I’ve been offered a fairly old GPS unit for a reasonable price… very reasonable actually… but not so reasonable that I don’t want to think about it being a good deal… the thing is I’m saving up for a ‘proper’ unit so this would only be a 6 month? stand in… but I really need GPS!
The unit is the old Garmin V - specifically made for Bikes and Walkers and sort of cars - it’s totally waterproof - even comes with a cable to wire up to my battery - which is nice… BUT it’s got a black screen / no voice prompts / small … you get the idea… so what I want to know is - does anyone have any experience with this unit and if so good or bad?
I supose that depends on what a good deal is? how much are you talking about?
Personnaly i would wait and get an up to date one, or a good second hand deal on a good one, i think voice command is the way, would be a pain not to mention dangerous keep looking down at a gps map, you’ll hate it!! IMHO
I know what you mean - deal is £50 so it’s cheap - but having said that I’ve just been on ebay looking at the Quest - and I can get that for about £200 so perhaps I’ll just do that!
for 50 quid u wont get much but if it does the job might as well have it, that way if u left it on bike by accident of u break or it or it comes off at high speed (for example) u wont care
I found a different solution: I just got a new mobile with GPS package from Tom Tom.
At the moment it is possible to find good deals around going that way, in my case the Mobile came for free (I went on a contract) and for the GPS I paid 189.
Today I tried my GPS device with headphones and it is alright, just listening to the voice prompts:
150mts turn right (I set it in metres),
…,
now turn right, etc.
It got me to my destination: the gym!
It got a bit confused when I got near my destination, as it is in a small narrow street and GPS devices have errors in the range of 10/15mts. I will probably try to fit the mobile somewhere on the bike so that I can see the screen as well.
BTW, I think the voice prompts are quite useful and that it’s better to get a GPS unit with them.
In the city the GPS signal seems to be weaker than anywhere else, do somebody know if they fit some sort of shielding to avoid some sort of attacks?
I read somewhere last week that you can buy these with celebrities’ voices giving you commands. And, the commands reflect the style of the ‘sleb’, e.g., if you miss your turn (in case you miss your turn to the palestra, Francesco), you may get Sharon Osborne telling you to “turn around, arsehole!”
GPS in built up areas is always poor, simply because of building obstructing signal.
If you imagine a GPS receiver like a camera lens pointing skywards with a field of view of roughly 120degrees, on a hilltop you will see tonnes of clear sky and should ‘see’ at least 8 satellites, in a city, looking upwards, your view is obscured by a concrete jungle, so less sky visable, hence less sat-lock, if you see less than 3 sats you won’t get a ‘fix’
GPS antennas are mounted internally in your devices, the signals will pass through plastics but not metals.
I have been installing GPS trackers on bikes and cars for 6 years now, you get this ‘City fade’ on all systems unfortunately
one thing I will say is that you can buy ‘external’ GPS pucks, these come on a fly lead and can be mounted in optimum positions, the best place on a bike is in the furthest point at the rear of the bike, normally under the fairings by the rear light cluster.
Don’t forget the human body is conductive so your GPS antenna is being shielded by your torso, at the rear of the bike, it has the best ‘view of the sky’
Oh yes, I forgot that the GPS in order to give you the fix need to receive the signal from at least three satellites and therefore, because of taller buildings, might find more difficult to provide the fix in the city.
Destination gym, was just a test, I will mainly use it for travelling outside London in areas I do not know.
Not my favourite the Osborne either but I wouldn’t mind to get the voice of Nicky Grist (Colin McRae’s co-driver) on a nice twisty road; it should be fun!..
Now the interesting thing would be a GPS unit that could use the DAB signal to lock your possition - the great thing then would also be that using the data channel in DAB you could also ‘broadcast’ travel / weather / POI data to the actual device - and not worry about having to connect to a mobile… Garmin already do this using the FM RDS signal… but that’s so ‘narrow’ compared to the DAB data channel.
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