DarthJustice Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 I hope I won't get skewered for this but I have a question. First let me point out I'm not the most knowledgeable person on GPS's, having gotten my first one back in April. I have a Garmin Nuvi 205w with a pedestrian mode. I want to hide a cache at a local park literally just by the parking lot there. Not really thinking there would be any issues, I got several coordinates over several days at different times. Each one, when viewed on Google Earth and MSN live maps, brought me into nearly right on top of where the spot I'm wanting to use is. However, this morning I saw some saying that car GPS's aren't accurate enough while a few others stated something along the lines of if it has a pedestrian mode, then it's fine. So I'm a bit lost on what to do, I hate to say. Is this fine since the coordinates I'm getting seem to be fairly accurate...? Or do I need to just wait until I can buy a handheld model? I'm not sure what to do or what to believe. This seemed to be the most appropriate place to ask since it's really more to do with the GPS than anything but if not, I'm sorry in advance. Quote Link to comment
+Prime Suspect Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Your Garmin unit is fine for placing caches. Quote Link to comment
+ecanderson Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Since you have a "pedestrian" mode, you'll be getting accurate coordinates. The units that will kill you (both finding and placing) are the ones that do not -- and these will snap the coordinates to the nearest road, if close enough. Since geolocation of roads isn't precise, in order to keep you "on a road" on the map of your GPS when driving, a GPS will make some assumptions about where you really are even when it's not right on top of where it thinks the road is. It's often called "road snap". If it weren't for that, there are a lot of areas where, if you looked at the map while driving, it would appear that you were having a bit of an "off road experience". If you do get off a road, up to a point anyway, the coordinates that you will see in "road" mode will be on the nearest road at a point about 90 degrees to your "on foot" location. Not at all helpful for caching unless the cache is right on the road! Turning on "pedestrian mode" shuts off that road-snap feature. Quote Link to comment
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