SwissFamilyRobinson! Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 We are looking to buy our first gps specifically for geocaching, have been using the iPhone app so far. We are looking for one that has UK maps already loaded, digital compass and is paperless. Any suggestions gratefully received! Quote Link to comment
blokeinlondon Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Hi I was in your shoes a month ago. I ended up buying a gpsmap62s as touch screen was not too important and I liked the look of the 62s. I did not get it with maps so I am trying to figure this out at the moment. People here have directed me to http://talkytoaster.info/home.htm as a place for some free maps and I have downloaded one or two to play with. Initial thoughts are that they seem to work.. http://www.openstreetmap.org/ is another but have not figured out how to download the maps for use on the Garmin as yet but I am sure the information exists here somewhere. Alternatively you could have a look at www.gooutdoors.co.uk as they have the 440 touchscreen on offer with the OS map for the UK on it but I am not sure about the level of detail of the version of the maps with this one. If you look to buy the OS maps from ebay then go careful and check out the feedback of the sellers as there are one or two that seem to sell "copies" and these are reported to be suspect.. Only from what I have read. Keith Quote Link to comment
+ecanderson Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 (edited) http://www.openstreetmap.org/ is another but have not figured out how to download the maps for use on the Garmin as yet but I am sure the information exists here somewhere. Specific maps for Garmin are to be found here: http://garmin.na1400.info/routable.php - it's per the instructions that follow on that page. For your needs: Use the zoom and scroll tools on the left side of the screen to center up on the part of the UK you want. Don't use the "Europe" and "United Kingdom" pull-down. It will select some things you don't want, and won't select all of what you do. Click the little box after the line that reads "Choose a predefined country and/or enable manual tile selection:" Click on the tiles that are of interest to you. They'll turn a darker shade of blue. Enter your email address on the left side and click on "Build my map". You will get an email when your map is ready. It will suggest one of several different formats. You want to download the map in *.exe format for loading to MapSource, and rename it to something you can remember. Edited January 1, 2011 by ecanderson Quote Link to comment
+cas_i&c Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 We are looking to buy our first gps specifically for geocaching, have been using the iPhone app so far. We are looking for one that has UK maps already loaded, digital compass and is paperless. Any suggestions gratefully received! Really depends on how much you want to spend, we have just purchased the Oregon 450 with the OS UK Discoverer maps bundle, not cheap but if you look on line there are good deals about. It is a fantastic piece of kit, well made, built to last, if you dropped it it would be ok and it is water proof (1Metre for 30 mins). Still getting to grips with the unit but, so far I am very impressed, has all your requirements, and is touch screen. Battery life is a claimed 16 hours I have re-chargables in it and with all the playing since father christmas delivered it I have not had to re-charge them! It interfaces well with Geocache.com to download all the data for cache locations, descriptions, hints etc (if you are a premium member [PS as a garmin owner you can get a 30 day free trial of full membership free]). I did look at the Dakota20 with maps but decided I wanted the bigger screen. GPS62s/st is popular unit similar design to my old GPS60 which is still going strong. Hope that helps Quote Link to comment
blokeinlondon Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 We are looking to buy our first gps specifically for geocaching, have been using the iPhone app so far. We are looking for one that has UK maps already loaded, digital compass and is paperless. Any suggestions gratefully received! Really depends on how much you want to spend, we have just purchased the Oregon 450 with the OS UK Discoverer maps bundle, not cheap but if you look on line there are good deals about. It is a fantastic piece of kit, well made, built to last, if you dropped it it would be ok and it is water proof (1Metre for 30 mins). Still getting to grips with the unit but, so far I am very impressed, has all your requirements, and is touch screen. Battery life is a claimed 16 hours I have re-chargables in it and with all the playing since father christmas delivered it I have not had to re-charge them! It interfaces well with Geocache.com to download all the data for cache locations, descriptions, hints etc (if you are a premium member [PS as a garmin owner you can get a 30 day free trial of full membership free]). I did look at the Dakota20 with maps but decided I wanted the bigger screen. GPS62s/st is popular unit similar design to my old GPS60 which is still going strong. Hope that helps Thanks I bit the bullet and bought a GPSMAP62s.. Got some OS maps as well but must admit that I prefer the openstreetmaps as they are quicker and seem to have more detail than the OS ones.. Appreciate the help Quote Link to comment
tiiiim Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Just a quick one - those TalkyToaster maps (http://talkytoaster.info/home.htm) ARE OpenStreetMaps, with added contour data. Quote Link to comment
dunmappin Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 For further information on OpenStreetMap and adding it to aGPSr, see my posts 11 and 15 in a recent topic, "Garmin eTrex Legend HCx" at http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=266824 Quote Link to comment
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