Hand held GPS

[disco gazza]

Hi,

Well my old garmin 60csx has finally died.

Am now on the hunt for a new handheld gps.

Have had garmin and magellan and dont really think much of either brand(mostly due to very poor service when things go wrong with your gps)

Can anyone recommend a reasonable gps,dont need the top model but dont want the basic model either.Must be able to show all the off-road tracks as well as the usual blacktop stuff.

cheers

[Yorkshire_Jon]

Ive just nicely retired my OLD Garmin Vista and replaced it with a Garmin GPSMap 62sc.

It does everything I need. Ruggedness, daylight readable screen, routable maps and availability of maps were my top ticket must do/have's for a portable device.

Ive found Garmin Topo is the best map for showing most outback routes. I also have Garmin City Navigator loaded on mine because I find that better for in the built up areas.

I used to run Shonky and Open Street Map but found the Garmin stuff to be better.


I did also consider the Oregon, that has one advantage (for some) in that some models will give you voice guided routes, it also has a touch screem. Its disadvantages however are a lack of built-in memory and a screen that is not so readable outdoors in bright light.

I guess whats right for you will depend on what primary use it needs to do well.

Jon

[loanrangie]

I know this is a grave dig but i can give you some idea's for a replacement.
I have been using an HP Ipaq pda since 2006 which i run Ozi Explorer Ce and iGo8 , first used a bluetooth gps unit with external antenna which worked well.
Then i bought a powered ps2 gps that came with a car 12V cigi power adapter which i have permanently mounted and hard wired.
Battery died and i wasnt using it much so just shelved it til about a month ago. In the meantime i have bought an Acer N35 pda with built in GPS for $10 so i can at least take it out of the car and still get sat signals . Needed a new internal battery which cost $8.95 inc post.

So if you want to run your software of choice both road/offroad mapping a winCE based pda can be a cheap alternative to a proprietary gps.

[turps]

I would be interested in what you find. As I love my Magellan Meridian Platinum. But it is slowly dying.
I found it to have great mapping and was extremly easy to use. And was able to input wpts at a good speed.
But looking at what they display now at the 4wd shows. I have decided that all the new Magellan's are total crap. My mate brought a explorist 600, its full touch screen and the menu layout is extremely frustrating. Might be ok hiking. But when your trying to navigate or try to use it at speed. Total rubbish.

For me without having a chance to play with it yet. I think a Garmin GPS62 will be something worth looking at.
My priority for a GPS-
Be able to be used for in car, on MTB, on motorbike and walking
must be easy to input and label waypoints ie nav events or geochaching
easy to use
easy to read in sunlight
easy to use while not looking to hard at the buttons ie while driving or riding
Be able to customize certain nav pages depending on what I am doing.

An example of the last would be, speed and elevation on the map screen. Or distance to waypoint etc.

So the garmin would be worth a look. And it looks like you can use it for tracking you dogs or kids.

[disco gazza]

Been playing around with my so called dead garmin 60csx and its come back to life.
Still havent found anything that I really like yet.

As an aside, I have the Magellan Australian mapping that I got when I bought my explorist way back.Its an excellent map,shows all the tracks,roads etc.
What I would like to do is to be able to put the mapping on other devices other than a Magellan unit.
I think the maps are ".imf", but not certain(have to find the cd).
Does anyone know if you can change the maps file(s) so other devices can read it?

thanks

cheers

[turps]

Been playing around with my so called dead garmin 60csx and its come back to life.
Still havent found anything that I really like yet.

As an aside, I have the Magellan Australian mapping that I got when I bought my explorist way back.Its an excellent map,shows all the tracks,roads etc.
What I would like to do is to be able to put the mapping on other devices other than a Magellan unit.
I think the maps are ".imf", but not certain(have to find the cd).
Does anyone know if you can change the maps file(s) so other devices can read it?

thanks

cheers

I have been looking for ways to convert Magellans .imf maps. But have had no luck. Which is abit of a shame. As mine has the most accurate mapping out of anything I have used including paper topo maps.
But the best bit is it shows all the old tracks. So makes it possible to find some stuff that have just over grown. Found some great secret camping spots now. Was able to go to the same spot 4yrs in a row and no one else had been there in that time.

Further research says the Garmin GPSMAP62sc will be my next purchase. But since I am in no rush. I will wait till the 4wd show. And price wise, they are under $500 delivered with Australian mapping from ebay.