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Dakota 20 Accuracy VS Oregon and PN-40


rlyindra

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Is it the same as these units for accuracy and have some of if any bugs been worked out. I have a PN-40 and it is very accurate and I think it is worth it to have the 3-axis compass. This is for a freind and she has not decided on the Delorme. One issue she likes is when doing a multi and changing the coords. On the Garmins you can do this but you have to go to a different page for the info, right.

Thanks

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You got it right that, on the Garmins, you must mark a new location in order to change the coords for a multi. This also means, as you said, that you would need to go to the first page for any info and to log the find. I found this confusing and a PITB, but ymmv!

 

I am a big fan of the PN-40, love mine!! And the DeLorme team, TOP-NOTCH in my book, great group of people!

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My testing has showed the PN30 (very similar unit) and the Oregon have just about the same accuracy in many conditions. For that matter, even an inexpensive eTrex H is just as accurate. What matters more is ease of use, functions and personal asthetics. Both the Delorme and Garmin Oregon units have a lot of nice Geocaching features and GPS features. I give a slight edge to the Oregon.

 

I think my Oregon 200 is overall easier to use than the PN30. The Oregon uses a commonly found USB cable, the Delorme is prprietary. The Oregon goes about 11-14 hours on a set of AAs , the PN30 about 6 -7 hours. The PN30 loses reception in some tough conditions - so does the Oregon but less frequently.

 

The PN30 strong suit is the bundled maps - all included in the price - Also cheap access to many types of maps of high quality online. However, there are lots of free maps (varying quality) for the Garmin units.

 

If these things matter to you - keep them in mind. If not, ignore them.

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My testing has showed the PN30 (very similar unit) and the Oregon have just about the same accuracy in many conditions.

This should come as no surprise, as they share the same GPS receiver chipset.

 

The PN30 strong suit is the bundled maps - all included in the price - Also cheap access to many types of maps of high quality online. However, there are lots of free maps (varying quality) for the Garmin units.
Let us know when 95% or more of the continental US has free or even paid aerial & hi-res imagery in addition to those free maps. That is one of the things that truly sets DeLorme apart from everyone else - not the maps.
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My testing has showed the PN30 (very similar unit) and the Oregon have just about the same accuracy in many conditions.

This should come as no surprise, as they share the same GPS receiver chipset.

 

The PN30 strong suit is the bundled maps - all included in the price - Also cheap access to many types of maps of high quality online. However, there are lots of free maps (varying quality) for the Garmin units.
Let us know when 95% or more of the continental US has free or even paid aerial & hi-res imagery in addition to those free maps. That is one of the things that truly sets DeLorme apart from everyone else - not the maps.

Actually - the aerial imagery is of very limited value (my opinion) as it rarely is of high enough resuolution to zoom in and see much of anything of value. Especiallly when Geocaching. Also the imagery tends to be quite old in many rural areas. Besides - you can now take any Google Earth imagery and import it for free into the Oregon and Colorado units as long as they have enough available memory.

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Let us know when 95% or more of the continental US has free or even paid aerial & hi-res imagery in addition to those free maps.

Sorry, can not turn back time.

One meter resolution imagery (better for some areas) and scans of printed topo maps has been available for free from two (or more) Government websites for 15 plus years. One program reacquires in 5 year cycles for the 48 States.

 

That is one of the things that truly sets DeLorme apart from everyone else - not the maps.

I considered what set them apart was expecting people to pay about $50 per 7-1/2 minute quad for data that we already paid taxes to acquire, process, and make available for free on Governemnt websites. It may be more convient to obtain the data from DeLorme, but keep the facts correct.

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My testing has showed the PN30 (very similar unit) and the Oregon have just about the same accuracy in many conditions.

This should come as no surprise, as they share the same GPS receiver chipset.

 

The PN30 strong suit is the bundled maps - all included in the price - Also cheap access to many types of maps of high quality online. However, there are lots of free maps (varying quality) for the Garmin units.
Let us know when 95% or more of the continental US has free or even paid aerial & hi-res imagery in addition to those free maps. That is one of the things that truly sets DeLorme apart from everyone else - not the maps.

Actually - the aerial imagery is of very limited value (my opinion) as it rarely is of high enough resuolution to zoom in and see much of anything of value. Especiallly when Geocaching. Also the imagery tends to be quite old in many rural areas. Besides - you can now take any Google Earth imagery and import it for free into the Oregon and Colorado units as long as they have enough available memory.

I just had a very realistic usage of the aerial imagery that helped to determine if putting on snowshoes was worth while or just stomp through knee deep snow when we exited the tree line. If the clearing was more than 200 feet wide, we would have put on the shoes. As it was, stomping through it took as long as unstrapping the shoes from the backpack and putting them on, then taking them off again when we entered the opposite tree line and restrap everything back in place. Clearly the imagery had its benefit at this moment in time.

 

Determination for its usefulness is clearly up to the user, but it provides solid additional information you otherwise would not have. The beauty about the PN is the ability to flip between the different types of data or to simply disable it until such time as you might need it. It's like wearing layers. You can remove and put them on as needed, but you can't put them on if you don't bring them with you.

Edited by TotemLake
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Let us know when 95% or more of the continental US has free or even paid aerial & hi-res imagery in addition to those free maps.

Sorry, can not turn back time.

One meter resolution imagery (better for some areas) and scans of printed topo maps has been available for free from two (or more) Government websites for 15 plus years. One program reacquires in 5 year cycles for the 48 States.

Outstanding way to take my words out of context. Can you put them on your Magellan or Lowrance? Apparently it's possible with certain Garmins, but only if you do some things with Google Earth that may or may not violate the EULA.

 

That is one of the things that truly sets DeLorme apart from everyone else - not the maps.

I considered what set them apart was expecting people to pay about $50 per 7-1/2 minute quad for data that we already paid taxes to acquire, process, and make available for free on Governemnt websites. It may be more convient to obtain the data from DeLorme, but keep the facts correct.

DeLorme no longer charges in this way for the imagery, you're about 18 months behind (maybe more). $30/year, all you can eat, even if you don't renew the subscription what you've downloaded is yours to keep. You're paying for the convenience of having that data available via download, already prepared for use in your GPS & the associated software DeLorme. That's a steal compared to having to migrate it from Google Earth to your GPS yourself (and only having it usable in those 2 places). Google Earth is a horrible program IME. I removed it from all of my computers; it's both a pain in the a** to use, and leaves that Google "updater" running in the background all the time for no good reason.

 

But if you want to, you can buy the software from DeLorme to take the imagery you manually download from the gov't, finish georeferencing it, and export to the GPS too.

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Out of context? I must have missed something as I only say three sentences and addressed two of them.

 

Magellan or Lowrance? I do not know as I do not have a GPSr by either company. I believe there was a post on this site about images on Magellan unit.

 

... only if you do some things with Google Earth that may or may not violate the EULA

You do not need to as you can get the data direct from the Government - which is probably where Google Earth obtains it.

 

I am aware they abandoned their unrealistic pricing.

 

The data from the Government is also yours to keep.

 

I did state

It may be more convient to obtain the data from DeLorme,

 

Garmin's instructions are for using Google Earth. There is no need to. You can get the data via download from the Government; it is already georeferenced; there are already at least three free programs which can convert it to the .kmz format used on the Garmin CO/OR/DK units.

 

Probably ditto on Google Earth as I only tried it once and for my purposes getting the data direct was better.

 

Let people know what works best for you, but do not keep them from knowing there are other options.

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Is it the same as these units for accuracy and have some of if any bugs been worked out. I have a PN-40 and it is very accurate and I think it is worth it to have the 3-axis compass. This is for a freind and she has not decided on the Delorme. One issue she likes is when doing a multi and changing the coords. On the Garmins you can do this but you have to go to a different page for the info, right.

Thanks

 

Oregon / Colorado / Dakota have a cool little feature where there is a button on each cache page now that you press to generate a waypoint with the same name as the cache, and you can then edit the actual coordinates. I've never actually changed the co-ordinates on the original cache listing in the field when doing a multi... been told to go back to Stage 1 many times. Oops :unsure:

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I don't think she could go wrong with either unit. I have both a Dakota 20, and a PN-40 and haven't noticed any significant difference in accuracy with either unit. When I've carried both side by side, sometimes one does a little better, sometimes the other, but they both behave quite similarly accuracy, and tracking wise.

 

As for which one I prefer, the Dakota most of the time, primarily because I prefer the maps I have for that unit a little better, and it just fits me better for the type of backcountry adventures I like to do. For strickly geocaching though, I lean a little more towards the PN-40. (How's that for 6 of one half dozen of the other)

 

Any of the units will get you to where you're going, offer paperless caching, and will be quite intuitive and easy to use once you get used to them. That said, you'll also find whichever unit you get there will be times when it doesn't quite behave the way you wished it will as none of them are perfect yet. For general exploring I prefer the Dakota, for geocaching the PN-40, for my vehicles my Nuvi and streetpilots, and for my Quad I still haven't found a unit that really works the way I would like it to......

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I don't think she could go wrong with either unit. I have both a Dakota 20, and a PN-40 and haven't noticed any significant difference in accuracy with either unit. When I've carried both side by side, sometimes one does a little better, sometimes the other, but they both behave quite similarly accuracy, and tracking wise.

 

As for which one I prefer, the Dakota most of the time, primarily because I prefer the maps I have for that unit a little better, and it just fits me better for the type of backcountry adventures I like to do. For strickly geocaching though, I lean a little more towards the PN-40. (How's that for 6 of one half dozen of the other)

 

Any of the units will get you to where you're going, offer paperless caching, and will be quite intuitive and easy to use once you get used to them. That said, you'll also find whichever unit you get there will be times when it doesn't quite behave the way you wished it will as none of them are perfect yet. For general exploring I prefer the Dakota, for geocaching the PN-40, for my vehicles my Nuvi and streetpilots, and for my Quad I still haven't found a unit that really works the way I would like it to......

Why in your opinion is the PN-40 better for caching?

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I don't think she could go wrong with either unit. I have both a Dakota 20, and a PN-40 and haven't noticed any significant difference in accuracy with either unit. When I've carried both side by side, sometimes one does a little better, sometimes the other, but they both behave quite similarly accuracy, and tracking wise.

 

As for which one I prefer, the Dakota most of the time, primarily because I prefer the maps I have for that unit a little better, and it just fits me better for the type of backcountry adventures I like to do. For strickly geocaching though, I lean a little more towards the PN-40. (How's that for 6 of one half dozen of the other)

 

Any of the units will get you to where you're going, offer paperless caching, and will be quite intuitive and easy to use once you get used to them. That said, you'll also find whichever unit you get there will be times when it doesn't quite behave the way you wished it will as none of them are perfect yet. For general exploring I prefer the Dakota, for geocaching the PN-40, for my vehicles my Nuvi and streetpilots, and for my Quad I still haven't found a unit that really works the way I would like it to......

Why in your opinion is the PN-40 better for caching?

 

Primarily just a preference thing. The PN-40 is the first paperless unit I used, so I find I'm slightly more comfortable with the way the caching function is layed out. The other thing again is preference, and that is that the PN-40 position indication is slightly more filtered than the Dakotas, which results in the displayed position being slightly more stable. While I know better than dwell on zeroing out prior to actually looking for the cache, my nature is to do so, which means the slightly more steady position indication results in my hitting zero and starting to search quicker. Finally, caching is one of the few things I do where I sometimes do plan ahead, and don't tend to cover a whole lot of terrain, which results in my sometimes finding the aerial photos useful.

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The other thing again is preference, and that is that the PN-40 position indication is slightly more filtered than the Dakotas, which results in the displayed position being slightly more stable.

 

Do you think this will get better?

 

I'm not sure what you mean by better. Most of the time, like when I'm recording tracks, or for general handheld use I'm not really a fan of heavy filtering. It's all a matter of trade offs. For caching though, it helps you hit ground zero quicker so to speak, but that ground zero will drift, just not bounce if that makes any sense. It's just the nature of the beast that no matter what the display says, you're only in reality likely to be within 20 or 30 feet or so of the actual position you seek. The magellan sportrak series took this to an extreme in my opinion, to the point of being quite troublesome. The GPS units on the market today seem to have dialed things in much better.

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