My GPS died. Where's a good place to buy a replacement?

[+dylanhayes]

Yesterday, after a fairly fustrating evenings caching my battered etrex Venture which had developed a number of eccentricities, like the display fading, poor battery life and buttons not working became the victim of GPS rage. Specifically it was hurled to the ground in disgust and is now sadly an ex GPS.

 

Given that I use the GPS far more than I thought I would when I bought it last year, I think I can justify a better model ;-)

 

Base mapping seems like a good thing. Being able to see the road and the cache together with lugging around a laptop seems rather nice. Which leads me to either the etrex Legend or Vista. Is it worth splashing out quite a bit more dosh and buying the Vista which from what I'm told can hold maps for most of the UK, or is the legend. I'm not sure I would get much use from the altimeter and compass functions as GPS altitude is good enough for hillwalking and the compass feature is redundant given I would never venture out on the hills without a magnetic compass and a map as I don't trust electronic gizmos as my only navaids.

 

And lastly, what online stores would people recommend? Obviously cheap is good, but so is delivering the goods without fuss is important, and some online places have terrible customer service.

 

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Don't mention the mushrooms

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[Moss Trooper]

I originaly went for the Summit.. Who need's mapping.. Famous last words. So after a few months I decided to upgrade to a mapping GPS.. Either the Legend or the Vista

 

After a lot of tooing and froing I bit the bullet and went for a Vista. I have never thought it was a bad decision.

 

I still use the Compass and the altitude is good when it is calibrated. Frequently get within 1-2 meters of the spot hight.

 

If money is the problem then the Legend.. If not go for the Vista.

 

Moss de Boss... Sorta

[+The Good Shepherds]

I've always found dabs.com to be fast + good to deal with when buying teccy gear; I've never used them for gps stuff, but their prices seem very competitive.

[+paul.blitz]

quote:

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Originally posted by dylanhayes:

 

And lastly, what online stores would people recommend

 

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I just bought a yellow etrex. I actually got it from Amazon.com, had it delivered in the US, where someone I know brought it back with them.

 

There were big problems.... NOT caused by Amazon, but because of the USPostal Service.... they took almost 2 weeks for a 5-7 day delivery.

 

But Amazon handled my problem perfectly: emails were VERY promptly returned, they told me what was happening, and they had actually lined up another unit ready to ship when the original one finally arrived.

 

The US dollar price is very good: the UK price of the yellow eTrex is about £120 to £130. Amazon.com have it for $114 as standard, and I have seen it on special offer at $99. I paid by plastic, and got about $1.50 to the £1, so it cost me just over £80. (obviously if you get it shipped direct to UK, then you WILL get hit for duty & VAT, but it still may save a lot of £££).

 

While I'm at it... a quick "thumbs up" to Norma Pinkerton (who runs PFranc UK / Lynks Cables) for the "shareware Garmin connectors": just got a couple, and the quality is very good, and it went together easily... I can now connect my eTrex to my PC!

 

Paul

 

Team Blitz

 

Ok, we've found it, now where did we put the car?

[Runemaster]

What Moss said

 

I think Maplins were the cheapest last time I took a look, GPS warehouse in Staines have a good customer service though, just depends what their prices are like now.

 

HTH

Monz

[Runemaster]

What Moss said

 

I think Maplins were the cheapest last time I took a look, GPS warehouse in Staines have a good customer service though, just depends what their prices are like now.

 

HTH

Monz

[+Lassitude]

I have two units. The eMap I use in the car to get me close to the cache. The road mapping is very useful, but I find it frustrating that when you zoom out on it all the small roads disappear, which means you have the choice of a small map, full detail without being able to see the waypoint on the scrren or a large map with not enough detail to show you the road to the Cache. Incidentally Garmin do not offer Topographical maps (only streetmaps) for the UK at present though this may change next year. I purchased the Summit to give the wife some enjoyment (and me some competition) when we go caching and for the electronic compass. It is great. When I stand still the arrow pointing towards the waypoint stays. This is a real help when you have poor reception and you have to keep waiting about for the GPS to pick up the signal.

 

I very recently purchased my Summit from gpswarehouse.com. They price matched globalpositioningsystems.com who were about £10 cheaper on the Summit. I have searched high and low for cheaper sites than these and have failed to find one. Try to purchase from globalpostitioningsystems.com as they have a retail outlet and their own brand of acessories such as data cables and car mounts which cost less then Garmin branded stuff. Both online stores charge £6-50 for insured delivery. Both sites are in the UK. I have used both sites and they were reliable and quick to deliver (when item is in stock).

 

I rated the following things when choosing the Summit as a GPSr

 

-Electronic Compass

-Same Cables as my eMap so no new cables were required

-Waterproof (The eMAp is not).

 

If you by a Garmin with Mapping you will only get streemaps until sometime next year when the UK Topo maps are **supposed** to be released by Garmin. You'll have to ask someone else about Magellan units.

 

Cheers

 

Hope your still awake

 

Chris

 

LASSITUDE- (noun) Tiredness and apathy: a state of weariness accompanied by listlessness or apathy[15th century. Via French from Latin lassitudo , from lassus 'weary'.]

[+Lassitude]

Send it to Garmin in hte UK for an appraisal. I'm sure they will give you a good price to fix it I guess you can always say no if the repair coast is too high. I am also assuming you did not stamp on it after you through it to the floor. I must admit I have been sorely tempted from time to time ;-).

 

sometimes it is good to have a backup unit.

 

I'll shut up now

 

Chris

 

LASSITUDE- (noun) Tiredness and apathy: a state of weariness accompanied by listlessness or apathy[15th century. Via French from Latin lassitudo , from lassus 'weary'.]

[+Lassitude]

Send it to Garmin in the UK for an appraisal. I'm sure they will give you a good price to fix it I guess you can always say no if the repair coast is too high. I am also assuming you did not stamp on it after you through it to the floor. I must admit I have been sorely tempted from time to time ;-).

 

Garmins UK office:

 

GARMIN (Europe) Ltd.

Unit 5, The Quadrangle

Abbey Park Industrial Estate

Romsey, Hampshire

SO51 9DL, UK

Phone: 44 1794-519944

FAX: 44 1794-519222

 

sometimes it is good to have a backup unit.

 

I'll shut up now

 

Chris

 

LASSITUDE- (noun) Tiredness and apathy: a state of weariness accompanied by listlessness or apathy[15th century. Via French from Latin lassitudo , from lassus 'weary'.]

[+jeremyp]

Like Moss Trooper I started with a Summit and then upgraded to a Vista. The mapping is quite good and useful for navigating your car to the car park or any location, but there are currently no maps suitable for the final walk to the cache. The other problem i have with it is the antenna is lousy so that I have problems with caches hidden in woodland (hence the reason for my aversion to woodland based caches).

 

I had heard that there was a GPS unit available where you can download bitmap images of maps to it. Then you could just use the ones off streetmap.co.uk. It might have been my imagination of course. Also, some models allow you to attach external antennas for better reception, which would be cool.

 

Other than that, the Vista does the job very well. I recommend getting the wire that allows you to power it off a car cigarette lighter, the Garmin one is expensive but I reckon I've already recovered the cost in batteries (and it lets you have the display light on all the time, which is useful in the dark).

 

I bought mine from gpsw.co.uk where I see it now costs £300 although you will need Map Source software to take best advantage of the mapping facility. I went for European Roads and Recreation as the cheapest.

 

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jeremyp

The second ten million caches were the worst too.

http://www.jeremyp.net/geocaching

[+Icenians]

quote:

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Originally posted by jeremyp:

 

I had heard that there was a GPS unit available where you can download bitmap images of maps to it. Then you could just use the ones off streetmap.co.uk. It might have been my imagination of course.

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The Compaq iPaq with Navman gps sleave does that. I use this setup to get me to the cache area then use a summit for finding the cache.

 

The ipaq is fine for in a car but it is an expensive option, £800 ish + mapping software, and I would hate to drop that in a puddle!

 

I got a summit for caching and logging my hillwalking. I wanted the digital compass as I find it useful in wooded areas where the signal comes and goes. I can stand still in a clearing and get a bearing but you have to be moving for a bearing without the digital compass.

 

The mapping on the iPaq is very good. I have large chunks of the country at 1:50k with some 1:25k and 1:12.5k of summits. Geo-refrencing the maps is easy although scanning can be fun.

 

The iPaq would be great for the hillwalking if the power wasn't a problem. I like to log the route I took and download it onto my PC when I get home. This gives me a permanent log of the route. The iPaq gives me a log which includes altitude, speed at any given point, time, and position. Trouble is all the walks need to be less than 3 hours as the battery goes flat.

 

I am keeping the tracks from the summit but that only gives me date and position when copied of onto the PC. Would be nice to get the time and speed as well.

[+John Stead]

I am keeping the tracks from the summit but that only gives me date and position when copied of onto the PC. Would be nice to get the time and speed as well.

 

Most interested to read this as I was thinking of getting a PDA for use with maps.

But Icenians desire for time and speed - I find with a Vista that if you keep the logs active they retain time and therefore speed information which Mapsource will upload. Only if you save the tracks on the Vista and then upload the saved tracks do they lose the time information. Hope this helps.

[+dylanhayes]

I might be able to get somebody to bring me back a Vista from the US, which would mean paying £230 vs £300, which is a bit more palatable. But, on reading about basemaps, I notice the US version has a US base map and the UK version a US basemap.

 

Does the basemap reside in ROM or can one upload the European base map onto a Vista? I have mapsource UK, so I can get the nice roads maps I crave, but I'm not sure about the basemap issues.

 

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Don't mention the mushrooms

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[+Icenians]

quote:

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Originally posted by jstead:

I find with a Vista that if you keep the logs active they retain time and therefore speed information which Mapsource will upload. Only if you save the tracks on the Vista and then upload the saved tracks do they lose the time information. Hope this helps.

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I'm going to try that now.

 

Thanks

 

Kev

[+Icenians]

Tried it. It worked thanks for that tip.

 

We reached the dizzy heights of over 400 feet in Lincolnshire last weekend. Didn't know it went that high!

 

Kev

[+jeremyp]

quote:

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Originally posted by Icenians:

 

I am keeping the tracks from the summit but that only gives me date and position when copied of onto the PC. Would be nice to get the time and speed as well.

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It depends on the software you use to upload the tracks. Cetainly with Map Source and the Vista you get speed and bearing information for every track point.

 

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jeremyp

The second ten million caches were the worst too.

http://www.jeremyp.net/geocaching

[+Icenians]

quote:

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Originally posted by jeremyp:

It depends on the software you use to upload the tracks. Cetainly with Map Source and the Vista you get speed and bearing information for every track point.

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I use memory map. It gives me all the info with active track but not the saved ones. I only get Date and Height with those

[+dylanhayes]

In the end a Vista was purchased from Maplin, as the price advertised (£299) was as good as any online and I was passing near a maplin shop.

 

So far I have been very impressed with the Vista although it seems to find it harder to get a fix in a car than my ex-venture. Base mapping is really cool, although as a nav aid it is not terribly useful when you are the only adult in the car as trying to read a LCD display when driving makes using a mobile look safe in comparision.

 

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Don't mention the mushrooms

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[+jeremyp]

I also had the impression that reception with a Vista is not as good as reception with my old Summit.

 

If you're using it to navigate in the car, the best way I found is to plan your route in advance and create a waypoint at each turning which tells you what to do. For example, if coming to Reading out of London I'd put a waypoint at M4 Junction 11 which says "R A33" which means "turn right onto the A33." Also, the cigarette lighter power cable is essential at night as it allows you to keep the backlight on all the time.

 

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jeremyp

The second ten million caches were the worst too.

http://www.jeremyp.net/geocaching