Jump to content

Trip to Canada, time to upgrade my GPSer...help!


Recommended Posts

My husband and I are planning a geocaching-based vacation to the Canadian Maritimes this September. It's time to upgrade our basic level Garmin we've had for 4-5 years (Etrex Legend) - affectionately known as "Blue" or other names not fit to print at times. I want to go paperless (I'm tired of printing up all the caches and carrying around a notebook) and get a GPSer that has more retention of signal under tree canopy. I would also like to keep the price under $500, preferably $300. The Delorme units seem interesting to me, but do they work in Canada :) ? All the info I've been reading seems so confusing, and they don't always (away from this form) specifically address the features that a geocacher would need/want.

 

Can you please help us?

 

PJ-FredX-Tuck

 

(And Tucker doesn't care what we use, as long as he gets to experience new smells and sights, especially if he encounters a squirrel or two!)

Link to comment

Any GPS, including DeLorme, will work just fine in Canada. But DeLorme has no Canadian maps so if you're interested in having maps in your new GPS get something besides a DeLorme.

 

Some of the Garmin units have complete paperless caching and Garmin has a number of choices for maps that include Canadian coverage. Or you can get the Ibycus Canadian topos for free if you have a Garmin unit.

 

...ken...

Link to comment

Any GPS, including DeLorme, will work just fine in Canada. But DeLorme has no Canadian maps so if you're interested in having maps in your new GPS get something besides a DeLorme.

 

Some of the Garmin units have complete paperless caching and Garmin has a number of choices for maps that include Canadian coverage. Or you can get the Ibycus Canadian topos for free if you have a Garmin unit.

 

...ken...

 

This is not true, the DeLormes do have routing maps included with your GPS purchase. These maps are not TOPO from my understanding though.

Link to comment

First are you going to use if for driving or just handheld. I vacation in Canada for part of every summer. I use an Oregon 300 and put in the CN North America card and purchased the Canada TOPO from Garmin. That pushes the price up a little past what you want. The TOPO can be displayed on your computer which is nice. I have a driving Garmin with a streets DVD for that which provides me with all the streets on my computer for planning and printing. If I didn't have that I would have gotten it for the Oregon. The advantage of the DVD's their being used on you computer. A 4G card will hold a huge amount of maps (although when installing a big map it is best to start it before you go to bed and let it run).

Link to comment

We really appreciate all the replies we've received.

 

We already have a Magellan unit for the car (just need to get the Canadian upgrade chip for it). So it seems like you're saying that I certainly can use the DeLorme for Canada, I just won't have the topo map feature to use (no different than what I'm using now regarding that).

 

So is there any difference between the PN-20 and PN-40 (or 30) when it comes to being paperless?

Link to comment
...DeLorme has no Canadian maps
The current DeLorme PN-40 model ships with a copy of Topo 8 USA -- which also includes street-level data for Canada and Mexico. I haven't personally reviewed it yet though, so I don't know how accurate it is.

 

In the past, I've used certain other vendors map products primarily for the USA that "also included Canada" -- and found the coverage/detail to be pretty poor. So I'd be inclined to "try before you buy" - or at least touch base with someone who HAS the product in question to see if it will suit your needs.

Edited by lee_rimar
Link to comment

We really appreciate all the replies we've received.

 

We already have a Magellan unit for the car (just need to get the Canadian upgrade chip for it). So it seems like you're saying that I certainly can use the DeLorme for Canada, I just won't have the topo map feature to use (no different than what I'm using now regarding that).

 

So is there any difference between the PN-20 and PN-40 (or 30) when it comes to being paperless?

 

Yep, sounds like the DeLorme is a good fit for your needs! I'd say, since you have the car-nav unit, you could use any of the PNs, of course the 40 is the best! Differences aren't much between the 20and 40, it's mainly preference IMHO. I do think the 40 would be a better choice though!

Link to comment

We really appreciate all the replies we've received.

 

We already have a Magellan unit for the car (just need to get the Canadian upgrade chip for it). So it seems like you're saying that I certainly can use the DeLorme for Canada, I just won't have the topo map feature to use (no different than what I'm using now regarding that).

 

So is there any difference between the PN-20 and PN-40 (or 30) when it comes to being paperless?

 

Yep, sounds like the DeLorme is a good fit for your needs! I'd say, since you have the car-nav unit, you could use any of the PNs, of course the 40 is the best! Differences aren't much between the 20and 40, it's mainly preference IMHO. I do think the 40 would be a better choice though!

 

Don't know that I would say that. There is a pretty big speed difference between the 20 and the 40. One of the most common complaints on the 20 was sluggish menus and screen updates. The 40 seems to have addressed that well. It sounds trivial but one thing that drives me up the wall quickly in any device or program is unresponsive UI's. Personally, I would skip the 20 and go with the 40 if you decide to go with DeLorme

Link to comment

With the Garmin you could get Canadian Topos for free as I understand it not something easily done on the Delorme. If this is a one-time deal that may not be important. Both the Oregon and the PN-40 will do paperless. The PN-40 would be the less expensive unit.

You can get the same vector data also raster TOPO's & aerial imagery from the geogratis website. You would need a copy of DeLorme's xMap software to load it to a PN-20/30/40 and it isn't that hard really. Edited by coggins
Link to comment

We really appreciate all the replies we've received.

 

We already have a Magellan unit for the car (just need to get the Canadian upgrade chip for it). So it seems like you're saying that I certainly can use the DeLorme for Canada, I just won't have the topo map feature to use (no different than what I'm using now regarding that).

 

So is there any difference between the PN-20 and PN-40 (or 30) when it comes to being paperless?

 

Yep, sounds like the DeLorme is a good fit for your needs! I'd say, since you have the car-nav unit, you could use any of the PNs, of course the 40 is the best! Differences aren't much between the 20and 40, it's mainly preference IMHO. I do think the 40 would be a better choice though!

 

Don't know that I would say that. There is a pretty big speed difference between the 20 and the 40. One of the most common complaints on the 20 was sluggish menus and screen updates. The 40 seems to have addressed that well. It sounds trivial but one thing that drives me up the wall quickly in any device or program is unresponsive UI's. Personally, I would skip the 20 and go with the 40 if you decide to go with DeLorme

 

That would be the preference I spoke of, and the reason I said the 40 would be a better choice! :(

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...