ADVICE

[Guest BREW]

I live in phoenix AZ and have about 2 bills to spend on a gps don't think i'll spend too much time in heavy cover......pls throw me some ideas on good GPSR's for about 200.00

thanks!

[Guest cache_ninja]

magellan 315 does the job. good unit.

[Guest kc8ahn]

I use the yellow etrex by garmin. Not a problem, and very accurate I have found. only about 120.00 to buy also.

[Guest dustystar]

brew:

The only drawback to the Garmin seems to be the "heavy tree cover" antenna problem. It's features, ease of use, small size and light weight make it a very good choice. But buy it from Amazon.com - only $109 and geocaching.com gets a donation.

[Guest Markwell]

At the Chicago Picnic, my co-planner and I compared the little yellow ETrex I have with his Mag 315. There were a couple of points we noticed...

 

• Magellan 315 does not by default display 3 decimal points. He had to fiddle around with it for quite some time to get it to do that.
• My eTrex, when the distance is less than 0.10 miles, automatically changes to feet (520 feet) and then down from there, always displaying three digits for the proximity (100 feet becomes 99.9 feet - 10 feet becomes 9.99 feet). That's kind of a nice feature that he was really jealous of.
• Keep in mind that you may not always be caching near home. In Plainfield, Illinois (the name says it all), I have no problem with my eTrex. Just took it on the Cumberland Trail Cache last week and had a really tough time getting through tree cover. The external antennae of the Magellan makes it superior under tree cover.
• The Magellan did waypoint averaging - the longer it sits in one spot, the more accurate it is. This is VERY useful in hiding caches (otherwise you have to average manually).

 

I suggest you check out the GPS Units and Software Forum section. People are constantly making comparisons there.

[Guest brokenwing]

I used a borrowed basic Etrex model when I first started out geocaching, and I thought reception was horrible! I never got within 50 feet of a cache with it. I now own a Magellan MAP 330 and am very pleased with the results. I routinely get within 15 feet.

 

Granted, these are my personal experiences, and some people claim to have no problems with reception when using an Etrex, but I think you will find the majority of those individuals are new to geocaching and have no experience with other GPSR units.

 

I might suggest you take a poll of how many folks that started with an Etrex have since upgraded. I think you will find a significant number. I have seen many posts to this effect here in the forums. For those that love your Etrex units, please, no flame wars about how well your Etrex works. There are obviously lots of people like myself that have had the opposite experience, so I just wanted to forewarn the original poster about this fact.

 

My experience so far is that most caches are in or near some kind of tree cover, so using a GPSR that has problems with reception in tree cover seems like an exercise in frustration to me! I?d personally recommend a Magellan 315. These can be had for around $150, so should easily fit within your budget. The only downside I can think of for the 315 is that it is not waterproof like the Etrex. Personally, I?ll take better accuracy over waterproof any day. Don?t drop your GPSR in a creek and you?ll be fine.

 

brokenwing

[Guest brokenwing]

y real difference is supposed to be WAAS capability and maps. Anyway, the 330 does display 3 decimal points by default. Also, it does automatically change to feet when you get under 0.10 miles. I seem to have read somewhere that these features were changed in more recent software updates for the 315, so this may just be a software version issue. Maybe someone that actually owns a 315 can let us know?

 

brokenwing

 

 

[This message has been edited by brokenwing (edited 02 August 2001).]

[Guest gstrong1]

I'm with brokenwing!I've got the top of the line eTrex(Vista) & with all it's bells & whistles, it is terrible in the woods.If you aniicipate being under any tree cover in your cache adventures, my opinion would be to stay away from the eTrex.I know folks who have gotten rid of theirs or unsuccessfully tried to.At least up here in the Northeast.With all the comments regarding this issue, I almost think geographical location has something to do with it.A lot of folks say they have no problem at all but up here in New York, there for sure is a problem.Go for something with a good antenna.I count on the Garmin III Plus.Does the job no matter what conditions I'm in & I've been in some heavy woods looking for caches.I've also got the MAP76,(about $400.00 with the external antenna),and that doesn't perform as well as the III Plus in the woods.The III Plus is about $279.00.I have had no experience with Magellans, but if I were you, and had a $200.00 limit, I would look at the Mags. that others have mentioned.They have the antenna & from what I've read, some nice features.Never been to AZ.,so don't know what the foliage is like down there.If you don't have any nasty overhead stuff where caches are placed, eTrex might work.But don't do like I did & find out after you buy cuz the unit might end up giving you some frustration.Hope this helps & have fun. .--Gimpy--

 

------------------

Gary "Gimpy" Strong

Rochester,NY

[Guest gstrong1]

I'm with brokenwing!I've got the top of the line eTrex(Vista) & with all it's bells & whistles, it is terrible in the woods.If you aniicipate being under any tree cover in your cache adventures, my opinion would be to stay away from the eTrex.I know folks who have gotten rid of theirs or unsuccessfully tried to.At least up here in the Northeast.With all the comments regarding this issue, I almost think geographical location has something to do with it.A lot of folks say they have no problem at all but up here in New York, there for sure is a problem.Go for something with a good antenna.I count on the Garmin III Plus.Does the job no matter what conditions I'm in & I've been in some heavy woods looking for caches.I've also got the MAP76,(about $400.00 with the external antenna),and that doesn't perform as well as the III Plus in the woods.The III Plus is about $279.00.I have had no experience with Magellans, but if I were you, and had a $200.00 limit, I would look at the Mags. that others have mentioned.They have the antenna & from what I've read, some nice features.Never been to AZ.,so don't know what the foliage is like down there.If you don't have any nasty overhead stuff where caches are placed, eTrex might work.But don't do like I did & find out after you buy cuz the unit might end up giving you some frustration.Hope this helps & have fun. .--Gimpy--

 

------------------

Gary "Gimpy" Strong

Rochester,NY

[Guest arffer]

The 315 switches from miles to feet automatically below .10 miles. Software version 3.14 is needed for this, and is also the best reason to update. Software updates are free, but you need the data cable (I built one to do my update).

 

Also on the 315, lat/long co-ordinates can be displayed as deg/min/sec, deg/min.mm, deg/min.mmm, or deg.ddddd. Its all easily changed under the setup menu.

[Guest BREW]

Thanks for all your help guys...I'll probably get both,I dunno but I am leaning towards the 315 THANKS again....ARFFER,can u email me a schematic for the data cable?

 

It's only funny until someone gets hurt......

Then it's hilarious!

[Guest Jebediah]

eTrex works quite well in Arizona. The basic unit works well because it is so simple, compact and rugged. Canyoneers and climbers like them a lot. Infantry units do too, more than one spray-painted eTrex can be seen strapped to a ruckstrap. It also is a favorite as a personal GPSR for jungle rescue units in the Amazon basin, where IPX2-rated Magellans are not favored b/c of water or humidity ingress. And no, they're not clumsy enough to drop their receivers into the water.

 

[This message has been edited by Jebediah (edited 02 August 2001).]

[Guest arffer]

BREW,

 

Get yourself a 9 pin serial PC cable (assuming your PC has 9-pin COM ports). Cut off the male end of the cable (NOT the end that connects to the PC). Using some kind of a continuity tester (ohm meter?), find the three wires that go to pins 2, 3, and 5. Strip back these three wires a bit, and wrap a small ball of aluminum foil to each wire.

 

Now, three rubberbands are needed. Use the first band to hold the main serial port cable to the back of the 315. I usually bring the cable in from the bottom of the 315 and rubberband it just below the Magellan trademark.

 

Now, look at the four metal connector pads on the back of the 315. On the bottom row, the wire that goes to pin 3 goes to the left connector, and the wire that goes to pin 2 goes to the right connector. The foil balls will help fill in the gap and make a good connection. A single rubberband can be used to hold both in place. Wrap the band around a few times to make it tight.

 

Do the same thing with the remaining wire (pin 5), it goes to the top row, right hand connector.

 

That's it, your up and running with a very cheap cable.

 

I originally did this just because I couldn't wait to apply the new software, and it was a 5 minute job. I still haven't bought a real cable, and use this arrangement for all my waypoint/route uploads and downloads. I can get the wires connected now in under 1 minute.

[Guest Peter Scholtz]

I'm about to upgrade from a Garmin Etrex basic ($110) and so far have decided on the Garmin GPSMAP 76 ($350).

 

But it sounds like the Magellan 330 ($230) is also worth it ...

 

The basic Etrex is just to basic.

 

------------------

Peter Scholtz

www.biometrics.co.za

[Guest brokenwing]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Peter Scholtz:

But it sounds like the Magellan 330 ($230) is also worth it ...

---

 

Peter, I got the Mag 330x (comes with car mount, data cable, and map software) for $249.00 USD before shipping from www.etronics.com If you consider the price you would pay for the extra stuff if you purchased it separately, that makes for quite a deal.

 

Something to think about...

 

brokenwing

[Guest BREW]

id 129.99 new in box..it does all I want it to and I can use the extra 70 bucks to invest in

my favorite adult beverage......then go seek my first cache

thanks for the info guys