Wicked Monkey
Banned
- Location
- Utah
Lol! My bad:-( what ya have now for a gps and what were you thinking of getting new?
Garmin GPS TOPOGRAPHIC and beyond...
- Thread starter Wicked Monkey
- Start date
Lol! My bad:-( what ya have now for a gps and what were you thinking of getting new?
sixstringsteve
Well-Known Member
- Location
- UT
I've been using my Droid Incredible 2 phone with the Gaia app (incredible app). I've also tried a few different android tablets, but the tablets don't update the GPS quickly enough to be useful. My phone works fine, but the battery life is about 4 hours if I"m running the GPS.
FWIW, no phone with GPS software will compare to having a real GPS, and as you've noticed, the GPS on phones completely kills the battery.
I sold my most recent GPS when I sold my dirt bike, I had a Garmin Venture Cx...perfect for my needs. I've been debating on getting either a Garmin similar to what you posted in your first post, or a Delorme PN-60w. The reviews I've read say the Delorme has a better screen and much better mapping software but slightly worse battery life.
sixstringsteve
Well-Known Member
- Location
- UT
I've heard this before, and I believe you. I don't understand what a standalone GPS unit can do that my phone can't (aside from have better battery life). If there's a big difference, I have no issues getting a standalone GPS. I'm just curious what the benefits are.
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Wicked Monkey
Banned
- Location
- Utah
I hate to say it but... Most normal Phones don't use satalight service. They go off cell phone towers. No tower=No service. A true GPS unit is far more reliable. I like Garmin a lot but I too think their mapping software for the topo maps sucks! However that birds eye view would be more useful to me then a topo. I'll have to research the Delorme Gps!
sixstringsteve
Well-Known Member
- Location
- UT
My phone uses both towers and gps signal. The towers help me position myself quickly, but it still uses true gps for my location. When I'm completely out of cell range (I.e. no cell service, zero bars) my gps still works 100%. I've tested this several times.
My experience has found that the phones pick up the gps signal better than the tablets do.
My experience has found that the phones pick up the gps signal better than the tablets do.
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- Location
- Stinkwater
My Evo has a true GPS too. It doesn't update as fast as my handheld Garmin, though.
sixstringsteve
Well-Known Member
- Location
- UT
That makes sense. My tablets were super slow to update the gps, but my phone has been decent. It definitely makes sense that the Garmin gets a better signal and it updates the signal more frequently.
- Location
- West Bountiful, UT
Note - I've been using civilian GPS for as long as it has existed. My first couple units didn't even have rudimentary mapping - they simply reported a position that then had to be plotted onto a paper map to be useful. Which is why I'm still a die hard UTM user and hate lat/lon to this very day... But I've been using them a long time and have owned quite a few units.
I've also owned and used "smart phones" and played with the various gps and mapping apps for as long as they have existed. As well as, at one time, it was literally my job to obtain every single tablet and Oragami device that hit the market and test out various GPS/Mapping apps on them for the company I work for. Note though, that tablet experience is several years old now so no longer relevant.
Anyway...
I find that one of the features I appreciate most about a dedicated GPS unit is the dedicated buttons on it for dedicated features. Trying to manage waypoints, tracks, zoom, look up POI's etc. on my phone is a total PIA compared to the same tasks on my GPS units.
But, there is a tremendous amount of personal preference to be accounted for in the above. Like, for instance, I prefer GPS units with actual buttons over touch screen units. For two reasons. One, I find the dedicated function buttons far, FAR easier to use while bombing down a rough dirt road at speed. And second, and this is PURE personal preference, but I HATE the way touch screens are always a greasy dust attracting smeared oily ugly looking mess. I think display tech has improved to where touch screens are the equal of non touch in terms of being readable in sunlight, but for the generation of GPS units I own, that was a HUGE deal too - the backlit non touch screens were (are?) just way better in varied lighting conditions.
Again, personal preferences, but I also don't like trying to make one GPS do it all. If it is small enough to be useful on a hike, I think it totally sucks azz for screen and/or button size in a vehicle. I like bigger displays in the vehicle. And I like something totally submersible and built to take a lot of bouncing and vibration. That's why I use a marine chart plotting GPS in my vehicles. It's actually made to go on a boat. The one I have now is an old model that I'm sure is discontinued, a Garmin 276C. But if I were buying a new one today I'd get whatever the newer replacement model for it is.
Oh, and the most important feature of all, really, is the cartography available. I have not researched it recently, but as of a year or two ago, Garmin cartography was still light years better than what was available for Lowrance, for my purposes. Otherwise, I'd have bought one of the Lowrance Baja HDS units - they totally rock in every other feature category I'm concerned with. But, if the maps suck, then what's the point and at the time I was looking, the Lowrance maps DID suck, royally...
So, distill it all down, my personal preference for in vehicle use is a Garmin marine chart plotter.
- DAA
I've also owned and used "smart phones" and played with the various gps and mapping apps for as long as they have existed. As well as, at one time, it was literally my job to obtain every single tablet and Oragami device that hit the market and test out various GPS/Mapping apps on them for the company I work for. Note though, that tablet experience is several years old now so no longer relevant.
Anyway...
I find that one of the features I appreciate most about a dedicated GPS unit is the dedicated buttons on it for dedicated features. Trying to manage waypoints, tracks, zoom, look up POI's etc. on my phone is a total PIA compared to the same tasks on my GPS units.
But, there is a tremendous amount of personal preference to be accounted for in the above. Like, for instance, I prefer GPS units with actual buttons over touch screen units. For two reasons. One, I find the dedicated function buttons far, FAR easier to use while bombing down a rough dirt road at speed. And second, and this is PURE personal preference, but I HATE the way touch screens are always a greasy dust attracting smeared oily ugly looking mess. I think display tech has improved to where touch screens are the equal of non touch in terms of being readable in sunlight, but for the generation of GPS units I own, that was a HUGE deal too - the backlit non touch screens were (are?) just way better in varied lighting conditions.
Again, personal preferences, but I also don't like trying to make one GPS do it all. If it is small enough to be useful on a hike, I think it totally sucks azz for screen and/or button size in a vehicle. I like bigger displays in the vehicle. And I like something totally submersible and built to take a lot of bouncing and vibration. That's why I use a marine chart plotting GPS in my vehicles. It's actually made to go on a boat. The one I have now is an old model that I'm sure is discontinued, a Garmin 276C. But if I were buying a new one today I'd get whatever the newer replacement model for it is.
Oh, and the most important feature of all, really, is the cartography available. I have not researched it recently, but as of a year or two ago, Garmin cartography was still light years better than what was available for Lowrance, for my purposes. Otherwise, I'd have bought one of the Lowrance Baja HDS units - they totally rock in every other feature category I'm concerned with. But, if the maps suck, then what's the point and at the time I was looking, the Lowrance maps DID suck, royally...
So, distill it all down, my personal preference for in vehicle use is a Garmin marine chart plotter
.- DAA
sixstringsteve
Well-Known Member
- Location
- UT
that's fantastic feedback Dave, thanks.
So to bring back an old thread. I finally started messing around with my Nuvi to see if I could get this to work. Sure enough it did. I found I had to disable the normal map. I tried having both maps enabled, but it looks like the factory map over rides /overlays the topo so I couldn't see it. I plugged in the track from Dave's most recent adventure to give it a test, and sure enough it is showing up. I'm anxious to go give this a shot with my small hand held and a paper map as a back-up. I hope it works will because it will save me a boat load of cash, even if it means dealing with the dusty touch screen.
sawtooth4x4
Totally Awesome
- Location
- Land of East Laytonshire
I've been using a Garmin GPSMap60CSX for 5 years. it works pretty good. I used it to get us through Gold Bar, Golden Spike and Poison Spider. Half the paint marks were missing from the trail in March 2012. If it wasn't for the GPS we would have been lost. No one was on the trails.