UKC

I carry a Garmin vista GPS more as a back up than anything else. Spends its life switched off in my lid pocket. Saw a bloke the other day with a wrist forerunner, that was displaying his grid ref as he travelled. I never use half the fesatures on the vista, wondered if it was worth swopping to a simple wrist gps.Your experience and opinions gentlemen oh and chicks iff ya out there....lol

In reply to Capt. Spacey:

Forerunners don't display your grid ref. as you travel. The 310XT will give you your ref. (as 'save location', although you don't have to save it) if you ask for it, but it's not a display field option.


If it's for navigation then, no, not a Forerunner. Although some of Foretrex models might do what you want.

In reply to Capt. Spacey:

I think there's only the 310XT, as pete said, that you can get an OS Grid out of. Suunto do a wrist GPS that does what you want, but at £350ish it's a lot of dosh.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Suunto-X10/dp/B004CBJZWM

In reply to petestack: Thanks pete i knew thier would be more to it, think i need to do a bit of research.....

In reply to Ridge: And it's colossally shite. Avoid.

In reply to Lemony:
Second that. The X10 it's called. The rubber casing comes away from the watch in use. It took me quicker to learn Spanish from scratch than it did to get to grips with the menu's of this watch.

In reply to Capt. Spacey:

It's a bit like camera's in that respect. If my camera is in the lid pocket I don't take many pics. If I put it in a case and attach to rucksack straps so it is readily accessible - I used it a lot.

So get a suitable case the gps and attach it to the rucksack straps where you can easily get to it. Many times you might just use it to get a gird in zero visibility, but at least if ti's to hand you will use it.

In reply to Capt. Spacey: I have the Etrex and like you it stays off in the pocket. I recently found out that you can upload the data into a GPX file and google earth will open it and you can get all sorts of data from the google earth screen. Things have really moved on since I bought it (about 10 years ago?) I think it will stay turned on from now on just tracking my walks.

In reply to TimR: Cheers tim ill have a look at that ta

In reply to Capt. Spacey:

i had a foretrek 101 for a number of years so i could write notes and have my location settings visible without juggling GPS, field notes, pens, field map, sample bags, hammers and all the other junk i carry around.

works great, occasionally messed me around where there was limited signal (being on your wrist is not really a good place for a GPS - but it only matters when the sky coverage isn't great to start with.

for climbing / walking - its not a big change. its only a grid read out (plus maybe time and elevation (iffy - as will all consumer GPS). IMO there is no benefit over a normal handheld unit other than weight and size.

the strap gave out in the end and the unit is now somewhere in NE Canada being used by bears.

HTH

In reply to petestack:

The Garmin 310XT will give you a live grid ref (or lat and long) that updates constantly as you move.

Just stick it onto the map page.

Alos the screen fields on the 310 XT are customisable so I would imagine its possible to have the grid showing on any of the screens although I havent tried this.

Provided you dont actually want to not use a map at all its great combination of trg watch and nav watch.

I rate it very highly.

gary.

In reply to Removed User:

OK, hadn't tried that but good to know!


No, it's not an option for the fields.


So do I!

Cheers
P

In reply to petestack:

have you managed to get the compass to display other than when you are navigating to a way point.

This would be very useful for orienteering or similar but so far it has completely defeated me.

gary.

In reply to Removed User:

Sorry, never tried because I'm almost always on the training (data field) page (which is why I hadn't twigged the live position readout on map page).

In reply to Capt. Spacey: the new(ish) Foretrex is a big improvement on the old one, as it has the newer GPS chip. The problems with the old one were
- limited/poor/no reception in woodland or cities
- internal rechargeable battery (so you need a charger with you if you're using it for more than a day)
- serial PC interface.
I've had an old-style one for 7 years, and using it in conjunction with Memory Map (to download waypoints and routes) has been excellent (bearing in mind the shortcomings above).
The new one has USB and removable batteries, and should have no problem with reception.

In reply to Andy Stephenson: ...I should mention that showing your grid ref is OK, if a bit limited. Much better to set up a route to follow. Or at least, input the reference of your destination and use it as a sophisticated compass (with a magnetic compass as backup).

I think you could use Google Maps for getting waypoints set up if you don't have any better software, or (rather laboriously) manually using grid refs. I use Memory Map to plot a route turn by turn and bend by bend, then download it to the GPS unit.

In reply to Removed User:

If it is a GPS compass it will only know which direction you are going in when you are actually moving.

In reply to TimR:

Not so. When you turn it on you need to then move for it to establish which way north is but if you then stop it will continue to know which way north is and work as a compass.

For example if you stop and then do a 180 degree turn it will know you have done this and adjust the way it shows North accordingly.

Cheers,

Gary.

In reply to Removed User:

AFAIK this argument depends on the type of compass used in the system

TimR is correct with a geoid based vector solution and you are correct with a fluxgate compass.

Most cheap GPS compasses are geoid based vector solutions and most suuntos use fluxgate compasses. there are advantages and disadvantages of both systems (power usage vs local field problems)