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New cheap and simple GPS


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Hello,

I'm looking to get a cheap GPS for my family to do geocaching with. I've looked around at various reviews and lists but decided it would be easiest to directly ask for opinions here.

 

What I'm looking at:

etrex H for $99

-Really just for the price. If it allowed me to import a few hundred caches at a time though, it would suffice.

 

Triton 1500 (I think, or rather, my dad thinks he saw on sale) for about $150.

-Comes with an SD slot, but I hear bad things about the software and working with it.

 

etrex Summit HC for $120

-No SD slot, but it is listed as "Geocaching-friendly"

 

Basically what I want is the ability to download .loc or, preferably, .gpx files and load a large number of geocaches at once into it (even if it needs to go through something like GSAK first), and then easily select and go to them by position. Detailed road maps would be nice but not necessary.

 

My question is: which of these units does that the best? I don't really need any more features than just support for adding multiple geocaches at once (don't need hints, logs, anything like that, although they would be nice too).

 

For reference, I myself use an Explorist 500 and it does everything I want it to do amazingly. I would just get my family one if they weren't discontinued and all used on ebay.

 

Thanks

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Hello,

I'm looking to get a cheap GPS for my family to do geocaching with. I've looked around at various reviews and lists but decided it would be easiest to directly ask for opinions here.

 

What I'm looking at:

etrex H for $99

-Really just for the price. If it allowed me to import a few hundred caches at a time though, it would suffice.

 

Triton 1500 (I think, or rather, my dad thinks he saw on sale) for about $150.

-Comes with an SD slot, but I hear bad things about the software and working with it.

 

etrex Summit HC for $120

-No SD slot, but it is listed as "Geocaching-friendly"

 

Basically what I want is the ability to download .loc or, preferably, .gpx files and load a large number of geocaches at once into it (even if it needs to go through something like GSAK first), and then easily select and go to them by position. Detailed road maps would be nice but not necessary.

 

My question is: which of these units does that the best? I don't really need any more features than just support for adding multiple geocaches at once (don't need hints, logs, anything like that, although they would be nice too).

 

For reference, I myself use an Explorist 500 and it does everything I want it to do amazingly. I would just get my family one if they weren't discontinued and all used on ebay.

 

Thanks

 

Check out the PN-20 as well as the ones you listed. Ease of use, maps are included with ability to add more via $30/year subscription, can load with ease via send to gps function and is capable of routing (although not as well as most other handhelds because screen redraw is slow). You also get paperless caching (TRUE paperless caching), this means you can read entire description including hints and logs, you can log the cache on the PN-20, then upload via field notes function which will keep track of the caches you haven't logged while keeping them in order of find! It's a nice unit, especially for around $130!

 

Some will tell you this is a hard unit to use, I can tell you, I used the Maggie 500LE as well and found the PN-40 (PN-20's bigger brother) easier to use than the Maggie!! There are some tricks to the TOPO 7 software, but you should get the new TOPO 8 with your purchase, so no biggie!

 

Whatever your choice, I wish you luck and have fun!

Edited by Rockin Roddy
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Thank you all for the suggestions, opinions, and links. They've really helped out and I think we're going with the Venture HC (especially for that low price for the refurbished one). This should be more than enough to keep my family geocaching happily for years to come. Thanks again for the help.

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Thank you all for the suggestions, opinions, and links. They've really helped out and I think we're going with the Venture HC (especially for that low price for the refurbished one). This should be more than enough to keep my family geocaching happily for years to come. Thanks again for the help.

 

Before you buy the Garmin I would recommend you looking into the Delorme PN-20. They are on sale I believe at Amazon for $100 and come with all of the maps that you'll need as well as the TOPO maps too. In addition you can get aerial views and do paperless caching which you can't do on the garmin. Check out the reviews on this because in my opinion for the price you can't beat it. I use the PN-40 and love it!

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Very cool price, but just curious why Etrex Venture HC battery life 14 hours is lesser than 25 hours Etrex Vista HCx? Venture's electronics is more simple than Vista's and seems GPS chipset the same MTK...

 

Go figure. It doesn't make sense, but it is true. For whatever reason they battery life is longer on the "more complicated" Garmin eTrex units.

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For whatever reason they battery life is longer on the "more complicated" Garmin eTrex units.
I've noticed this also and it doesn't make sense to me either. It appears to me the models that take microSD cards have significantly longer battery life.

 

That suggests either on-board memory is more power hungry, or newer devices (that happen to have memory card slots) are just better/newer designs.

Edited by lee_rimar
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Hey folks,

 

Coggins provided a connection to Adorama Camera who is selling refurbished Garmin eTrex Venture HC units for $69.95, and he is correct that I have not seen a better price. The idea of a refurbished unit bothers me somewhat, and I would like to know if anyone has any experience with a refurbished unit. Does anyone have any other thoughts on buying one of these refurbished units? That is a really good price, but it is wasted money if the product is likely to be faulty. I was all set to order one of these from Wal-Mart for $128 plus tax and $3 shipping until I saw this thread.

 

Best wishes,

Dave Wile

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I did check out the PN-20 but the reviews didn't seem too favorable, with compatability and performance issues, and with the price of the refurbished model we figured we'd try it out. I'll let you know how it goes when it gets here :P

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Hey folks,

 

I found another thread where the Adorama Camera site was the subject, and several folks indicated they had purchased there. Well, I also just ordered one tonight - $69.95 with free shipping and no sales tax to Pennsylvania. The web site indicated it is supposed to come with a Garmin 1 year warranty. I sure hope so. Thanks, Coggins, for getting me to this site. Unless it is faulty and a pain in the backside, it sure is better than the one from Wal-Mart for $128 plus PA sales tax and $3 shipping.

 

Best wishes,

Dave Wile

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How much area (of a topo map) can typically be loaded within the 24MB internal memory? With this unit and the free maps from gpsfiledepot, this could provide a really nice, but cheap solution for someone starting out with Geocaching.

 

Besides the limited internal memory, are there any other cons that should be considered? The ones that come to mind are: no SD card slot, no electronic compass. Although, for basic geocaching use, these are not necessarily show stoppers.

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Hey folks,

 

Coggins provided a connection to Adorama Camera who is selling refurbished Garmin eTrex Venture HC units for $69.95, and he is correct that I have not seen a better price. The idea of a refurbished unit bothers me somewhat, and I would like to know if anyone has any experience with a refurbished unit. Does anyone have any other thoughts on buying one of these refurbished units? That is a really good price, but it is wasted money if the product is likely to be faulty. I was all set to order one of these from Wal-Mart for $128 plus tax and $3 shipping until I saw this thread.

 

Best wishes,

Dave Wile

 

I haven't bought any Garmin refurbs, however I had purchased many refurb items in my days. I've never been dissapointed. I have never had a problem with even a single refurb electronic device and I've had computers, pocket pc's, dvd players, vcr's, cd players, televisions. All held up well.

 

In this case the unit comes with the same Garmin 1 years parts/labor warranty as any other new Garmin GSPr so I would say you can't really lose here.

 

In addition - consider that warranty replacements for defective new units are typically refurb or re certified units - this is common practice in the electronics industry.

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Our new (refurbished) Venture HC just came in and I've been playing with it for an hour or so, and I have to admit I'm tempted to leave my explorist for it. It looks new, works like new, and works great at that. Within 5 minutes of having it out of the box, I'm already loaded with geocaches and accurately tracking them from inside my basement (which is something the explorist could never do for me). My only question so far is if any of you know the maximum number of geocaches it can hold. I tried to upload 900ish and it came up with a message saying "Waypoint limit reached", but never told me where the limit was. I did upload 190 without a problem though.

That aside, this is a great unit and I am seriously considering getting another one for myself as backup.

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Hey folks,

 

You may have trouble believing this, but I ordered a refurbished Garmin eTrex Venture HC from Adorama Camera after 8:00 PM, and it arrived today via UPS. Seems to be very nice, but this old dog has trouble with new tricks. As soon as I started it up, I did something that made it start beeping and giving me a message about dragging an anchor or something. I don't know what I did to make it go away, but it finally did go away. Now it will be a long uphill battle to learn how to use the thing.

 

Vitayav is way ahead of me. I am not sure what he is even talking about.

 

Best wishes,

Dave Wile

Edited by davidwile
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Our new (refurbished) Venture HC just came in and I've been playing with it for an hour or so, and I have to admit I'm tempted to leave my explorist for it. It looks new, works like new, and works great at that. Within 5 minutes of having it out of the box, I'm already loaded with geocaches and accurately tracking them from inside my basement (which is something the explorist could never do for me). My only question so far is if any of you know the maximum number of geocaches it can hold. I tried to upload 900ish and it came up with a message saying "Waypoint limit reached", but never told me where the limit was. I did upload 190 without a problem though.

That aside, this is a great unit and I am seriously considering getting another one for myself as backup.

 

500 is the limit.

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500 is the limit.

 

Thanks.

 

And hopefully one last question: Is there a way to upload detail maps to the Venture HC using Mapsend Topo 3D? I use it with my explorist where I just create the .imi file and put it on my SD card, but the Venture HC lacks an SD card and Mapsend doesn't recognize the GPS unit when I try to send the maps directly (nor do I see any way to just copy files over to the internal memory).

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