Handheld GPS for walking??

burly

Hi everyone,

I am looking to buy a handheld GPS navigation system which i can use while hillwalking around the countries mountains. There are a few on the market, but some of them appear not to have the ability to ass maps to them the way you can with in-car sat navs. Is it possible to download official OSI maps onto the devices, and if so what is the best device to buy.
Does anyone own one of these things?

Thanks

dogmatix

I just bought a Garmin GPS 60CSX. Crippingly expensive at 320 (sale price - normally 370!). But apparently it can interact with the OSI trailmaster series, although I find the trailmaster map coverage is not countrywide.

There are other Garming gps units with mapping ability but most of the maps are uk or us. I got this unit to enable me to map my own routes or create my own maps. So for 320 euros I hope it does the job or I will feel like a right tit indeed.

Alun

dogmatix wrote: »

I just bought a Garmin GPS 60CSX. Crippingly expensive at 320 (sale price - normally 370!).

Even €320 was a complete rip off. Around £250 from the UK, even cheaper from the US.

But apparently it can interact with the OSI trailmaster series,

.. as can practically every other GPS on the planet, including much cheaper alternatives to the 60csx, such as the (in my opinion best value for money at the moment) Venture HC.

although I find the trailmaster map coverage is not countrywide.

Trailmaster is no more, as in no longer actively being sold and developed by OSi, only left-over DVD's being sold now, and has been replaced by GeoLives, and you can buy map tiles for the entire country using this.

There are other Garming gps units with mapping ability but most of the maps are uk or us. I got this unit to enable me to map my own routes or create my own maps. So for 320 euros I hope it does the job or I will feel like a right tit indeed.

If you think you're going to be able to somehow transfer OSi Tralmaster maps to your GPS, then prepare to be disappointed. You can transfer waypoints, tracks and routes back and forth but that's it really.

At some time in the future, Garmin may offer Irish mapping (I'm reliably informed that OSi have provided some data to Garmin) , but whether it's going to be raster mapping only (for the newer units) or vector mapping too, I've no idea. Anyway if the quality is in any way comparable to the GB Topo mapping, I wouldn't be first in the queue waiting to pay for it to be honest.

In the UK they've teamed up with OS GB to provide raster mapping for the newer (and more expensive) units such as the Colorado and Oregon that provide facilities for raster mapping,a nd on paper it all sounds quite impressive, but it turns out the so-called screen dumps on the Garmin website don't quite match reality.

In the meantime, the only alternatives are to put on the free contour maps provided by the SMC (http://www.smc.org.uk/ContourMaps.htm) or the colourised version provided here (http://emeraldisland.free.fr/). You'll need to get a micro-SD card for your 60csx to put the maps onto though.

If you're feeling really adventurous, you can create your own vector maps from scratch for Garmin units, possibly using the SMC contour maps as a basis. There are some tutorials on the web, but it all looks more trouble than its worth to me, and I'm a pretty nerdy IT type myself. See here for an example ... http://www.keenpeople.com/index.php?option=articles&task=viewarticle&artid=4&Itemid=3

dogmatix

Dammit! I knew if I posted the price i'd be told it would be cheaper elsewhere. I was dreading that. Still, I had a gift voucher so technically it was only 220 euros to me.

I mainly got the unit for creating my own maps - but it looks from your posting, that it would be an uphill battle. Still, got to start somewhere. I might post my results here in the future on how I get on, but it could be many months! Thanks for the links, i'll check them out.

The unit should be useful for navigation, but I still prefer to rely on a compass and Harveys / OSI 56 map for navigation.

IrlJidel

dogmatix wrote: »

I mainly got the unit for creating my own maps - but it looks from your posting, that it would be an uphill battle.

If you want to create your own maps, may I suggest you look at openstreetmap.org, which is a wiki-like map of the world.
You can view this map data online just like googlemaps but it is also possible to edit the map and draw in new trails using gpx tracks from your gps and/or aerial photography.
You can then load these maps onto your garmin gps and marvel at your cartography skills.

IMHO best gps map for Ireland to use is the emerald-island.eu map (http://emerald-island.eu/wikka/GpsMap). This map includes
1) summit data from mountainview.ie
2) megaliths from megalithomania
3) corrected contour data (voids or missing bits are extrapoliated)
4) openstreetmap map

IrlJidel

dogmatix wrote: »

I just bought a Garmin GPS 60CSX. Crippingly expensive at 320 (sale price - normally 370!).

If you bought it online, you may still have time to return it.

http://www.consumerconnect.ie/eng/Hot_Topics/FAQs/Online-shopping/6_The_cooling-off_period.html

"The “cooling off” period is a period you have as an online consumer in which to make up your mind if you want the goods or not.

By law, you have seven working days from the date of receipt of the goods/service in which you can cancel the contract. You do not have to have a reason to cancel – a simple change of mind is enough."

EG globalgizmos have it for £213 or E245

http://www.globalgizmos.co.uk/product_detail.php?pid=501

dogmatix

Thanks for the info and links IrlJidel - in fact it was OpenStreetMap I was thinking of when I first got the GPS unit (I first became aware of OpenStreetMap after reading one of your own previous postings). I suspect it may be some time before I get familar with the unit but the links and info yourself and Alun have posted should give me something to get my teeth into.

I bought the unit in a real-world shop.