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Are there any "All Purpose" GPS units?


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I have a Gramin NUVI 200 in my car I use for travel. And a Meggellan Sportrak Map I use for hiking.hunting/ Geocaching etc.

The NUVI doesn't seem like it would be very friendly for Geocaching.(Never Tried It??) And any of the handhelds do not seem as friendly towards traveling with the POI's Turn by turn, voice etc..

 

I just wonder if there is one unit that will do it all?? Be usefull for Travel as with the Nuvi and also be detailed enough for geocaching.??

 

Anyone use there GPS for Both Purposes??

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Would the use be split about 50/50 or would you mainly want SatNav features?

 

The lowrance XOG looks more biased to SatNav.

 

I added the UK National Park 1:50,000 maps to my Oregon and that added SatNav functionality that means I can leave my Nuvi 255T for the wife to hog :mad:

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The XOG is getting very close to what I had in mind. I downloaded the manual and it gives several warnings about: "This device is designed to be used in a car" etc. And is not weather proof.....Most of which could be overcome by an appropiate case maybe...

 

The XOG is "weatherproof" it just isn't "waterproof." It'll survive being rained on no problem, but drop it in a lake and it probably won't survive.

 

Otherwise it's a great little unit! Does the voice guidance thing in the car, and will accept Geocaching GPX files if you grab the (free) GPXtoUSR software from the Lowrance website.

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This is Garmin's best guess at an all purpose unit - Nuvi that is trail rugged and does Geocaching GPX files plus all the great in-car nav stuff.

 

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=134&pID=27442

Depends on if your focus leans more towards navigation features or geocaching.

 

Garmin really has two "dual use" units (or series of units). One is somewhat more road-oriented, the other is more trail oriented.

 

The Nuvi 500 series is the road-oriented device that has capabilities for trail/geocaching work, but to my knowledge doesn't have an electronic compass which can be VERY nice for caching.

 

The Oregon series are the trail-oriented devices that do road navigation quite well.

 

The big thing the Oregon lacks compared to Nuvis for road navigation if you have City Navigator maps installed is voice prompting.

 

Edit: As to Lowrance, as of around 2005, while they used SD cards, Lowrance required you to use a special SD card reader with MapSend. Normal SD card readers would NOT work for writing maps, and the Lowrance card reader was about as large as the iFinder H2O my father purchased it with. Do they still require you to use a special card reader?

Edited by Entropy512
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This is Garmin's best guess at an all purpose unit - Nuvi that is trail rugged and does Geocaching GPX files plus all the great in-car nav stuff.

 

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=134&pID=27442

Depends on if your focus leans more towards navigation features or geocaching.

 

Garmin really has two "dual use" units (or series of units). One is somewhat more road-oriented, the other is more trail oriented.

 

The Nuvi 500 series is the road-oriented device that has capabilities for trail/geocaching work, but to my knowledge doesn't have an electronic compass which can be VERY nice for caching.

 

The Oregon series are the trail-oriented devices that do road navigation quite well.

 

The big thing the Oregon lacks compared to Nuvis for road navigation if you have City Navigator maps installed is voice prompting.

 

Edit: As to Lowrance, as of around 2005, while they used SD cards, Lowrance required you to use a special SD card reader with MapSend. Normal SD card readers would NOT work for writing maps, and the Lowrance card reader was about as large as the iFinder H2O my father purchased it with. Do they still require you to use a special card reader?

It looks like that there isn't a special SD card reader needed for the XOG. However, you still need to convert the gxp files to usr. This thread has alot of useful information. Another unit that may work would be one of the new Lowrance Endura models. This series is not available yet in stores.

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