Need GPS recommendation - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

MS Fowler · #1 12-29-2007, 02:11 PM

I need some help selecting a GPS. The difficulty is that I have 2 uses, and I do not know if a single unit will perform both tasks.
1) First task is simple auto navigation. Lots of units to pick from.

2) This is the one that makes it tough. I often need to locate test borings in the field so the drillers will make the test boring at the right location. To do this I need a GPS that allows me to input some coordinates ( UTM preferred) and then the GPS will take me to that location.

Is there a single unit that combines both of these uses?

Thanks all.

Botnst · #2 12-29-2007, 03:04 PM

Look for a GPS unit that allows user entered waypoints. If you're going to take field notes related to the waypoints then you're going to need a databse of some sort that ties to the waypoint. Now you're moving into the $1,000 and up range.

Here are some links:
http://www.annadelpress.com/GPSSelectionGuide.htm
http://www.gpscentral.ca/products/priceguides.htm

At my office we use Garmins and Trimbles. the Garmins are reasonably accurate, very good feature/price, generally more compact, and quire reliable. The lower-end Garmins do not let you mess with the innards of the S/N so you're stuck with factory settings. This can limit the utility of the receiver in a forest with dense canopy or lots of tall buildings. Also, the Garmins we have do not have I/O ports so you can't upload or download waypoints or shapefiles.

The Trimble units are in general, not as rugged as the Garmins at the same price. The Trimble units we use are upper end -- submeter and sub decimeter accuracy. They can be run with an laptop through a GIS like ArcMap creating shapefiles on the fly. Also waypoints and shapefiles can be uploaded to the GPS or downloaded from the GPS using either a cable or Bluetooth. These units are pretty expensive.

I know a few people who have Magellans and they are very happy with that brand. Same with Tom-Tom. What I liked about the Tom-Tom I used was that it gave warnings of necessary turns well in advance. It was able to navigate me from Stuttgart Arkansas to my home address in south Louisiana without any problems.

B

peragro · #3 12-29-2007, 03:45 PM

My Mio Digiwalker C310x does road navigation and also coordinates search. It also tells you where you are by coordinates.

I guess it depends on how accurate you want to be. If within a few metres is ok with you then the Mio would work fine. To get cm accuracy you'd pay big bucks. It's under $150 now and fits in your pocket or the holder that sticks to the windshield when you're driving. Another plus is that it runs Windows CE so you can hack it and do various things like watch movies, keep appointment books, etc...

I've had it for almost a couple of years and I like the screen better than any of the others out there still. I've used it East coast and West coast and in between and never had any connectivity problems. Often it'll even sych up with sats when I'm in the house. It kicks the Magellan unit that we have at work that cost 3x as much in the rear.

Hatterasguy · #4 12-29-2007, 04:00 PM

I'd get two.

Pete Geither · #5 12-29-2007, 04:30 PM

My Garmin Nuvi 660 allows me to enter coordinates.

MS Fowler · #6 12-29-2007, 05:29 PM

Thanks all,
The environmental guys usea Sokkia for their locating. I have used it in the past. It is very accurate, but it doesn't do navigation. Last Friday (when I needed to do the work) there was no one in the office who could make the Sokkia read in UTM, or convert UTM to the northings and eastings it used.
We have a couple Garmin Etrex hand held units. We had a Fill placement job that required GPS coordinates to log in our testing as there were no control points on the ground. They also seem difficult to use for navigation.

10-20 feet accuracy is fine for the test boring location work I do. I will look into the Mio.

86560SEL · #7 12-31-2007, 01:05 AM

One of my aunts has a Garmin unit in her GMC Yukon Denali and she loves it. She is in real estate and it has helped her out greatly in finding locations... a must for someone like her. My uncle (her husband) has one as well in his Dodge diesel truck (he is an electrician) and it has came in handy when he has nightly service calls trying to find a home whose heater or A/C has gone on the fritz on a dark night.

I have another uncle in Richmond that has one in his Lincoln Town Car that he likes better than the factory unit (his has the satellite radio as well).... my aunt (his wife) loved it so much that he had to install one in her Volvo and his daughters Mercedes 300TD. I think that entire household has one as well, as one was also installed in my cousins Land Cruiser and his brothers BMW 8-Series. All have mounted very easily onto the instrument panels.

BlackRedGold · #8 12-31-2007, 01:46 AM

i just bought my wife a mio digiwalker c220 ($129 from circuit city) and it performs all of the aforementioned tasks (custom waypoints, street navigation, etc.) and supports the lat/lon, mgrs, utm, loran td, and maidenhead grids. i also have an old magellan meridian handheld that i use on dual-sport motorcycle excursions and it doesn't do street nav, but it has map support and supports utm as well....you should be able to pick one of them up on ebay for a few bucks if you don't want to shell out the $$$ for a new mio (or whatever).

MS Fowler · #9 12-31-2007, 06:45 AM

It looks like the Mio 220 is the one.
Thanks all.

Mistress · #10 12-31-2007, 01:58 PM

Good luck , let us know how it works out for you. I was playing around with someones Garmin the other night and decided a good old fashioned map with a magnifying glass will do quite nicely for me.