GPS Units

I just bought a garmin Nuvi 760, a lot of recommendations on this site. You can add outback maps on SD card to the unit.. it has bluetooth and mp3's through your stereo car speakers. Heaps more great features. They started at $800 a while back and now $388 at Dick Smith. I have found it east to get around the unit, user friendly and looking forward to using it off road. Michael

Garmin NUVI 500!! Magic little device.

Water proof, great street nav and 8 hrs battery for hand held operation and I got shonkymaps on a 2gig card for free.

Even has Text to Speach for spoken street names!

My recommendation

Matt.

Dave,

I have a Nuvi 760, any Garmin is good.

Hi Dave,
I have yet to see one, but they say that the new Nuvi 5000 is unreal when used with Topo Australia. With 5" screen, the Garmin rep said that when it was placed alongside the Hema Navigator, it blew it out of the water.

Like I have said, this is what I was told by the rep.

Cheers

Stephen

Can the Nuvi be used as a hand held unit? The Garmin Etrex series (look at the Vista HcX) provide a great all purpose GPS unit that can provide street navigation but is also a state of the art hand held unit. Some of the larger Magellan units provide a good multi-purpose GPS unit as well. I've used the Vista to good effect and also use it as a receiver for my Computer based Nav programs (Ozi and Trackranger).

Cheers Mick.

Had a look at the new VMS touring GPS at the Rosehill show and it looks pretty good have alook at www.vms4x4.com

If you're inclined more towards hiking/handheld use I'd look at a Garmin Oregon but you need to buy the streetmaps as extra, and it isn't going to be a great street nav device.

Otherwise I reckon a nuvi 500 is probably the pick - biased more towards road.

A lot of the units above are weak on real 4wd features so you need to know what your after.

Example - marine grade rated, recording tracks, navigating tracks you can load yourself and even as basic as entering coords in UTM formats.

Most of our group still use the Garmin 276c for these reasons , its one of a dwindling few that really meet all the requirements.

Its hopeless on MP3's, horrorscopes, pictures and dialing your phone for you though.

http://www.gpsoz.com.au/garmin/garmin_276c.htm

I have a HP IPAQ PDA 4.5" screen with Tom Tom street maps and a host of other features. I have one SD card with Natmap 2008 running in Oziexplorer and another card with a variety of maps including Hema Desert Tracks all running in Oziexplorer. It works for me and cost $675 all up.

And with the Garmin Nuvis the screen IS bright and easy to see in daylight. Very important in the decidedly sunny land. :)

Just make sure that the battery life on the Nuvi can do the distance away frorm the vehicle.

Note: Garmin is the only GPS maker with open source mapping protocol. You can make your own maps, but plenty of good folk have already done that for you. :)

I'm only getting around 2.5 hours batt life out of the Nuvi 760 so without the bother of an external batt pack its useless on foot.

The voice prompts are also quiet so in a louder car than my softroader and on rough roads you'd have trouble hearing it.

You'll have to figure out your primary use Dave and cater for that first. If it's a car unit then for foot use you could add an Etrex for $140.

Thanks to All that have given me some ideas. Will let you know what I decide on...

Cheers to all

Hello - in car navigators (eg Garmin Nuvi/Tom Tom/Navman/Mio) and Handheld GPS units (e.g. Garmin 60 series/Etrex/Oregon/Colorado. Magellan eXplorist/Triton) have different specifications for obvious reasons e.g. in car navigators (PNDs) are generally not water proof, have poor battery life (and don’t take AAs for example..so no changing batteries mid walk), and lack functions desired by those on foot (e.g. Geocachers). Handhelds generally have smaller screens and are introverted, so won’t talk to you. Some don’t have auto-routing so even if they could talk they would just tell you you’ve purchased the wrong gps.

Not sure there is an affordable setup that is properly suited for both uses. You probably need to reassess your requirements and provide some more info on your intended use/needs. Nuvi is a good choice (and appear popular) for car based activities though some other more versatile options as well (e.g. Hema Nav or unlocked Mio/Navman on which you can run other mapping programs besides just car nav). Garmin 276c is (as mentioned) also obviously highly regarded by some – my mate has one – good solid unit but they are a bit more costly than other options (which do much the same thing) and require special, expensive data cards. Like the Nuvi they are also are restricted to using a limited array of Garmin maps e.g. no airphotos, cadastral, geology maps etc. Which may or may not be an issue (now or later when you catch the “bug”).

There are many different handhelds to choose from – the range of Garmins being the current pick of the bunch (IMHO). Depending on your budget you may be better of getting two units – one for in the car and one for outdoors. That is the path I have taken.

Cheers
Greg