A route keeping handheld gps required

[jacko1747]

Ok folks, hopefully someone can help me. I'm off to do 7 days cycling in south africa and i'm after a gps unit that can keep a record of each days cycling eg, distance, time, altitude gained/lossed, speed etc. I want to use the unit in the uk aswell. been doing some reading and i think the garmin etrex summit will do the job but i'm not sure. anyone got any advice on what i should go for?

thanks in advance

p.s be gentle with me as i'm new to the site

[AllyCat]

Hi,

It seems that what you want to do is record a "track log" for each day of your trip. Most handheld GPSs can do this but with varying degress of usefulness (and it might be difficult to tell which from their specification).

My first advice is to give whichever model you choose a good trial BEFORE you go. Setting up a suitable recording mode is important, and there might be other problems. For example, vibration of the bicycle has been known to cause the batteries in some Etrexs (in particular) to lose contact and switch the unit off.

In general, you won't be able to view the details of the track log (except a "breadcrumb trail" on the map screen) until you can transfer it to a PC, which might not be until you get back home. But most GPSs also have a "trip computer" which will calculate distance and maximum speed, etc., over any period until you reset it (when this information will be lost). The screen will of course also give you a real time display of location, speed direction, elevation, etc..

Do you really want an electronic compass and barometric altimeter? Both measurements can be calculated from the GPS data alone (and it's that which will probably be stored in the track log). These additional electronic devices are likely to reduce the battery lifetime. On this subject, you can probably expect a couple of days from a pair of alkaline cells, but recharging a set of NiMH cells each night is preferable, if possible.

As far as the track log itself is concerned, I can only report the characteristics of my GPS76, which may not be typical. It will record just over 3000 points, so you could set it to record a point every one or two minutes for a week. Do not use the "auto" mode which might fill up the whole memory in a day! For testing, you could set the interval as low as one second to see how large the tracklog memory is.

Each day (for example) you could "save" the track log (up to a maximum of 10) which has the effect of "cleaning up" the track and reducing it to a maximum of 256 points. However, in my Garmin, the time data is NOT stored in this saved log, so you would want to keep the original "Active Log" as well (which is only lost if the memory is set to "wrap" after the 3000+ points have been recorded).

So, sorry I can't say whether the Etrex is the best, or even completely suitable for your application, but maybe I've given you some ideas of what questions to ask and what to look out for.

Cheers, Alan.
_________________
Garmin GPS72H/76/60/45, Etrex H, Mapsource v6.5.
Acer N50,HP114,Loox N560,Dell x50,CF/SD cards to 4/32GB.
RoyalTek,Holux236,Navman B10 & Copilot(Globalsat) BT GPS,TomTom5/6.
Memory Map (v5.4.2 & v5.1.3 OS & Euro), GPS gate,OSGPSconverter.

[jacko1747]

cheers for the reply alan, i think i'm going to have too look into this alot more. was hoping to get away with just the basic etrex as i need two units, but as it dosn't come with a the alitude on it i thought the summit would be better, didn't relealise i could work that bit out at home on the pc. oh well more wime needed on the computer researching.

[AllyCat]

Hi,

I did a little more researching after posting my last reply, but didn't write again until I was confident that the information would be read! The user manuals for all the Garmins are available for download from their website.

Firstly, you're going to need a PC cable, they're often bundled with the GPS, but otherwise a slightly expensive accessory (can be £20 or more). A few of the cheaper GPSs CANNOT be connected to a PC (some Gekos and some not-so-cheap Magellans).

Then you're going to need some software for the PC to download the tracklogs. There may still be some freeware applications out there, but the downloading is normally embedded into mapping programs (and electronic maps are nearly always expensive). I can give more advice on this topic, but for now, GPSU is a good starting point. The freeware version is limited to downloading 500 track points, but the full license now seems a slightly steep £30 (but it is a very versatile program and can import scanned maps, etc.).

Now back to the handheld GPSs. I can't find the number of trackpoints that any of the Garmins can record, quoted in their specifications. But Garmin's customer support is normally good, so an e-mail to them would be worthwhile (and post what you find here) asking what is the maximum number of points that can be stored in their *Active Log*. Some of the Magellan's claim "five tracks of 2000 points", but I've no idea what data fields they record.

Reading between the lines of the Garmin manuals, it looks as if most might behave like mine. The data that you "save" from the active log into one of the 10 track files can be used for "navigation". But it seems that the time information (from which the PC would calculate speed, etc.) is NOT stored. The cheapest eTrex doesn't have these 10 "memories", and I think it might not store time data in the one track log that it does record (but perhaps an owner can tell us?).

I have absolutley no experience of it, but it looks to me that the GPS60 might suit your requirements quite well. It's modern, comes with a USB interface and bundled cable, and a bicycle mount is only a £12 accessory (all-in just over £150 from globalpositioningsystems.co.uk). But if it (and maybe Garmins in general) won't record enough data for you, you could look at the Magellan Explorist 400 which allows you to write "unlimited" tracklogs onto an optional SD memory card!

Well perhaps that's enough food for thought, for now.

Cheers, Alan.
_________________
Garmin GPS72H/76/60/45, Etrex H, Mapsource v6.5.
Acer N50,HP114,Loox N560,Dell x50,CF/SD cards to 4/32GB.
RoyalTek,Holux236,Navman B10 & Copilot(Globalsat) BT GPS,TomTom5/6.
Memory Map (v5.4.2 & v5.1.3 OS & Euro), GPS gate,OSGPSconverter.

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