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January 19, 2005
Garmin etrex Legend C arrives
I've finally got myself a GPS reciever, so we can update our position on the map in the sidebar as we travel round the world. I really didn't know too much about GPS receivers when I first started looking round but I had a few criteria that it had to meet :
- Display longitude and latitude in decimal (important for the plotting system on the website)
- Have a display (i.e. not just a bluetooth device)
- Have the capability to connect ot the PC via USB
- Be able to save waypoints (so we can set a waypoint for where we are staying)
- Not be too expensive (i.e. £100 or so)
Also I would have liked :
- The ability to upload maps to the device
- Be bluetooth enabled
After searching I originally came up with two (cheap) choices :
I was initially quite excited by the Fortuna as it was pretty much the only unit with both a handheld display and bluetooth (and was available on ebay for less than £100). After some thought I decided I didn't really need bluetooth as I'd probably buy a dedicated sat nav system for the car when I got back and there wasn't any decent GPS software for my P910i. If I was going to use it with the laptop then I didn't really need the bluetooth connectivity as we're not going to be walking with the laptop out :)
This left the Garmin eTrex which more or less fitted my basic criteria but only supported a serial port connection to the laptop - you can buy serial to usb adaptors but I'd read some posts saying they didn't always work (as Garmin Mapsource software only looks for COM ports 1->4). Thats when the technolust hit me - I saw the new Garmin eTrex Legend C ... It was basically like the old Garmin etrex Vista (top end of the garmin outdoor line) with 24Mb of mapping memory but without the compass and altimeter and this one had colour and did autorouting for when you're in the car ! It also supported USB out of the box ...
So £245 later I've got a brand spanking new handheld GPS ...
Here are a few pictures - deb's the photographer (this way I can test the photogallery functionality too !)
Posted by robl at January 19, 2005 02:12 PM