CingularDuality

Being the resident nerd at work has resulted in more than a couple of people asking me to recommend a GPS for them. They're looking at lower-end/entry level units. Anyone have any recommendations? Any must-have features, or brands to absolutely avoid?

I still don't know why anyone would need one, but different strokes for different folks, I suppose...

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mentholated

I'm looking for one myself so I'll be watching this thread. Hopefully someone mentions something ruggedized and small. hint hint

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Dick Blonov

I have a Garmin Street Pilot 330. Pretty good for the price.

I think it's now replaced by the c340 (299.99 at best buy)

I love it (I know, it's a gadget ).

DB

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|TG-6th|Blonov

Soulja

Only real men don't use GPS.

We'll drive around 'till we find the right way sooner or later.

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mentholated

I'll take my map and compass, thanks. A GPS is good if you plant something off of a map or any road and need to come back to it later, like a bomb shelter. Though, if the nukes are airbursted high enough the satellites will be fried since they're only designed to withstand solar radiation which isn't as concentrated.

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It's said the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It is with the same good intentions that we blindly place our trust in those with power, the architects of our future and all to often, the manipulators of our ultimate fate.

Dick Blonov

Last time I used mine was to find the Oshawa Ontario Liquor Board store. They have a really nice Scotch selection I might add. To each his own I guess...

DB

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|TG-6th|Blonov

=DdogG=

I personally use a sony VGN-UX390 / bluetooth GPS receiver / MS Streets and trips

but this is overkill for this discussion. I have been doing some research lately, and TomTom is the best out there believe it or not. the biggest thing to remember is that all the units run the same hardware and os at the core. a PDA running a stripped down WinCE on a ~200Mhz cpu. the software is proprietary, and there are only two or three map providers. you need to know what features you want in the unit for me to help more though.

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mentholated

I'm working on making a bluetooth receiving HUD for motorcycle helmets that can be put in any helmet.

It can also be fitted to combat helmets.

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It's said the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It is with the same good intentions that we blindly place our trust in those with power, the architects of our future and all to often, the manipulators of our ultimate fate.

stickyjeans69

I fly airplanes, the airplanes i Fly Use Garmin, their Aviation GPS systems are astounding. 10 Grand for a GPS that doesnt use roads but rather airways is probably out of the question though.

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalo...ges/gns530.php

other then that the other best GPS maker is Honeywell. Again, they don't make GPS's for cars or handhelds they make the GPS's that go into Airliners, that GPS is part of an entire Inertial Reference system with Gyro's and alot of high tech poop. that system will run you a few hundred thousand. and you would need a bus to get all the equipment into it

http://czivis.cz/images/ScreenShot003.jpg

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mentholated

Am I wrong, or is GPS not based on measuring altitude but by triangulation? Why in the world would you pay 10 grand for something you can make with 100 dollars (100 being high end stuff)?

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It's said the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It is with the same good intentions that we blindly place our trust in those with power, the architects of our future and all to often, the manipulators of our ultimate fate.

Damonte

I use, and highly recommend the Magellan CrossoverGPS (2500T)

It features the latest GPS hardware, Marine and Topography maps, text to speech (meaning instead of just saying "Turn left onto road", it'll say "Turn left onto <road name>", and plenty of other stuff. A little much for some people, but great for everything. The battery is even good for 6-8 hours.

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stickyjeans69

because a cessna 172SP will put you 195,000 dollars out of the pocket with the default configuration, why not make it 205,000 when paying those kinds of dollars.

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1093864/L/

as far as the GPS measuring position on the earth and not altitude, so what?. think of it as a grid. you have the X and Y axis when using any GPS, even a 10,000 dollar one. the airplane adds the Z axis (altitude), and a GPS isn't for altitude every airplane worthy of requiring a PPL has an Altimeter in it. the GPS inside of an airplane differenciates GREATLY from the one in your car in the fact of the database it uses for maps. the one displayed there also has multiple features including a COM radio (communication radio) and TAWS (traffic awareness warning system) that reports information recieved from nearby Controllers on aircraft position and altitude. in the picture i posted earlier to the right of the aircraft you see a Triangle with two digits above it -08. the aircraft being reported is 800 feet below you. the one to the left in Yellow is 1200 feet above you and climbing as indicated by the up arrow. the GPS detected it as a possible threat to safety and that's the reason it's yellow. before you even care to notice the traffic you hear "Traffic Traffic" and that target is flashing white and yellow for about 10 seconds if it gets within i believe 2 miles it turns red and keeps saying traffic untill you're clear of any possible collision. midair crashes generally aren't very pretty . to further elaborate though, the information posted on an aviation GPS as such is

Major Highways
Terrain data
Airways
VOR's
NBD's
navigation Fixes
Airports
Nearby Traffic
Airspace Class (will show Class D, Class B, and Restricted airspace)

lets see all that from your 100 dollar GPS

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mentholated

So basically its just a bunch of GPS receivers that are aware of eachother's position and can determine by the vector of each unit what it should avoid coming close to? Give me a year and I'll do it for $140. I can even cut the satellites out of the picture completely this way, the location of the space the unit is travelling through will be determined by the relative location of the other units and used as a dynamic reference by ALL of the "gps" units.

Seems kinda antiquated to have all of that extra information on airports and stuff, though. I wouldn't bother with that. I would, however, develop a system that integrates with the "units" and can provide specific information about points of interest to the unit. Kind of like a survival instinct for electronics. Hmm, GPS could lead to self aware machines.

The reason it costs so much is because they made it too complicated on purpose.

This would probably be more useful to intra-spacial travel though. In other words, "space flight." Even though its not really flight, more like scrolling.

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It's said the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It is with the same good intentions that we blindly place our trust in those with power, the architects of our future and all to often, the manipulators of our ultimate fate.

sordavie

Triangulation can get you altitude...

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stickyjeans69

take it you've never looked into some of the things pilots do. the GPS doesnt coordinate with other GPS' it coordinates with a Sattelite like it's supposed too, it also coordinates through a Radio with a control tower that has a Radar and reports positions of nearby aircraft. as far as space travel, no. Aviation navigation is very precise, under Instrument flight Rules. these pilots wouldn't have made it to the runway with out their Navigation equipment.

http://www.flightlevel350.com/Aircra...ideo-2711.html

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