gps for off road use

[2Greys]

Would it be possible to just splice a USB onto my cable? Just cut the serial connection off and wire up the USB? ( that is if the adapter doesn't work like 2greys said. Are 4 wire connections universal?

Signalling is different between RS-232 (serial) and USB. Even with what I said, I would be really surprised if the USB to Serial didn't work.

 

[Richard]

Getting back on topic. How acurate is the 60c? Does the antena pull in a better signal? I find that the legend goes a little wonky near ground zero. Because it is sometimes only accurate to 5m it starts jumping around so you have to back away from the spot and try triangulation to find the spot.

Very accurate. It has the SIRF chip which is way more sensitive; my eTrex would often loose accuracy or the signal altogether in my Jeep under trees while I never had a problem with the 60. It also supports WAAS which further improves accuracy.

Would it be possible to just splice a USB onto my cable? Just cut the serial connection off and wire up the USB? ( that is if the adapter doesn't work like 2greys said. Are 4 wire connections universal?

The adapters aren't just a connector conversion they also convert the signalling and protocol. The old 'serial' interface is actually RS232 which has nothing in common with USB other than they are both considered 'serial' interfaces, so let's use this term from now on. Since you need the circuit that converts RS232 to USB which is usually located inside the adapter's 9 pin connector housing there's not much advantage to making a custom splice. You'd save one of the 9 pin connectors and you could make the cable shorter but that's it.

 

[Twinkie]

What ^^^ said. The 60cs is dead on accurate, tree cover, building cover, whatever. I'm usually at 1m accuracy, unless it's a very cloudy day, under tree's, in the truck back seat, then it backs of to 10m.

 

[bzzr2]

I wonder if the iPhone is accurate? My eTrex is getting s little old and the screen goes bonkers on occasion.

a friend of mine put the gps app on his iphone3 and it seemed on a bushwhack to be as accurate as my older magellan hand held unit, the battery drained very quickly though, in less than 3hrs the iphone3 was dead. his screen sure was pretty compared to my colorless little screen..

 

[Twinkie]

Any Smartphone with a 4" or so screen cannot be left on full time (the screen that is) without being plugged in. Those huge screens require a lot of battery power. I can't get 3 hours with the screen and gps receiver on, out of my Samsung.

a friend of mine put the gps app on his iphone3 and it seemed on a bushwhack to be as accurate as my older magellan hand held unit, the battery drained very quickly though, in less than 3hrs the iphone3 was dead. his screen sure was pretty compared to my colorless little screen..

 

[Colin]

Anyone know if there is a Garmin that can be connected to a laptop, to be used for tracking a trail. I hate those little screens and have access to a tough book, so I figured I would use that as my trail mapper.

Thank
Colin

 

[Richard]

Anyone know if there is a Garmin that can be connected to a laptop, to be used for tracking a trail. I hate those little screens and have access to a tough book, so I figured I would use that as my trail mapper.

Thank
Colin

I know my old eTrex through RS232 and newer 60CsX through USB can connect to a PC and as Mudlite stated you can us it for tracking on various s/w.

Buying a Garmin just to use it as the GPS receiver for a laptop isn't the cheapest way to go. But if you plan to use it handheld too then you can buy their city or topo maps they come with Mapsource s/w for the PC so you can use the maps on both the GPS and the computer, so just use whichever works best for the situation.

 

[Twinkie]

Exactly what Richard said. If you're not going to use it as a handheld, and use it on a laptop *only*. Look at getting a gps receiver only that uses Bluetooth or USB to connect to the pc. I have a BT connected Holux receiver, works great, and cheap!

 

[Richard]

Just don't get caught using this to navagate on-road!

Oh yeah, it's illegal to look at screens larger than a certain size (is it 14"?) while driving.