GPS Purchases

I'm in the process of buying myself a GPS unit. Like many people who use this site i'm looking at the GPS III+ unit. Started my search at Bracken who have the unit for £392.45,but have found one for £323.24 a saving of almost £70,not too shabby in my opinion,anyone got any experiences with this company? http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk/

I got a good deal on a StreetPilot from:

www.gpsw.co.uk

Give them a go (usual disclaimers)

Best

Greg

Firstly, try Tottenham court rd. in London. Good prices in places like ASK Electronics and others.
Secondly, Think about the amount of memory you'll need for the mapping area. The GPSIII+ only has 1.44MB, so you won't get a big area into the unit.
I have an e-trex Vista. It has a slightly smaller screen but has 24 (twenty four)MB. It will hold most of the England off Mapsource CDs, has space for 30 routes of 50 waypoints, an altimeter.
I think it is a better unit. More expensive though.
Of course, if money is no object, think about the GPS V, Steet Pilot, 176, and the BMW navigator seem pretty good.

Come on guys,
which is the best unit for a bike. I have a Garmin E-Trex but this is not suitable at all for motoring (bike or car) as it doesn't take maps.

The Street Pilot looks great but is pricey and I was suprised at the comment that the GPS111 can only hold a small section of map which is no good for touring.

I'm after one for touring but can't even think of paying £1k for the street pilot. Any other units that you guys use and how you find them would be interesting.

Andy T

I've been very impressed with the Garmin 176 write-ups and comments that were stmulated by Paul Grove's thread . . .

http://www.gsclubuk.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=118

I've spoken to Paul and he's very happy with the unit, even though technically it's a marine unit. It has limitations and compromises because of that, but it's under £400 so they're compromises worth making.

Simon E.

Simon.

A 176 for under £400? Where from?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm putting my 3+ up for sale shortly and I'm trying to decide between the 176 and the Garmin V.........not easy.

V:
Auto routing.
19Mb memory. Small but well up on 3+ 1.4MB.
£444 include unlock code for Europe.
Screen same size [small] as 3+ but higher res.

176:
Lager screen.
Excepts data cards. Clearly the larger the better, so that's 128MB but that equals ££££££££££££££££. What do you do if you're away and need more maps?
Isn't creating routes on the small screen a pain?

Given that 19MB should be enough for 1 days touring at least and I have an iBook to download more and create routes on it's a V for me. For sure. Almost. Maybe. We'll see.

Russ.

Pretty sure it was at the GPS Warehouse. I didn't buy at the time. I was searching for prices whilst waiting for Paul Grove to return from the Alps and let me know what he thought of it as a road system.
Paul's your man for all the technical info. Send him an e-mail with your queries. Meanwhile . . .

Check out the review of the 176 at:
http://www.gpsinformation.net/g176/gps176review.htm

Check out the product specs. at:
http://www.garmin.com/products/gpsmap176C/

There's a downloadable .pdf owner's manual to give you all the information you need.

Simon E.

AndyT

I use an e-Trex summit, it works fine for me, I plot my route using the mapsource CDs on my PC and upload the route to my GPS. the arrow tells me when my next turn is approching.
OK i do try to memorise most of the route too while i am ploting it. and i also carry a map with me.

The unit is fine on my bike, push bike and hand held when i am in the mountains, it suffers in the car with a weak signal which is why i would like a 3+.

combine a small GPS with a map and there is no problem. If you need to stop to look at a map it gives you an excuse for a cup of tea and sticky bun.

GPS

Why not try EBAY
Lots of GPS units on auction
You should get one at a good price, as long as you're not too fussy about it being used.
As a guide, GPS III's usually go for £120-£140

Russ,
I see you mentioned an ibook well sadly mapscorce is windows only so you will have to borrow a friends pc I have no pc so have to borrow a neigbours
I bought a garvin v in totonham court road ria tecnoliges all region unlock 430 pounds but I have been waiting ten days for my unlock code from garmin!

Paul.

You are correct when you say Mapsource is for windows only, there is however a solution.

I run emulation software from Connectix called Virtual PC5. VPC5 allows any windows software to be run on Apple operating system.

VPC5 allows me to run Windows 98 on my iBook [OSX] and Mapsource in windows 98. This works fine, it's not what I'd call snappy but it's fast enough and appears very stable. VP5 isn't suitable for games because of this lack of speed.

I connect the GPS to the iBook with a PDA [USB/serial] adaptor from Keyspan. Keyspan now do a high speed USB/serial adaptor which may be more suitable but for me the PDA adaptor works OK.

The City Map CD [?] you get you get with the V........does this give street level detail like Mapsource R+R?

Russ.

Well Russ,
I did consider buying that program but I was not sure weather the emulation software would recognize the keyspan I just happen to have one lying around from a old PDA
I could buy an old windows box (sans flowers) which would do the trick but a bit difficult to take to france! so I could load it on my powerbook mmmm!
tempting how much space does it take on your hard disc?
and do I also need a copy of windoze or is this included with the software?
and yes mapsorce does go down to street level never seen the r+r disc
so cant comment
:

Paul.

Are you using OSX?



Paul wrote:
"I did consider buying that program but was not sure weather the emulation software would recognize the keyspan"

It's not a question of the VPC recognising the keyspan, that's the job of windows and Mapsource. I've installed windows drivers for the keyspan on the PC VPC created as well as OSX drivers for the same on OSX.

It works like this, VPC creates a windows machine on your Apple, the same CD that installed VPC also installs Windows on the PC you've just created. You then install Mapsource on your new windows machine. The desktop looks exactly like a windows desktop except it's in a OSX window. Anyway, that's how I understand it.

According to the get info panel 47.5MB

Email me boxer@ntlworld.com maybe we can sort something out.

e-trex vista

Just purchased a e-trex vista for, get this, £299.95 from my local Maplins electronics store, a handlebar mount for £11.99 and a 12V power cable/cigarette socket adaptor for £23.99, the vista came with a PC connection cable included in the price!
A pretty good deal don't you think?

Hi suipedali and all,

The 176 unit £433 from GPS Warehouse comes with bare power/data cable, I’ve wired mine straight into the GS wiring harness so there is a permanent live to the GPS. It also comes with GPS to PC serial data cable. I bought a PC serial/cigarette to GPS cable £33 + 240v ac to 12v dc power adaptor £9. The 64 meg Data Card was £102.

You can get a USB card reader which would allow you to upload the maps to the 64meg card in about 5 minutes but, I just use the serial connector which takes about 2 hours… no problem.

The Touratech handlebar mount was £50 from Bracken.

The Garmin CD’s Road’s & Recreation CD’s I already have but are about £60 each, the Europe Roads & Recreation one would be good for starters.

On my recent Alp's trip I loaded the whole of France & Switzerland down to street level plus the bottom half of the UK.

The 176 was absolutely impressive. We had set routes riding down but used the GPS for a large amount of the passes. We rode from the Alps in the South east to the beaches of Normandy in the North West and then on to Le Harve using no maps just relying on the 176’s capabilities…. Highly recommended.

Although the 176 does not have routing capabilities, I find the 'Goto' feature more adventurous. If you are at point 'A' and you want to go to point 'B' just set in the destination and follow the arrow (or compass)... a lot more fun.

I used to have the Garmin GPSIII+ but this one is so much quicker at scrolling and booting up etc….. even with the 64 Meg data cartridge. You can also configure the screen how you want it i.e. you can control what data is displayed where.

The GPS V is limited by it's memory of 19 meg

If anyone want's to pick my brain (should take all of two minutes ) give me a call on 07966 388827 after 6:30pm

Hi.

Dammit! I was looking forward to boring everyone with my review of the 176. Still, Paul done a great job and I generally second everything he wrote. I owe him a thank you for bringing the 176 to my attention. If I could just add a few comments...........

Paul wrote:
"The 176 unit £433 from GPS Warehouse comes with bare power/data cable, I’ve wired mine straight into the GS wiring harness so there is a permanent live to the GPS. It also comes with GPS to PC serial data cable. I bought a PC serial/cigarette to GPS cable £33 + 240v ac to 12v dc power adaptor £9. The 64 meg Data Card was £102."

I too got my 176 from GPSW, it came with a power/data cable as well as a PC serial cable. The power/data cable has bare wires at one end and I intend snipping the data wires off, then connecting a cigar lighter plug from Maplins [at about £1.50] for use with the 240v/12v adaptor. Even if i don't go that route Garmin do a cigar lighter power lead at £18.

Paul wrote:
"You can get a USB card reader which would allow you to upload the maps to the 64meg card in about 5 minutes but, I just use the serial connector which takes about 2 hours… no problem."

Now here we differ. I'd say the USB card reader was a must have. I've an 16MB card and I think it'd take at least 2hrs to fill using the serial cable. I'd like to give you an accurate time, but the connection fails, once with 98% of the download complete. *Major* league annoyance.

Paul wrote:
"Although the 176 does not have routing capabilities, I find the 'Goto' feature more adventurous. If you are at point 'A' and you want to go to point 'B' just set in the destination and follow the arrow (or compass)... a lot more fun."

Absolutely right. GoTo........the thinking mans auto route.

Paul wrote:
"I used to have the Garmin GPSIII+ but this one is so much quicker at scrolling and booting up etc….. even with the 64 Meg data cartridge. You can also configure the screen how you want it i.e. you can control what data is displayed where."

I too had the III+. A great unit and IMO the 176 - to a large degree - is a III+ with greatly enlarged conads. As Paul mentions the speed of scrolling is a revelation after the III+, this along with the larger screen greatly enhances useability over the III+. I think you could actually create a route on this screen, something I found impossible with the III+.

Mine's the colour version [176c] and while I've never seen the grey scale screen I'd be surprised if the 176c colour didn't improve the ease of use.

I can't help it, but every time I zoom in I'm reminded of the six million dollar mans eye sight, and the silly zooming -dddddddd- noise that used to accompany it runs through my head. Yes, it's that quick.

Paul wrote:
"The GPS V is limited by it's memory of 19 meg"

16MB will hold a lot of map tiles, enough for a days ride.
With 19MB you'll need access to a computer [I've a laptop] to load more maps and a lot of time on a daily basis if the V goes on a touring holiday. This, along with slow processor speed and a small screen are limiting factors with the V. For me even auto routing doesn't compensate for these things.

Regards.

Russ.

USB card reader??

Guys,
where aouts does one buy a USB card reader?? Is it specifically for the Garmin units or a standard bit of kit - can you tell i'm a novice yet??

It's specifically for the Garmin units. It's a piece of kit that plugs into the USB port of your PC, you then plug your Garmin Data Card into it and upload the map data etc.
I don't use one but as Russ says it certainly speeds up the upload of data to the card

greetings from sunny notts

please excuse my ignorance, but what is 'go to' as compared to autorouting ?

tia
all the best
rich
notts

"Go To" plots the shortest route to that "Waypoint". When I was at school, the shortest distance between two points was a straight line. This means that if you use "Go To" function, it will guide you through rivers, lakes, buildings, small children etc. , always following a straight line. (This system works OK in the desert, if you don't ming going over dunes rather than aroung them). Autorouting is a bit more sophisticated. This function uses the roads in the built in map and will guide you via roads to the next waypoint.