Field experiences w/Garmin's SiRF-based GPS units?

[gadget_lover]

Thanks for this thread folks.

I stumbled on this thread last month. It got me to thinking about the improvements since my Garmin E-Map was built in 1999. I also have a Street Pilot III of similar vintage. Both are still working fine, but there have been no software upgrades in recent years.

So I was out geocaching last week and got frustrated by the ease with with a tree could block the E-Map's reception. I got to wondering about how a Sirf equiped GPSr would work. It took less than a week for me to decide I needed a Gpsmap 60CSx badly. It took only hours to decide the $359 price at buy.com was a good one. A $15 discount online coupon brought it down to $344. If I had bought it 10 days earlier I could have gotten an extra $50 rebate from Garmin, but I missed that window.

The unit lives up to it's claims. I like the electonic compass. It makes it easier to get oriented when standing still in a field. The reception is great, as is it's speed of aquiring satellites. I was worried at first that it did not do auto-routing, but after downloading the maps from an older version of mapsource it routed quite nicely based on waypoint, address, poi, etc. I need to get the newest City Navigator (CN) anyway, so my poor old e-map will have to be satisfied with what it has available under CN version 7.

With a 256 meg micro SD card it will hold the entire western US from California to Utah. It will use a 1 gig card too, which should hold the whole US.

Many thanks to those that mentioned it. I've found 8 geocahces so far. I've 30 or so loaded in my new 60CSx right now. ANother reason to use flashlights! Yeah!

Daniel

 

[wquiles]

You guys are "making" me spend more money

I just ordered the Gpsmap 60CSx for $357 (@ Amazon, for those wondering)

Will

 

[jtice]

you wont regret it !!!!! :thumbsup:

Damn good price also.

~John

 

[flashgreenie]

I got the 60Csx. I used it in my trips. So far Malaysia, Singapore, Chile, Peru.
It works great and comparing to my GPS III+, its way better...
The memory card is great. In my GPSIII+, if i forget to download the tracks after a long trip, the bloody GPS starts deleting the old tracks.
Also the 60Csx takes rechargable NiMH batteries which is great. Saves me a bundle.
If you are lucky, you might have a bunch of GPS people who have made a map of your location and its for free. I got this great navigatable GPS map of Malaysia and Singapore for free here.
http://www.malsingmaps.com/forum/index.php

 

[LowBat]

Well I bought the 60CSx also a few months ago. I must say I'm really impressed how it keeps a lock even under heavy tree cover.

 

[Chronos]

I grow more impressed with it every time I use it. I've taken it abroad to Europe and Eastern Europe, used it on numerous hikes and night hikes/geocaches, used it to find routes to destinations, etc. It keeps a nice, solid lock under tree canopies. Plus the updates from Garmin have been great at systematically fixing issues.

 

[gadget_lover]

Will, Welcome to the club. just don't go to www.geocaching.com or yuo may lose the little free time you have left.!

I've been using my Garmin 60CSx for three months now and I think I have found it's only real weakness.

I was looking for a geocache along a hiking trail. When standing on the trail the GPSr said the cache was 24 feet south, which should be about under some young redwood trees and about 5 feet from a tall corrogated metal building. When I got near the building the readings sent me back out to the trail again. I did this over and over.

I finally realized that the trees were blocking the direct signal but the building was reflecting the signal down to my GPSr adding 15 to 20 feet to the path the signal was taking. When standing on the path the direct signal was stronger, so the location was accurate.

A similar thing happened in Downtown San Francisco, where I had such a bad view of the sky that my location jumped over 50 feet when I got to an intersection where there was a better view of the sky.

Just for comparison, I used my old StreetPilot III and new 60CSx at the same time when driving through downtown SF. The 60CSx saw 8 to 12 birds the whole time. The SPIII lost signal frequently and never had a fix on more than 5 birds at once. When I ignored the GPS instructions, the 60CSx recalculated the 35 mile trip in seconds. The SPIII took up to a minute, often having to recalculate because I'd already passed the next turn.

Daniel

 

[drizzle]

I hope this isn't dragging too far off topic. I'll start a new thread if it is.

The only thing right now that has kept me from pulling the trigger on a 60Csx is that it apparently doesn't play well with most APRS units. APRS is used in Ham radio to broadcast your coordinates. Any hams out there that have succesfully used the 60Csx for APRS? How do you do it?

 

[wquiles]

"IT" came in yesterday. Not only this thing is pretty amazing, but I was shocked from even within my own master bedroom (first floor of a two story home) I was able to get satellite lock !!!

This thing is sweet :rock:

Will

 

[gadget_lover]

BTW, I realized yesterday that it has a setting for 3 different kinds of batteries. It uses the battery type to figure out when the battery is low.

Settings are alkaline, lithium ion and nimh.

It even likes the new low discharge Nimh (eneloop and rayovac hybrids) batteries!

Daniel

 

[Grubbster]

I got mine last week and have been playing with it since. The thing is scary the way it can get a lock. I am still waiting on my extra map software to really test it out. The basemap really sucks! Very little detail. Does not even have most roads around here on it. Hopefully tomorrow I will have them in hand.

 

[gadget_lover]

The base map for most of the garmin line are (ahem) limited.

They show only major roads. IIRC, the newer ones have some of the streets around interstate offramps. They also have preloaded POIs for motels, restraunts etc that are close to teh freeways.

For geocaching, you don't need maps. For navigating the CitiNavigator series is probably a VERY good idea.

Daniel

 

[LowBat]

I purchased a 2GB microSD card for mine and loaded up the entire NT version of City Navigator 8, plus all of 24K Topo National Parks West, plus 5 western states of US Topo. Now it not only makes a great hiking GPS, but it's also great for urban navigation anywhere in North America.

 

[gadget_lover]

Hey lowbat... What info do you use from the topo maps? I look at them once in a while. Are they only for finding the way to get somewhere without going over the tops of small hills?

2 gig gave you all of the US citinav? That's great. I want to upgrade my memory the next time I'm at a microsd sale.

Daniel

 

[LowBat]

Hey lowbat... What info do you use from the topo maps? I look at them once in a while. Are they only for finding the way to get somewhere without going over the tops of small hills?

2 gig gave you all of the US citinav? That's great. I want to upgrade my memory the next time I'm at a microsd sale.

Daniel

I use the topo maps when hiking. There are roads, trails, lakes, rivers, contour lines, etc. It gives me a point of reference as I walk.

If your GPSr supports the newer NT maps, get those instead as you can hold much more data in that format.

 

[GhostReaction]

You guys sure know how I could spent my money!
The free map did it. I was happy enough with my yellow GPS60 (non mapping)

Thank you so much for sharing the link flashgreeni :thumbsup:

I got the 60Csx. I used it in my trips. So far Malaysia, Singapore, Chile, Peru.
It works great and comparing to my GPS III+, its way better...
The memory card is great. In my GPSIII+, if i forget to download the tracks after a long trip, the bloody GPS starts deleting the old tracks.
Also the 60Csx takes rechargable NiMH batteries which is great. Saves me a bundle.
If you are lucky, you might have a bunch of GPS people who have made a map of your location and its for free. I got this great navigatable GPS map of Malaysia and Singapore for free here.
http://www.malsingmaps.com/forum/index.php

 

[stockae92]

no free map for US or Europe?

 

[cal..45]

hey stockae,

nice to see you around here too



regards, holger

 

[stockae92]

hey stockae,

nice to see you around here too



regards, holger

nice to see you here as well

i guess we share the same hobbies .. lol :laughing:

 

[gadget_lover]

I've just completed a few days of using the Garmin 60CSx in heavy foliage. My primary use is Geocaching, so a good satellite fix and accuracy are both important.

In heavy tree coverage (20 to 100 foot pine) in a mountainous area (Lake Tahoe) it did well as far as satellite lock. It was able to acquire and keep a lock even under the trees. It's accuracy suffered under heavy cover, bouncing around up to 40 feet in various directions. This made hunting caches a fun challenge.

I had differential mode (WAAS) enabled, so that may have had some impact.

Don't get me wrong, my older GPS would have lost the satellite signal. In most navigation situations, being 30 feet off is not a problem.

Daniel