GPS, a Tom Tom? Garmin? Which one do you have?

[+yawppy]

Mom just bought 1st GPS, a Tom Tom, Will it work for caching?

 

I just recently showed my Mom my past summer adventures caching. She was quite interested as only a mom can be. So I never expected her to really want to cache, just figured she would be interested in her Son's activities, and that was it.

 

How-ever I am happy to say she is geting ready for an adventure that will never end, caching, went out and bought a Tom Tom. Now I know I have heard of these, but have yet to met a cacher with one, and it seems like software is more geared towards Garmin.

 

So I need to investigate and see, told my mom, that Garmin would be better, but her receipt for return is short lived, have 15 days, should she switch or not? Will Geocache support a Tom Tom?

 

TY

If possibble, E-mail me respones at jawppy_2@yahoo.com (Due to time constraints and work would be helpful)

[+NOV8TR]

Yep, a Tomtom will work for geocaching. It is not the best choice, but it will work very well if you do not exceed the battery limits, or drop it in the creek. I found my first 50 caches with mine! You can check out this link to My Webpage to see what I did to mine to make it work better. It even works pretty darn good for paperless caching. I now use my Garmin Vista HCx for geocaching, but my Tomtom still does all the road navigation, and acompanys me on the trail as a backup (safely tucked away in my back pack).

Cache on! Use what ever you have and enjoy the great outdoors!

[+wkmccall]

You can check out this link to My Webpage to see what I did to mine to make it work better. It even works pretty darn good for paperless caching. I now use my Garmin Vista HCx for geocaching, but my Tomtom still does all the road navigation, and acompanys me on the trail as a backup (safely tucked away in my back pack).

Cache on! Use what ever you have and enjoy the great outdoors!

 

That has to be the coolest thing I have seen in a LONG time! Thanks for sharing that!

[+sportside]

IMO, if its purely for caching, get a handheld. I found my first one with my Tomtom (TT One, third edition), but I'm much happier with the Garmin Venture HC for cache hunting. The Tomtom gets me there, Garmin gets me into the woods.

 

1xl, that is a cool idea. Never looked into whether or not i could do txt on my TT. How was signal in the woods for you on tomtom? I had a lot of issues with that...

[+briansnat]

You can find caches with a Tom Tom. If you are into the kind of caching where you are just flitting between parking lots and guardrails it will do the job. If however you want to hit the caches that are a bit off the beaten path, the Tom Tom (and any unit designed for automobile use) will be very lacking. First off the battery life is

not sufficient for a day of caching away from a power source. Nor is it waterproof or durable enough for the outdoors. You are best off getting an inexpensive hand held unit and letting your Tom Tom take you to the parking area.

[+NOV8TR]

1xl, that is a cool idea. Never looked into whether or not i could do txt on my TT. How was signal in the woods for you on tomtom? I had a lot of issues with that...

 

I can't really complain about the signal in the woods with my Tomtom. However, living (and geocaching) in Santa Barbara Ca. has its own unique advantages/limitations. Our coast line faces south and we have a 4,000 foot (average) high mountain ridge about 5 miles from the beach that runs the whole length of the coast line from east to west. This effectively eliminates line of sight to all northern satellites below the 30° inclination (any satellite below 30° above the horizon to the north can not be used). However, the line of sight to the south is virtually unobstructed (including the southwestern WAAS bird). So, we get great WAAS corrections, but a very poor spread on the birds to the north. Also, there are not very many places where we have super dense overhead tree cover. We do have a fair number of canyons where I can only get a satellite lock on maybe 4 or 5 birds. My Tomtom is not WAAS capable, however, in all but a few places, it seems to be at least as (and in my opinion more) accurate as my Garmin Vista HCx (which is WAAS capable). I think the biggest difference is in the chipset. The Tomtom has the SIRF chipset, and the Garmin (Vista HCx) uses the MTK chipset. I like the SIRF chipset better because it seems to be more repeatable (day to day). I can go back to a known location and get the same reading regardless of the satellite constellation that is available at the time. The MTK chipset seems to be a little more "drifty", and will generally repeat the readings to within about 20~25 feet, where as the SIRF chipset will more often than not repeat readings to within about 10~15 feet. If I let the Garmin (MTK chipset) settle in for 5 minutes or so, it gets much better (closer to the Tomtom), but who is willing to stand in one spot for 5 minutes to wait for the last 15 feet of available accuracy to lock in? When My Garmin won't settle in on a reading, I pull my Tomtom out of my back pack and use it for "zeroing in" on the tougher hides (the ones that I can't just use "geosense" to find ). I admit that all this may change when (if) I decide to upgrade my Garmin software/firmware. But until I get more reports on the "issues" being resolved in that upgrade, I'm going to stick with my 2.4/2.4 SW/FW that came installed in the Garmin.

Edited October 15, 2008 by 1XL-on-XR650L