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maat

yeah nah maybe
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third eye wide open, brah
im looking for a navigation device to help when im out in the scrub prospecting/shooting/camping and stumbled across this. Does it look any good? all im after is a screen that shows me where i am (car) at anyone time and a map of the surrounding area, bush tracks and landmarks. and to be able to marks spots of interest and save the location. i have no idea when it comes to this type of stuff so any help would be great!

7" OFF ROAD GPS + OziExplorer CE + 4WD Australian maps topographic 4x4

http://bit.ly/SeVN9m

cheers
 
Well, it'll work fine but.... The description (on the link) mentions it's running the ozi-ce version. That basically implies you need to buy the ozi Windows version and install on a laptop/desktop if you want to later process the tracks and waypoints etc AND if you want to process any new maps and load them down into the GPS unit.

That's because Ozi-ce relies on the Windows version to generate new maps etc.

I've run Oziexplorer for MANY years on a laptop and have also run in on a small win-ce PDA and now run the Android version on a tablet. Ozi is great software for the oz bush since we basically have relatively poor maps available for Australia versus here in the US.

Would I buy such a unit? No. The reason is that I already have lots of maps and have ozi windows running on a laptop. I also have an Android tablet and run ozi-android on that and have loaded all my maps (after processing via Ozi windows) onto the tablet. Since it is a 'modern' unit, I have a nicely supported android platform that I can load other neat applications etc. I also have a $100 garmin Nuvi that I've downloaded (via mapsource) the free Shonkymaps (1:250,000 australia wide topo raster maps). That provides a small/self contained/purpose specific GPS for use in the oz bush AND still have access to route-able oz city/hwy street maps.

I also use my laptop in the bush, I download 2gig sections of google earth imagery (a lot is aerial photography quality) of the areas I plan to visit and then run the free goops plugin that interfaces my bluetooth GPS dongle to google earth. That allows me to run 'offline' and have mostly aerial quality navigation along a LOT of new tracks (especially in the greater Kal goldfields area) that are NOT in the topo maps (yet...). With google earth you also get to see the terrain and any interesting areas that you may want to visit that aren't obvious on a topo map.

Anyhow, it ALL depends on what YOU need. Given it sounds like you're a newbie as far as gps/map stuff goes, there's a LOT to learn.

cheers,
george.
 
thanks for the reply, your right i have ALOT to learn! helps having a resource like mud and members with the knowledge you have :beer:
 
sorry if this sounds like a dumb question but, in the gps unit i showed in the link will it pin point me on the map on the screen? like the basic maps function on the iphone but off road?
 
sorry if this sounds like a dumb question but, in the gps unit i showed in the link will it pin point me on the map on the screen? like the basic maps function on the iphone but off road?

Yes, the supplied unit has a GPS, the pda is loaded with ozi-ce and the free natmap 1:250k maps. Of course the 1:250k maps are not the greatest and certainly don't show all the tracks etc, but for general 4wd use they should be mostly 'good enough'...

Visit http://www.oziexplorer.com/ and learn what the oziexplorerCE version can do to get an idea of the capabilities of the unit.

cheers,
george.
 
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