Garmin etrex

[chaz62]

Hi,

 

Looking to get a cheap gps unit and have been looking at the etrex. Is it OK as a basic unit?

 

Also does anybody use it with a PC? is it compatible with any marine charts?

 

Cheers,

Chaz

[Pav]

I have a basic gps. No maps.

I spent about a day setting up way points of my local habours / slips etc. I drove / walked to these spots but it can be done with grid refs from a map.

 

I now just add waypoints for fishng hot spots.

 

Great. well recommended. Guesse it depends how well you know your local waters. It would not be as useful if fishing away from home unless I put in similar way points to aid you incase of fog.

[paulnb57]

Depends what you expect from a GPS.......

I previously owned an etrex legend and regretted selling it....now have a Magellan eXplorist hand held, same thing different manufacturer. The etrex will communicate with Memory Map PC mapping software which aint cheap......as will most of the rest on the market. Not sure about other software......try this link and explore the compatible software....

 

http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk/...fe2b52affa2f394

 

memory map software is the mutts nutts, and has OS maps and some marine charts, but costs more than the GPS (!) BUT...you can download where youve been as a track or route, save it and upload it to the GPS again later, you can mark waypoints (points of interest) (good fishing spots?) on the GPS save em to the PC and upload em again as required.

You can also "draw" a route on the PC screen and upload to the GPS, the follow it on the ground/water. etc etc. it will also display OS maps or marine charts on a pocket pc (pda). The maps will not transfer to the gps only the tracks/routes/waypoints.....the built in maps on gps are pretty inaccurate. so much so that when we last "threaded the Needles" the gps showed we rarely left land!! However a much truer route was displayed on the Memory Map display on the PC.

The Garmin own brand mapping software will transfer the map to the gps....and are more accurate than the basic factory base map.

There is shareware software which will let you plot in lat/long coordinates and upload em to gps/ or waypoints from gps to PC to save. you can also upload routes/track from GPS to PC and save em. No map is displayed.

 

http://www.easygps.com/

 

I like a hand held GPS cos it shows where Ive been, how to retrace the track/route, how fast etc. Also displays compass heading.Good to find a spot youve been before. Superb in a big car park to find the bloody car amongst all the rest!! With the mapping software it adds another dimension...but is pricey. I wouldnt rely on it on its own as batteries always fail when you most need em!

 

Hope all this rambling makes sense!!

regards

Paul

[chaz62]

Thanks for the replies Pav and Paul,

 

I was going to do as suggested, footwork finding marks, asking local boats and charts then input

the data into the unit, just needed to know if I could put my track/marks back onto the PC to view and keep as reference.

 

Thanks again,

 

Cheers, Chaz

[paulnb57]

Simple answer is "yes".

You'll probably have to purchase the cable to connect the GPS to the PC, about 22 quid.

Use Easy gps shareware or similar to enter coordinates or to upload to pc, or pc to gps.

You can set the GPS to Lat/Long or Ordnace Survey units on the GPS menu.

Then you can enter points of interest on the hoof on the GPS or work them out on a map and enter them on the PC or direct into the GPS.

You can store quite a lot on the GPS and individually name them.

Hope this helps.

Good Luck

Paul