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gps for off road use
- Thread starter louie
- Start date
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guywithjeep
Guest
Plenty of apps for android phones for this purpose. As for a stand alone GPS I'm no sure which one would.
The Garmin hand held units are nice. Load the Canadian Topo's and your ready to go. The normal automotive ones are useless.
http://sites.garmin.com/etrex/
http://sites.garmin.com/etrex/
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DoctorPhate
Guest
Buy a 100$ Windows CE powered one and flash it. Lots of tutorials and they work great. Plus you can watch movies, switch between different navigation software, update with traffic, save by lat. long. etc.
I can help you out with it if you want too.
I can help you out with it if you want too.
Downloaded this today:
http://www.backcountrynavigator.com/content/mytopo-topo-maps-android
Works good on the android. Will connect to the NR online topo maps and you can select an area and download them for offline use. (relying on data coverage for topo's for wheeling does not work)
$10.00 for the paid version and free topo maps, can't beat that :beer:
http://www.backcountrynavigator.com/content/mytopo-topo-maps-android
Works good on the android. Will connect to the NR online topo maps and you can select an area and download them for offline use. (relying on data coverage for topo's for wheeling does not work)
$10.00 for the paid version and free topo maps, can't beat that :beer:
I don't know anything about using a portable (Android, Win, whatever) but if you're looking for a dedicated GPS device then only look at Garmin.
A few years ago I got a GPSMAP 60CsX which I use for trails and road navigation. The screen is small by today's standards of in vehicle use, but it has tons of features, is very flexible, intuitive, and works great. I think these have been replaced with the 62 series. I can switch between street and topo maps, though I did have to purchase them separately at $100 a piece.
I had an eTrex before that and I like it too, it just depends what you want out of it and how much you're willing to pay.
A few years ago I got a GPSMAP 60CsX which I use for trails and road navigation. The screen is small by today's standards of in vehicle use, but it has tons of features, is very flexible, intuitive, and works great. I think these have been replaced with the 62 series. I can switch between street and topo maps, though I did have to purchase them separately at $100 a piece.
I had an eTrex before that and I like it too, it just depends what you want out of it and how much you're willing to pay.
Another plus for Garmin over others (well Magellan), when you buy the add on maps you get decent PC s/w to view the maps as well and upload/download routes, waypoints and tracks. It's what I used to create the track screenshots in the Trails forum in the members section.
Anyways, if you're leaning towards a dedicated GPS I can talk to you more about my experiences with Garmin and Magellan.
Anyways, if you're leaning towards a dedicated GPS I can talk to you more about my experiences with Garmin and Magellan.
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DoctorPhate
Guest
I should point out I was saying buy the cheapy 100$ Windows CE powered GPS unit. not some GPS phone. the GPS can be flashed to run all kinds of software it works way better than the software on the several hundred dollar GPSs.
Why people spend money on those things when this is an option I have no clue. I'd go with this over a Garmin anyday btw and I used to love my garmin till i did this.
Why people spend money on those things when this is an option I have no clue. I'd go with this over a Garmin anyday btw and I used to love my garmin till i did this.
As someone who works in the embedded device field, trust me when I say that this advice isn't necessarily the best. Any WinCE box will not necessarily be flash-able, nor will there always be an image out there for said processor. In my time working with their devices, I developed a hatred for the WinCE OS, and I'd advice staying away, especially for someone who admits they aren't computer savvy.
Android apps on a tablet would be a pretty sweet setup for multi-use over the WinCE boxes IMO.
Well if you look at the dedicated off-road/hiking ones you will see that most of them are waterproof and shockproof to some degree, in other words made to work in tough terrains and a lot of phones would not be up to that, it would depend on your application. If you don't do hard trails, the inside of your vehicle is dry all the time or you have a very safe place to put your phone then phones are good.
Yah, My Garmin eTrex has been to hell and back and still works. If I fawked up my phone off roading I would be out more than just a GPS. But the android app is nice because I ALWAYS have my phone with me, I only bring my GPS when I remember to
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DoctorPhate
Guest
Very true, and lets face it, most of us dont have perfectly sealed rigs either. Last time I went out the interior of my jeep got spakled with mud and my carpets had to be pulled.
Very true about the model requirements. Mines a cheapy invique or whatever they're called.
I hated it with a passion until i found a way online to flash it with Giopocket(I think). Considering everything was free I tend to recommend that even for the 100$ price tag.
Although for our sport you make an excellent point, a water proof one would be ideal. I dont imagine mine will hold up long
There's a lot more to a GPS than just the s/w. A big reason I went with the Garmin 60CsX is to get great reception when there's trees and a steel rollcage overhead; the 60Csx has the Sirf chip and an antenna that sticks out the top which works far better than my old eTrex, and if this wasn't enough it has a connector for an external antenna. I don't know much about tablets but I'd be willing to bet GPS reception isn't their priority or specialty.
It's getting extremely hard to find any computer nowadays with serial ports and some of the serial port adapters don't always work. I know a guy who has had to keep a really old laptop because he has to nurse an old PBX and none of the serial adapters haven't worked. We just got back from the Kootenays in BC and I found the GPS functionality on my Android phone worked flawlessly. I tried it out while using an ATV playing on the mountain. But definitely not as rugged as a proper GPS.
My 60cs has USB & Serial. I assume though, that all the newer ones are USB only.
I thought all Garmin used the same 4 pin serial connector on the back, guess not. My 60cs and Rhino share the same cable, so it works out well for me. Or I can use my Bluetooth GPS receiver and laptop, or my Android phone, or, or, or. So many options, so little time to exploit them all.