How much memory is enough? (or when do I reach bragging rights?)

[Guest Alphawolf]

I am amazed at how quickly the memory/mapping capacity is increasing in these little units! I have to wonder though, if we aren't seeing the equivalent of what we call in the gun world "magnum mania". The conclusion that more/bigger has to be better. I look at the problems the Magellan Meridians are having downloading big maps and I wonder why on Earth you would need to load an entire state in topos? Just because you can? Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of lots of memory. But it comes with a cost. We pay more to have that memory built in or inserted. We wait more time to download the big maps. We get frustrated when it all doesn't work just right. Man, I thought that 8 megs. on my e-map was cool. Now I am using the Garmin V with 19 megs.(I have yet to put more than 8 megs. on it though) Where does it end? Where do we say "stop...I can't afford any more!?

[Guest gstrong1]

I have never "needed" more than the 1.4 mb. in my III Plus. The 8 mb. in my MAP76 is handy to have, but I very rarely have to use that much.The 24 mb. capacity in my Vista never gets used. Now that I think of it, I guess I never get too far from home. . I can see where, with a unit like the V, having a lot of memory would come in handy because of its ability to aid in road navigation if you were doing a lot of travelling. Other than that,I guess it's like when someone brags about having a 40 gig hard drive on their computer, even though they only utilize about 2.5 gig of it.

 

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Gary "Gimpy" Strong

Rochester,NY

[Guest gstrong1]

I have never "needed" more than the 1.4 mb. in my III Plus. The 8 mb. in my MAP76 is handy to have, but I very rarely have to use that much.The 24 mb. capacity in my Vista never gets used. Now that I think of it, I guess I never get too far from home. . I can see where, with a unit like the V, having a lot of memory would come in handy because of its ability to aid in road navigation if you were doing a lot of travelling. Other than that,I guess it's like when someone brags about having a 40 gig hard drive on their computer, even though they only utilize about 2.5 gig of it.

 

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Gary "Gimpy" Strong

Rochester,NY

[Guest ClayJar]

quote:

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Originally posted by Alphawolf:

I wonder why on Earth you would need to load an entire state in topos?

---

I have all of Louisiana loaded in my Meridian (with no problems, by the way, since it's right at 16MB). Why is this so nice? Simply this: I can print out any cache page in my entire state and then hop right in the car and go. I don't have to create new regions; I don't have to spend the time uploading a new map every time I leave my area.

 

The ability to see a fun new cache and just hop in the car after work is something that's very, very nice. Without my receiver's large memory capacity, I'd have to spend about an hour doing map work at home before I could leave, and losing a precious hour of sunlight isn't that nice (and wasting an hour a week uploading different maps is also tedious).

 

I can hardly wait for Thales Navigation to finish their bug-fix release. Once I have that, I've got Texas (covering Dallas/Austin/San Antonio/etc and east), Louisiana, the south half of Mississippi, and Alabama all ready to go on one 64MB card. With that in place (and a couple other mapsets that I can copy over to the card if I head to Arkansas or Georgia/South Carolina/north Florida) I'll be able to go on all but the most lengthy caching trips without creating and uploading new maps. Now that's something I'm really going to enjoy.

[Guest Prime Suspect]

Region configuration can have a lot to do with it. In my area, it's no problem to plan a 250 mile trip that will journey through 3 regions. At 8 meg a region, that maxes out my Vista.

[Guest Geoffrey]

My sister went on a trip from Detroit to New England, and I crammed the 24meg memory of my Etrex Vista full of Roads and Topo maps, and that helped.

 

With the Roads n Rec, or the Topo CD's, I hightlight all the little maps along a route, then download that into the Vista. If you want a GPS with quick downloads or quick changes of maps, Get a Megellan Gold and a USB card reader. You can also do that with the Garmin eMap GPS. The eMap uses plug-in memory that can be programmed on a USB card reader on the computer. I have not heard of any problems with map sets that were too large for the eMap yet in these forums.

 

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http://members.aol.com/geoffr524/myhomepage/howto.html

[Guest ecbaatz]

quote:

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Originally posted by gstrong1:

I guess it's like when someone brags about having a 40 gig hard drive on their computer, even though they only utilize about 2.5 gig of it.

---

 

That is my second hard drive, my 1st one is 15 gig.

 

Ok, I am one of those that believes you can never have enough memory (techno geek). The problem is as mentioned the price. I guess the best solution would be as long as it does the job for you. I do enjoy this site and the info it provides. Thanks everyone.

 

 

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Eric Baatz (ecbaatz@yahoo.com

Remember it is not what gps we use, just that we Geocache!!

Also 1996 Suzuki King Quad, 1st reason for GPS.

Now I have another!!!!

[Guest Geoffrey]

On my new Garmin GPS V with the MetroGuide City Select CD-Rom, I noticed that the maps were in smaller chunks than the normal 8meg chunks. You can paste several smaller maps along a route, if you had the GPS V. The only problem is that you have to pay money to unlock the rest of the City Select CD-Rom for the All Region Unlock.

 

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http://members.aol.com/geoffr524/myhomepage/howto.html

[Guest ralphb]

You've gone too far when the memory costs more that the GPSR itself. This is not that hard to do if you have one of the low-end units, like an eMap.

 

Seriously, it's nice to be able to have detailed map coverage for a complete trip, especially if you don't have access to a computer where you can swap out/swap in what you need.

 

Ralph

[Guest Alphawolf]

I find myself downloading maps that I really don't need. For instance: I live in Northern Utah, and on a trip to Southern California, I don't need to have it mapped all the way from here to there! There's not really much chance I'll get lost between Salt Lake City and California. I'm pretty much stuck on I-15. Now, once I get to So. Cal., that's different story. I can put the entire So. Cal. coastline on my Garmin V's 19 megs., all the way from Beverly Hills to all of San Diego! What more do I need? On my e-map with a 32 meg. chip, I was loading the whole dadgum trip before I went, then I never used the mapping between here and there. If memory was as cheap for these things as it is for PC's then who would care? But at the cost we pay for each meg., I think we are paying way too much for the convenience of having the luxury of loading chuncks of maps we'll probably never, never use. Especially if you are stuck paying the enormous price Garmin wants for their memory chips. They know that with insertable memory, they have created another market for memory hungry techno-geeks. Another way to get a pay check from us. I hope they keep making units like the V with built in memory, to eliminate the temptation of spending more. Some see it as a shortcoming of the V. I was happy to sell my e-map for it.

[Guest WaylandersMA]

Wasn't it Bill Gates who said 512KB is the most memory you would need if programmers wrote good tight code?

 

There will never be such a thing as "enough" memory. I want a firewire connection on my next GPSR so I can hook up a 5 gigabyte iPod to it. Topos of the entire world and you can listen to Devo too. "I can't get know....."

 

Paul

[Guest Kozachenko]

I'm not trying to be smart, but wouldn't it be nice if we had the whole world with detailed cities and topo. Detailed highways and byways. Detailed side roads and back roads for world cycle travelers like myself. All you would need to do is take your GPS device ANYWHERE! Wow, what a dream.. I think that would be when we have enough space.

 

It would all depend on your traveling needs I guess.

 

Koz

[Guest Kozachenko]

I'm not trying to be smart, but wouldn't it be nice if we had the whole world with detailed cities and topo. Detailed highways and byways. Detailed side roads and back roads for world cycle travelers like myself. All you would need to do is take your GPS device ANYWHERE! Wow, what a dream.. I think that would be when we have enough space.

 

It would all depend on your traveling needs I guess.

 

Koz

[Guest ClayJar]

quote:

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Originally posted by Kozachenko:

I'm not trying to be smart, but wouldn't it be nice if we had the whole world with detailed cities and topo

---

Well, once there is universal broadband spread-spectrum wireless, it shouldn't be a problem. Local wireless stations could constantly broadcast map details on a subchannel (a sort of "public service announcement" thing, sort of like the weather radio crossed with the closed captioning idea). Anyway, it would be nice.

[Guest ClayJar]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kozachenko:

I'm not trying to be smart, but wouldn't it be nice if we had the whole world with detailed cities and topo

---

Well, once there is universal broadband spread-spectrum wireless, it shouldn't be a problem. Local wireless stations could constantly broadcast map details on a subchannel (a sort of "public service announcement" thing, sort of like the weather radio crossed with the closed captioning idea). Anyway, it would be nice.

[Guest Geoffrey]

Now that would be something, a GPS that plays music and shows weather alerts. I know that my GPS V has the Break-out game on it. It is hard to play without Gameboy style buttons on it.

 

Another idea is a subscription service for GPS users that updates your GPS with the latest Maps and construction Jobs, so the Garmin GPS 5 could do everything automatically. Also would tell you if a tornado is coming to get you.

 

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http://members.aol.com/geoffr524/myhomepage/howto.html

[Guest Geoffrey]

Only 2 years ago did garmin come out with the GPS 3plus, and it had 1.4 meg memory. The way I see memory prices, you could have 128 megs of memory in the GPS in the not too distant future.

 

[This message has been edited by Geoffrey (edited 15 November 2001).]

[Guest Alphawolf]

Heck, while we're wishing, why not combine it with digital cell phone servive, wireless internet access (I hate not being able to check my e-mail in the back country) and internal digital camera (record those geocaches!) God we're losing it aren't we! :-)

[Guest ClayJar]

On the contrary! We're actually finding it!

[Guest ClayJar]

On the contrary! We're actually finding it!

[Guest Kozachenko]

Who wants to start a new GPS business? Tell me a GPS with the above wouldn't sell like hotcakes?!

 

Regards

Koz

[Guest Kozachenko]

Who wants to start a new GPS business? Tell me a GPS with the above wouldn't sell like hotcakes?!

 

Regards

Koz

[Guest apersson850]

Bill Gates said that 640 Kbytes was enough, but it isn't for us GPS users.

I usually have my Vista loaded to the limit. Quite handy. Sometimes I travel back and forth within a few days, and then it's convenient to not have to reload the maps all the time.

I agree that the RS 232 interface on the Vista is ridicously slow, when having 24 Mbyte of memory. At least USB or IEEE 1394 would be more appropriate.

One drawback of more memory (in hand-held units) is the higher power consumption. But that's getting better all the time.

There is a thing called Benefon Esc! for sale here in Sweden (it's made in Finland). It's a combined GSM telephone and mapping GPSR. Even supports the "Friend find", where you can see where another such device is right now, assuming it has satellite access and GSM coverage.

It doesn't have neither camera nor micro-wave oven, though.

 

Friend find can be disabled, so your wife doesn't misuse it...

 

Anders