Portable GPS

[smnaulls]

I bought a H20 C at the sportsman show in Toronto from Radio World for $237.00 I got the Navionics Hot maps premium Canada sd/prem-c4 Vo1.19 for $135.00 Total was $420.36..

 

I have had it on BOQ as well as a few lakes close to home and so far has been right on.. There are a few lakes I fish that are not covered but still shows you where you have been.

So far I like it

 

Scott

[jace]

Here is the H20C with the gold card (eastern great lakes) and a screen shot, see if you can guess which lake and what area? lets make this a little fun , although theres some dead give aways in the map lol

 

 

lake erie outside buffalo.

 

 

 

garmin blue chart of the same spot. heheh.

[Flyboy]

If WAAS feature is important to you, you should not consider Magellan. WAAS enables the GPSr to have +/- 3 meter accuracy where the correction signal is present. Most of Magellan's current and past models are no longer WAAS compatible even though the box says so. The reason for no WAAS on Magellan units is because two WAAS correction satellites have been renamed and Magellan can not and will not update their firmware to support the change. Best case accuracy is now +/- 10 meters or worse. I won't want to be +/- 10 meters off of a depth change if driving at higher speed or want to come back to the same spot.

 

You may want to google 'Magellan WAAS problems' and see the litany of complaints online and the poor customer supports from Magellan.

 

Just my $0.02

[mikeymikey]

GPS city - mississauga and calgary

nice Ram mounts for them as well.

 

what do you mean Mississauga ?

[NAC]

what do you mean Mississauga ?

 

thanks for the correction MM!

I guess it's been a while since I purchased mine.

Vista Cx in '05 $400 now $240ish for the Vista HCx

 

Garmin is by far the leader in gps technology.

 

http://www.gpscity.ca/aboutus/contactus - Calgary

[duber]

The shot of Shermans surprised me. I always thought it was deeper than displayed, near the marker.

 

Water depths are at low water levels . The depths are a little deeper than what is on the screen most years on the bay.Last year being a exception.They were bang on in Sept. when some boat launches were high and dry.

[spooner_jr]

The other advantage to GPS City - no PST if you live in Ontario.

[blaque]

lake erie outside buffalo.

garmin blue chart of the same spot. heheh.

 

Yup, just southwest of the peace bridge.

[blaque]

Blaque....I'm not sure of the location but your computer looks like a Compaq Evo 8000 case.

 

Cheers

 

Googled it and its close, lol, but its actually a custom built machine that just happens to look similar

[legacey]

.....missed it by that much!

 

[blaque]

lol

[JohnF]

I've been following this with interest because I've been wanting to get a unit. My only experience with them has been finding dive sites from a boat in the Caribbean. We were simply looking for points on the screen that had been saved earlier. It was impressive, even 4 or 5 years ago.

 

Now I want it for auto travel and for my creek walking so I guess what I need is the ability to save points (roads and creeks), road maps, audible directions, colour screen, and waterproof or at least water resistant for when I go wading. I suspect that the option of adding hydrographic mapping (card slot) down the road would be a bonus just in case SWMBO ever, in a weak moment, says I can buy a modest little tinny tiller or somesuch.

 

Have we reached a consensus? Sounds to me like it's Garmin or Lowrance. Did we decide on specific models and software? Inquiring minds and all......

 

BTW, excellent thread topic with some great contributions.

 

JF

Edited June 20, 2008 by JohnF

[northwood]

You wont be disapionted with the Lowrance H2O..... and don't forget to get the chip for it

Hot maps premium.. over 10,000 lakes got mine from bass pro.. great price.

and easy to use.

[jace]

Yes, topographical mapping will have all the streets and highways but most topo maps are NOT routable including lowrance mapcreate. So this wouldn't be so good for the poster wanting to use it in the car/travel. ditto goes for garmin's topo series. I tried using metrowizz on out of curiousity and it worked for some and not others and the results were kind of wink dink weird compared to garmin city navigator because all the best urban features were not there.

 

from my understanding of water charts, they all get them from the same sources, some are more up to date, some have more detail than other to determine map file sizes

 

trust me when i say, these days, do not get any unit that does not use removable expandable memory cards. Almost all of the units that have big price slashes are either not color or they have fixed, limited memory...the biggest internal memory i can think of is 256M. for topo...this is diddly squat. For city navigation, you're limited to a larger but still very limited area. do not expect to have full and detailed mapping for travel across several provinces on a unit with only internal memory unless you want to rebuild maps along a specific roadway each time you travel or hunt/fish/hike.

 

As far as mounting systems go, only get RAM/LEI mounts regardless of which brand you decide on. everything else is weak garbage.

 

The most detailed maps i know of are from garmin. Unfortunately, they're only for the US. It's their US park series in 1:24000 and it includes lake contour info.

 

Almost all units have a built in compass but they only work when you're moving. some have electric compasses that are on all the time, even when stopped which is handy.

 

B&W screens are okay but most modern urban mapping will have navigation features that will be turned off and unavailable unless it's loaded to a color screen unit. i.e. know what you want from a gps.

 

Obviously, gps technology is about to hit market saturation. With the convergence, we're not far from a time when it'll be built into everything for next to nothing.

 

I've gone through a few brands and over the years and I can only recommend garmin to the casual user. Why? Support is EVERYWHERE. Check the forums and see how much help you can get for specific Bushnell gps. Go to a gps store and look for lowrance accessories. If you're travelling abroad, try to find maps for anything for a TomTom brand. Get a garmin and you can go to literally any store that tells you they have "gps" products and I will bet big money every time that 1/2 of the shelf is for garmin. If you want something for your garmin , you can go to any common store like CTC, walmart, radioshack, circuit city, any hiking store, any online retailer etc, and you can get mapping cds, various cords, cases, mounting brackets.

 

In the end, they all have their market and they all have good products but know what you're getting into. Think of it like a computer PC vs MAC vs risc. Which is easiest to get support and products for? Where do i go to hunt down that cable for the Mac? Do they all the computer architectures serve their purpose similarlily, sure.

 

The same goes for software. So i want graphics software and let's say they were all the same price, do i get Coreldraw, photopaint, photoshop or other? Adobe Photoshop kills them all in market penetration and support because i can go anywhere online or walk to any store and get help, plugins, instructional books, etc. Can i edit a jpeg with Photopaint? sure. If i want help on a creating a specific effect in photopaint how many places can i go to and what are the chances of getting a working solution compared to photoshop? This is why i stuck with garmin after messing around with the other brands.

[JohnF]

I've gone through a few brands and over the years and I can only recommend garmin to the casual user. Why? Support is EVERYWHERE. Check the forums and see how much help you can get for specific Bushnell gps. Go to a gps store and look for lowrance accessories. If you're travelling abroad, try to find maps for anything for a TomTom brand. Get a garmin and you can go to literally any store that tells you they have "gps" products and I will bet big money every time that 1/2 of the shelf is for garmin. If you want something for your garmin , you can go to any common store like CTC, walmart, radioshack, circuit city, any hiking store, any online retailer etc, and you can get mapping cds, various cords, cases, mounting brackets.

 

That's a pretty good answer. I expect that you're right about gps being free (sort of) on board most cars and trucks before too very long a time. My situation is that I'm due for two new vehicles in the next six months and though I'm a sucker for creature comforts & toys on my cars I'm not willing to pay the extra cost for a dedicated gps system unless there are some amazing bargains in the next short while. Also, a dedicated gps doesn't do me much good when I'm walking a creek. I'm satisfied that a portable unit is right for someone with my kind of needs.

 

Sorry. I'm not meaning to hijack this thread and make it about me. I think though that my questions are consistent with the original poster's.

 

JF

[danc]

Yes, topographical mapping will have all the streets and highways but most topo maps are NOT routable including lowrance mapcreate. So this wouldn't be so good for the poster wanting to use it in the car/travel. ditto goes for garmin's topo series.

 

Not sure what you mean here. My Garmin hand held will bring me anywhere with Garmin topo Canada.

[jace]

Not sure what you mean here. My Garmin hand held will bring me anywhere with Garmin topo Canada.

 

 

unless something has changed in 2008, topo is not routable meaning turn by turn street routing which is why it's so much cheaper than "city navigator" series. You can't do a search for 12 main street. then hit go to, and have it tell you to turn left on king st, approaching next turn 100ft, turn right on queen st, approaching destination on left, arrived. and it'll let you know when you've missed a turn or go past the destination.

[danc]

unless something has changed in 2008, topo is not routable meaning turn by turn street routing which is why it's so much cheaper than "city navigator" series. You can't do a search for 12 main street. then hit go to, and have it tell you to turn left on king st, approaching next turn 100ft, turn right on queen st, approaching destination on left, arrived. and it'll let you know when you've missed a turn or go past the destination.

 

Mine does. I've had it since 2006. It doesn't "talk", but it gives you an audible signal when your turn is coming up. And it recalculates when you've missed a turn.

[jace]

Mine does. I've had it since 2006. It doesn't "talk", but it give audible signals when your turn is coming up. And it recalculates when you've missed a turn.

 

 

yeah. that's the navigational difference as far as i know.

 

And the other main difference is the POI's with icons/logos with their phone numbers and it can tell you what businesses are located at every address number even if it doesn't have an icon or logo. none of that in topo. They 2 different purposes with some overlap. topo will have popular offroad trails marked off and contours of the terrain. with city navigator, i can only get that by checking the altimeter.

[Black_Blade]

I also am looking for a GPS unit and this Lowrance H20c looks prettty good, but the fact that these units come preloaded with maps for continental US is such a pain!

 

You would think that if they wish to sell their units north of the border, they would include the information and maps that is relevant to that area. If you are an American fisherman, who is only fishing in his country the basic unit is ready to go, but if you are Canadian fisherman, you must pay that price PLUS almost the same amount again for the map package!

 

Now that my little rant is over, I will prolly still be getting the unit...just be sooo much nicer if it only cost $275 instead of the better part of $500

Edited June 21, 2008 by Black Blade

[legacey]

Wow, did this ever prompt amazing responses.....

 

I ended up buying a used Lowrance H20. It's not colour but came with everything I think I'll need including software (Map Create) cables etc. for $150. I figure if I like it but want colour, there will be a used one for sale at a good price and this one will get me going for now.

 

I'm going tonight to buy the hot maps chip so I can use it this weekend at the QFS.

 

I haven't had the time yet to figure it out so hopefully, it won't be too bad.

 

.....it's taken me all week getting my bass gear in order.

 

Good luck to everyone this weekend for the bass opening.....

 

Cheers,

 

Paul

[bassfighter]

I found this.

 

Interesting read comparison between Magellan crossover and Lowrance XOG, auto and boat application

 

http://www.greatlakes4x4.com/showthread.php?t=71447