GPS advice needed

Gather App
Candle Power Forums

Help Support Candle Power:

the only difference between the cheapest unit and the most exspensive are "bells and whistles".

get the cheapest waterproof unit you can. it'll probably be easier to operate too. good luck.
 
I have owned 8 GPS's

Check the number of recivers, my first two GPS's (MAGELLAN) used two channel recievers, they were terrible - they would lose satellites and take forever to lock

I even have the GPS watch !

I will save you all a LOT of time; don't look at ANY of the GPS's out there - just go out and buy a GARMIN-V; it is simply the best GPS that I have ever seen and used; reliable - user friendly, features, etc

The screen resolution is WONDERFULL; the backlighting is WHITE LED - not green, yellow - or like most of them with EL panels and that terrible "buzzing" of the HV invertor
 
I have owned the Garmin eTrex Legend for about a year and a half, and have been very happy with it. I've used it with success in cars, bikes, and airplanes. The user interface is easy and intuitive and it has the right blend of features (incl. mapping) and ease of use. Also it's a compact, palmable size and is durable and water resistant. The operating system is well supported and upgradable. Lots of accessories available. And, it's a reasonable value. Overall, I give it an A.
 
I'm looking at getting the Garmin GPS V. One question I have is about the backlighting and in a vehicle. Is it easy to see and read?

I really want to make sure it will be easy to read.

Wayne
 
I just purchased the laptop version. I have few problems with the Street Atlas 2003 software.

1) The database seems to be quite old. Even though the road on which I live is at least 3 years old, it is not listed

2) After searching for a particular location (e.g. my friend's house), I can not figure it out how to name it so that I can access it next time by the assigned name.

3) Routing by "VIA" feature is pretty bogus. For example, if I am travelling from Mass to Southern NJ and I want to take I-90, I-84, I-684, Tappan Zee Bridge, Garden State (and avoid NYC) and I add appropriate via's to the route manually; it still takes me all over the local roads.

Thanks,
- Vikas
 
The GARMIN V is WHITE-LED backlighted and INCREDIBLY easy to read, earlier GARMIN units used ORANGE, GREEN LEDs and even some EL panels with noisy invertors; the GARMIN 5 is a world-above anything
 
But is 19megs enough space if you have the various software to load onto it? One big concern for me is the ability to expand the memory and access various areas without a laptop.
 
Hey Vikas, I too have SA2003 (Delorme) and find it worse then SA7 which I also still use. At least with Street Atlas 7, you could enable the back-on-track feature while using the speech engine to speak the directions without ever touching a key. Soon as you reach the off course threshold, which is user settable, it recalculates new directions on the fly. In the 2003 mode, I had my wife do the driving so I could see all of its touted features, and to be honest, it has LESS than it SA7 has. You have to manually click back on track to force a recalc, even in "talking mode" and I find this to be very distracting.
What I wound up doing is ditching the laptop altogether in favor of the Garmin GPS-V which, as previously mentioned, is far better than anything I've used in an all-in-one unit. No cables, no PC to futz with. All of the routing including automatic recals, are all present. Just too many features to mention....

Ed
 
Wayne, I have a GPS III+ (the forerunner of the GPS V) and it has a setup feature to allow you to control how long the backlighting stays on. One option is always on. Of course you would probably only want that if you had external power. I assume the GPS V has this feature as well.

The GPS V has a different screen so I'm not sure how good the contrast is (the GPS III+ has adjustable contrast as well).

-john
 
Regarding 19M of memory. I agree it would be nice to have more memory, especially removable memory, but typically the 24M in my Vista is pretty good. You can get a lot of topos in it, or a LOT of street maps.

I don't think this (19M) will be a big problem unless you travel between states and want a lot of topos at each location.

On the other hand, the 1.4M of the III+ is way too little. You have to load maps for exactly there area you are going to. No detours allowed w/out a way to upload new maps. :-(

-john
 
Has anyone tried the National Geographic mapping software? It doesn't appear to have any of the road atlas info, so I guess that would make it less useful for the $$, but I wonder how good it is at what it's designed for. Also, as krept asked, how much space do you generally need to store maps? TX
PS,
Is there a good forum for GPS info?
 
Thanks John and everone else. Ordered my GPS V via one of the web sites.

I found one the other day in a local store that actually had batteries in it and played with the backlighting. It was pretty bright even in the store and the white LEDs... Well, kinda taking a liking to LEDs ya know.

Although the initial number of buttons on the interface seemed a little overwhelming, I was easily navigating the menu systems and options in a few minutes I played with it.

Wayne
 
txwest,

$100.00 rebate... O S**t. Did someone post it. I don't think so.
frown.gif


twak.gif


Wayne
 
Wayne,
I didn't see it posted, but I've been thinking about getting one & 2 or 3 of the places I went to had $100 off the standard $499 price. This is one
www.gpsonsale.com/garmin/products/GPS-V.htm
I believe WalMart on line was another, but you'ld get hit with tax there. There was another one, & they had good prices on accessories, but I don't remember the site right now. TX

sotyakr,
Thanks for the link. TX
 
txwest,

The place I went to I think had it for about the same price as Wallmart ($399.00??) around xmas time. I zoned out the other day, and thought 438.00 was even lower???

I went to GPSdiscount.com and got the deluxe pro 99 case. There were two packages and this one came with ?? xtra stuff. As you can see I don't know what the diff was. That's the other night when I zoned out. Still, if I get it I'll be happy.

Wayne
 
Wayne,
I think your package came with rechargable batteries & chaarger. GPS Discount was one of the places I was looking. Team GPS was a little cheaper, but access were more. Let us know what you think when you get it. TX
 
Another CPF member sent me an email saying they had purchased there for xmas and it actually came!

I'm somewhat skeptical to order from a place I've never delt with.

The unit came yesterday, and tho I should have done other things... I took some time to load the CD ROM, download the local cities to my GPS and took it for a spin around the block.

It works better than I expected. The white LEDs have more than ample lighting capability for night driving and I actually had to turn it way down. Twas amazing. (Notice I'm only talking about the LEDs!!!)

As for the GPS...

I was totally shocked after I loaded the CD ROM and found my home on the map cause, when I zoomed in I noticed three business on my street and the adjacent street. That blew me away. Three houses down is a daycare center and it's on the map! Two other businesses are listed on the next street over.

The unit shows in text when I'm driving the next street coming up. Very nice. Quite a few buttons and menus, but, after one day, I know the unit pretty well.

The only thing I should have gotten is a second antenna. I'd like to leave the one on the vehicle cable and have a second one for the physical unit. Lots of cables and stuff. i'll need a larger stuff bag to put the GPS and associated cables into.

Wayne
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top