gps

[TxEddie1111]

Hello,
I'd like to put a (windshield mounted) GPS with a large viewing area (not a handheld) that has jeep and trail maps of Colorado available.
Anyone have any suggestions?

Cheers,

Eddie

 

[Combat Chuck]

This one's a handheld, I'm sorry, but a Delorme Earthmate PN-20 is the best GPS I've ever used, it comes with Topo USA, and USGS quads of just about everywhere in North America. I use it in my car, and on my hikes, it keeps a signal well, sips power, its waterprooof, durable, and accurate.

 

[Tennessee Jed]

I have a post on 60 tech about putting my laptop on the windshield/dashboard using a RAM mount. I used the simply hocky puck GPS available everywhere. I've been there/done that with hand held GPS's and for me the solution was just to use my laptop. It's small and light (I bought it with this use in mind) and it gives me tremendous screen brightness and all the other capabilities of having your computer right there.

I use National Geographic TOPO software, not even the most up to date model, and it all works perfectly.

 

[TxEddie1111]

Laptop

Awesome, thanks. I happen to have an 8.5" Aspire One notebook and had the same thoughts you had...(use a laptop). So, the National Geographic software is good?

What GPS antenna do you use? What would your set-up be if you could start all over?

Thanks for the details!!

Eddie

 

[tag3]

Jeep trail, those are made of concrete and blacktop right?

 

[Bogo]

Something to consider is there are freely available high resolution TOPO maps for Garmin GPS units for Colorado and a few other states plus Garmin has thier own ones available for all states for $$.

I have a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx, small screen handheld, that has a phenomenal ability to keep a fix in difficult situations and can accept an external antenna. It also will run for over 24 hours on 2 AA batteries. When it is plugged into the laptop it gets it's power from the laptop. On the Laptop I have Garmin's Mapsource for loading new maps to the GPS. With a 2G MicroSD card I can load large sections of the USA onto the GPS at one time. I also have Delorme's TopoUSA for general navigation use. It is nice, but a little odd in some of it's operations, but they are well designed for navigation on the road. I can highly reccomend it. I haven't used National Geographic's TOPO software yet so I can't compair the two.

 

[TxEddie1111]

hahahahahaha

Too funny tag3!!!! I'm just callin' 'em what the books say...

...great point!!

Eddie

 

[TxEddie1111]

hummm

...Bogo, so what you are saying is the Garmin (possible with external antenna) plugged into my laptop then use mapsource as the application which allows the free (or pay if I want) maps from Garmin...

Would you recommend I get the Delorme also, or not (specifically for Colorado mountains)?

Thanks loads for the info...

Eddie

 

[Bogo]

...Bogo, so what you are saying is the Garmin (possible with external antenna) plugged into my laptop then use mapsource as the application which allows the free (or pay if I want) maps from Garmin...

Yep.

I'd look at the Garmin NUVI line for vehicle only use. That is if you don't care about hiking use. I know others have used them with TOPO maps and posted about their experiences. I always found the laptop/GPS combo to be a bit cumbersome, but very powerful for travel use. Especially when exploring without a planned itinerary. I even formerly used hockey puck type GPSes with my laptops. It was a cheap way to start as I already had the laptops.

BTW: You can get a copy of Mapsource to have access to the freely available map sets without having a Garmin GPS. I just found the Mapsource user interface rather cumbersome in comparison to TopoUSA's user interface. The advantage that Mapsource has is the wealth of freely available maps. Sofar Garmin Mapsource is the only one available for Canada TOPO maps. Both $$ and freely available.

Would you recommend I get the Delorme also, or not (specifically for Colorado mountains)?

On the laptop Delorme's TopoUSA seams to work the best, but it can't make maps for downloading to Garmin GPSes. It can make routes to download to the GPS. National Geographic's mapping software could also be used on the laptop. I have no personal experience with it to tell which is best.

I used to use hockey puck GPSes, but changed to using the hand held GPSmap 60CSx because it works better for my use. I have the 60CSx setup to maintain a log and it writes it to the 2G MicroSD card. It can save many weeks worth to the card along with having a huge map set loaded. That means if I want I can turn off the laptop yet still maintain a track of where I've been. Plus I can maintain that track log when hiking. I use it to match up where photographs have been taken.

 

[Tennessee Jed]

I told you wrong - brain fart - I use DeLorme Topo, not Nat'l Geographic, although I have use the NG topo series and had no complaints. I prefer the DeLorme because the maps are computer drawn and are not just photos of paper topo maps. You would think the paper-style topo maps would be better, but I found them much less "workable". All you have to do on the computer drawn map is right click and highlight it, and the whole road will change to whatever color you want - very handy for drawing out a route. I highly recommend DeLorme Topo stuff. I have the 6.0 series which you could probably get off of ebay for just a few bucks. They want you to upgrade every year which is a rip off of course.

For the GPS antenna, get one of the commonly available BU 353 "hockey puck" receivers. Just search on ebay or any GPS store and you'll see a million of them. It's a tremendously good receiver - never loses a track, and is really quick to re-obtain a signal if you turn the system off or go under a tunnel or in a deep canyon. It was effortless - plug it into your USB and the DeLorme software recognized it instantly, and immediately showed my location and started laying down tracks.

I used the PN20 but it was, like most things, far more complicated than it needed to be. It was also not a very good receiver, and was slow. The PN40 is supposed to be much faster, but I only want vehicle based GPS, so I use my laptop. The Nuvi is a good system, but it's expensive and I like to bring my laptop in and work with my maps and then take it out to the Cruiser and take off - one stop shopping, no muss no fuss. The whole hassle of uploading/downloading stuff to and from the GPS unit is a thing of the past now and I don't miss it one bit.

My humble opinion. Sorry for the long response. Good luck!