Yes, yet another GPS question

[+Tinpanva]

Please don't flame me, I have actually used the "search" and yes I've been reading page after page on suggested GPS devices for the last 3 days. Additionally, most of my searches on this forum have brought up a lot of posts from as far back as 2009. I'm currently using my DroidX for geocaching and I'm perfectly happy with it thus far. I'm not real happy with its battery life however, esp when doing it all day like last weekend or while on on the hog and don't have a way to charge the Droid on the fly. Its great for an after work or during lunch type find. So here's the thing, if I'm going to use the Droid for say street navigation and logs, would I really need a high end unit like a PN-40 or 60? Would a simple unit made just for GC like the Magellan eXplorist GC be ok? My Droid did get a little squirrely in the woods under canopy. Would the Magellan do better? I believe its WaaS enabled, but doesn't have a 3 axis compass. I think the 310 has that. While I await some input, I think I may compare the eXplorist GC and the 310.

[Mr.Yuck]

Please don't flame me, I have actually used the "search" and yes I've been reading page after page on suggested GPS devices for the last 3 days. Additionally, most of my searches on this forum have brought up a lot of posts from as far back as 2009. I'm currently using my DroidX for geocaching and I'm perfectly happy with it thus far. I'm not real happy with its battery life however, esp when doing it all day like last weekend or while on on the hog and don't have a way to charge the Droid on the fly. Its great for an after work or during lunch type find. So here's the thing, if I'm going to use the Droid for say street navigation and logs, would I really need a high end unit like a PN-40 or 60? Would a simple unit made just for GC like the Magellan eXplorist GC be ok? My Droid did get a little squirrely in the woods under canopy. Would the Magellan do better? I believe its WaaS enabled, but doesn't have a 3 axis compass. I think the 310 has that. While I await some input, I think I may compare the eXplorist GC and the 310.

 

It's the getting started forum, who would flame you?

 

Correct, you cannot do street navigation with the GC or the 310, and would need a "high end" handheld unit, as you say, for that. The GC definitely does not have an electronic compass, and I see no evidence the 310 has one (spent a lot of time trying to figure that out to no avail). I'm 99.5% sure it doesn't An elecronic compass is a "high end" handheld GPS feature too. Let me put it to you this way, I've been Geocaching for almost 9 years without ever having a unit with one.

 

Oh gosh, would they do better in the woods under canopy than a Droid X? I don't have any technical specs to give you, but who wouldn't think so? I can tell you the GC picks up a signal almost anywhere in my house, where all my 2005 and older Garmin units wouldn't do that if I left them on for a year searching for Sats.

 

Oh, the only major difference between the GC and the 310? Thirty Dollars U.S., and you can load other maps into the 310 (such as Topo). The Magellan Topo's will run you $50 though.

[+TeamPennyFinder]

The electronic compass does not appear till the 610.

 

510 - camera

610 - camera, 3-axis electronic compass

710 - camera, 3-axis electronic compass, routable maps

Edited April 11, 2012 by TeamPennyFinder

[+Tinpanva]

Ok, let me ask this, For those of you with the Droid X & using the Groundspeak app, is that compass considered a 3 axis compass or just a super nifty pointer? I'm new at this, so for me, I've used the "map" feature to get close, then switch over to the compass to "fine tune" my direction to the cache. Isn't that pretty much what everyone does? So if you have a handheld without the compass, is there some type of direction indicator for those last few feet?

[Mr.Yuck]

Ok, let me ask this, For those of you with the Droid X & using the Groundspeak app, is that compass considered a 3 axis compass or just a super nifty pointer? I'm new at this, so for me, I've used the "map" feature to get close, then switch over to the compass to "fine tune" my direction to the cache. Isn't that pretty much what everyone does? So if you have a handheld without the compass, is there some type of direction indicator for those last few feet?

 

Oh of course. Always have. But it's sort of an artificial, satellite-based compass. I have seen the official Groundspeak Droid app in action, and all GPS or smartphone "compass navigation screens", as their called, look and work basically like that.

 

I have a Windows Phone, and I was under the impression it's the only smartphone that has an electronic compass, but I could be wrong. There's like a bajillion Droid or Iphone users out there who can answer that.

[+Tinpanva]

The electronic compass does not appear till the 610.

 

510 - camera

610 - camera, 3-axis electronic compass

710 - camera, 3-axis electronic compass, routable maps

 

Thats kinda what I'm saying, with my droid I already have a camera, compass, street navigation, bla bla bla. What I don't have is battery life. So I'm thinking a handheld to use with the droid to help save battery life. This leaves me at a virtual cross road, use a simple low cost unit like the eXplorist GC, or think along the lines of a unit that does everything my droid does but better battery life.

 

Primary use of the handheld would be geocaching, I do however see myself using using this in hunting/fishing applications as I do both of these as well, just never needed a GPS yet...lol So, correct my if I'm wrong but, it looks like if I take the easy road, get the eXplorist GC, if I want to plan for more use of the GPS and other hobbies go for something like the PN-60.

[+niraD]

According to the latest Android Compatibility Definition Document, Android devices SHOULD have a 3-axis magnetometer (compass). All the ones I've seen have them.

 

And for the record, GPS devices that don't have an electronic compass use your changing position to determine direction. As long as you're moving at about 2mph or more, and you're holding the GPS in front of you with the top of the display away from you, the arrow pointing at your destination (the cache location) should be fairly accurate.

[Mr.Yuck]

The electronic compass does not appear till the 610.

 

510 - camera

610 - camera, 3-axis electronic compass

710 - camera, 3-axis electronic compass, routable maps

 

Thats kinda what I'm saying, with my droid I already have a camera, compass, street navigation, bla bla bla. What I don't have is battery life. So I'm thinking a handheld to use with the droid to help save battery life. This leaves me at a virtual cross road, use a simple low cost unit like the eXplorist GC, or think along the lines of a unit that does everything my droid does but better battery life.

 

Primary use of the handheld would be geocaching, I do however see myself using using this in hunting/fishing applications as I do both of these as well, just never needed a GPS yet...lol So, correct my if I'm wrong but, it looks like if I take the easy road, get the eXplorist GC, if I want to plan for more use of the GPS and other hobbies go for something like the PN-60.

 

You might want to go with the Explorist 310, or even go down to the very new (just came out in January) Explorist 110, which is cheaper than the GC. This is because GC stands for Geocaching. And Magellan touts the Explorist GC as being "100% Dedicated to Geocaching Adventures". I still have the box for mine right here in front of me, and thats what it says.

 

The $120 (or less) Explorist 110 only holds about 500 caches though, while the GC holds 10,000.

[Mr.Yuck]

 

And for the record, GPS devices that don't have an electronic compass use your changing position to determine direction. As long as you're moving at about 2mph or more, and you're holding the GPS in front of you with the top of the display away from you, the arrow pointing at your destination (the cache location) should be fairly accurate.

 

I knew that! I didn't say that, but I knew that. It calculates your position from the satellitess, if you're moving. Stop, or set down a lower end GPS unit, and chances are it will be pointing away from the cache. Keep moving, and it works pretty darn good at pointing you right at the cache.

[+Tinpanva]

 

And for the record, GPS devices that don't have an electronic compass use your changing position to determine direction. As long as you're moving at about 2mph or more, and you're holding the GPS in front of you with the top of the display away from you, the arrow pointing at your destination (the cache location) should be fairly accurate.

 

I knew that! I didn't say that, but I knew that. It calculates your position from the satellitess, if you're moving. Stop, or set down a lower end GPS unit, and chances are it will be pointing away from the cache. Keep moving, and it works pretty darn good at pointing you right at the cache.

 

Well, after more reading and looking around at a few various units I went with a PN-60. Found one gently used for 175, seems to have pretty good reviews and will allow me to use it for my other hobbies as well.

[Mr.Yuck]

 

And for the record, GPS devices that don't have an electronic compass use your changing position to determine direction. As long as you're moving at about 2mph or more, and you're holding the GPS in front of you with the top of the display away from you, the arrow pointing at your destination (the cache location) should be fairly accurate.

 

I knew that! I didn't say that, but I knew that. It calculates your position from the satellitess, if you're moving. Stop, or set down a lower end GPS unit, and chances are it will be pointing away from the cache. Keep moving, and it works pretty darn good at pointing you right at the cache.

 

Well, after more reading and looking around at a few various units I went with a PN-60. Found one gently used for 175, seems to have pretty good reviews and will allow me to use it for my other hobbies as well.

 

Delorme is good of course. They have an extremely small share of the handheld GPS market. But then again, so does Magellan. Does that thing do paperless caching? Not that you need it having the Droid, but I was just wondering.

[+popokiiti]

I don't have a smartphone, so can't comment there - but I have heard folks complain about the battery life and lack of ruggedness.

I use the Magellan eXplorist GC and I am happy with it. It too can eat up batteries, but I tweaked the settings and get much better life that way. I did find (and also read somewhere) that this particular unit prefers to be upright rather than flat in the hand....something to do with its antenna. I didn't want to spend a lot of cache cash, so it is ideal for me...font size is a bit small though.

[+Tinpanva]

Delorme is good of course. They have an extremely small share of the handheld GPS market. But then again, so does Magellan. Does that thing do paperless caching? Not that you need it having the Droid, but I was just wondering.

 

According to the website, yes.

[+Fianccetto]

My ideal combination is caching with my droid and explorist. I'm thinking of getting a spare battery for my phone, as its annoying when that dies on a trip out. The cost of data connection can be high, so good to check you have wifi on when in range of free WiFi, but turn that off when out of range to save on battery use.

[+niraD]

I'm thinking of getting a spare battery for my phone, as its annoying when that dies on a trip out.

Another way to extend the battery life of your phone is to use a Bluetooth GPS receiver with your phone. Running the phone's Bluetooth antenna uses a lot less power than running the phone's GPS antenna, and the Bluetooth GPS receiver has it's own batteries.

[Mr.Yuck]

I don't have a smartphone, so can't comment there - but I have heard folks complain about the battery life and lack of ruggedness.

I use the Magellan eXplorist GC and I am happy with it. It too can eat up batteries, but I tweaked the settings and get much better life that way. I did find (and also read somewhere) that this particular unit prefers to be upright rather than flat in the hand....something to do with its antenna. I didn't want to spend a lot of cache cash, so it is ideal for me...font size is a bit small though.

 

I'm quite the experienced 9 year Geocacher, but the wife went out and totally surprised me with a GC for Christmas 2011. What was I gonna do, tell her I didn't want it, and take it back? True, I find it eats up Alkaline batteries pretty quickly, compared to all my Garmin units over the years. I used up the Lithiums that came with it, and have been too cheap to buy more of those. And yes, I definitely changed the settings for Alkaline since. Interesting about holding it more upright, I will check that out.

[+Tinpanva]

My ideal combination is caching with my droid and explorist. I'm thinking of getting a spare battery for my phone, as its annoying when that dies on a trip out. The cost of data connection can be high, so good to check you have wifi on when in range of free WiFi, but turn that off when out of range to save on battery use.

 

I have the hardest time remembering to do this, I've had a smart phone for several years now, you'd think I'd learn by now....lol