Posted by Guy Zachary on August 27, 19101 at 21:55:04:
In Reply to: Re: GPS: Garmin or DeLorme? posted by David A. Wright on August 27, 19101 at 21:23:30:
: I know your delimma. I'm in the same one. I was very serious about a GPS unit, but have so far not bitten. Too much stuff out there. Too many possibilities.
: My only experience with GPS was with the early units. The hoard of numbers puzzled me because they had no real meaning to me that would translate on maps. I couldn't get the mathematical formula down that would translate a bunch of numbers to a point where I was on the map. New units offer so much more.
: Most of my friends who swear by GPS buy Garmin. They seem to dislike Magellin.
: One friend seems to have the ultimate setup, but bulky. He runs a dedicated 486MHz laptop computer he picked up for peanuts used and has nothing but Windows 98 and DeLorme on it. He has his Garmin GPS unit plugged into the laptop, the DeLorme map show him in real time where he is. Great stuff. I think that is the best way to go with a GPS - it shows you on a map where you're at right now, not just a bunch of numbers that you have to figure out and plot on a topo map, or leaves you cookie crumbs to show you where you've been after you get home and download it onto the computer.
: Garmin (and I'm sure others do also) makes several units with built in maps, but unless you buy expansion modules and their mapping CD-ROM (at considerable cost), you have a very archaic map on the GPS unit.
: Good luck. I know what you're going through.
I have to agree with both of you, as I am in the same boat, and have not made the decission to jump yet either. I know I have spoken with Steve O. about this previously in email, and their are way to many options to understand. One big problem is to determine which unit actually will work with my Delorme Topo probgram, which is not easy.
I love the idea about the laptop and realtime mapping and monitoring,as that is what I have been wanting, but have learned that their is a less expensive way to go, but you would have to think about where you would be going and be prepared for that only. You could get a PALM, download the Delorme Maps that you want, set your way points etc... and use the Delorme tracker which plugs into the palm, thus inturn giving you real time mapping for the maps that you have stored into the palm. the disadvantage is that you would not be able to zoom in our out, re-plot etc... you would be stuck with the maps you uploaded into the palm. I still think that the fixed units for a vehicle is the best way to go, from what I hear, which you can add your cds etc... but once more not sure if delorme would work and then they are very costly in the thousands, but you would have a flawless system, and never lost.
Regarding some of the recent Garmin GPS I have looked at several and a couple spark my interest as you can literally just add the long. and lat. coordinates into the system and gives you a course to follow, and you would know if you are on or off course, but once more very arcadic.
Hope this helped.
Guy and Zachary