GPS?

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OP
OP
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mickwood

New Member
Cool, I'd say that's more than enough for me at this stage. If it works out that I'm really using it a lot then it would justify the expense of the Satmap system.
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
My PDA will certainly record longer than 4 hours of a journey... I think I would expect 6 hours .. although I think I do remember changing the battery one day on the road... - I have 2 spare batteries... so that if we are away camping don't have the recharging problem. (I now also have an in-car charger too). I leave my on with a dim screen - it brightens when you touch it.
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
I had my PDA/GPS going today... and recorded from 8.40 through to now (3.50), and according to the PDA I have 53% battery life left... though I doubt I would get another 7 hours worth. It is a large battery mind you - the case projects backwards at the back to accommodate it. I was route recording rather than using it lots to forward plan the route so that would require less batteries.
 

andym

Über Member
summerdays said:
I had my PDA/GPS going today... and recorded from 8.40 through to now (3.50), and according to the PDA I have 53% battery life left... though I doubt I would get another 7 hours worth. It is a large battery mind you - the case projects backwards at the back to accommodate it. I was route recording rather than using it lots to forward plan the route so that would require less batteries.


I think the key issue is how much you want to use the on-screen mapping - as the display uses the most energy.
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
The display was on but on the low setting as I wasn't touching the screen... if you touch the screen it comes up to the full brightness. I have the dim screen setting quite low when I am using it in this mode. I can just see the map in the low setting but wouldn't be able to read it whilst cycling along in that mode.
 

RedBike

New Member
Location
Beside the road
There's no longer seems to be much (if any) difference between PDAs and Smart phones.

Just find the software you want, memory map, viewranger, garmin mobile whatever then find look at all the devices it will run on.

If you've already got a Nokia 95 then your half way there.

The battery life / run time varies dramatically between phones / PDAs. You'll probably find that most will have a run time of less than 4/5 hours when running a GPS reciever and keeping the backlite on so that you can read the map.
 

clownfishrob

New Member
Location
Colchester
I've just bought a Road Angel 7000 for £100 on eBay which can be mounted on a bike and you can also upload memory maps to it as well it plots your progress using GPS and it can also be used in your car/motorbike/walking. Seems quite substantial but not had chance to road test it.
 

andygates

New Member
New awesomeness has been added to the Openstreetmap Garmin export, and after wrangling it for the evening, the latest map at my download spot will be turn-by-turn routable. It'll be up by one AM.
 
OP
OP
M

mickwood

New Member
clownfishrob said:
I've just bought a Road Angel 7000 for £100 on eBay which can be mounted on a bike and you can also upload memory maps to it as well it plots your progress using GPS and it can also be used in your car/motorbike/walking. Seems quite substantial but not had chance to road test it.

I'd appreciate it if you can fire back some feedback on how it performs! ;)
 

amaferanga

Veteran
Location
Bolton
I've been reading around on various forums and websites and just purchased a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx. My needs were pretty similar to the OP's and I didn't come across anything anywhere near as suitable as this. The clincher was without a doubt the AA batteries. And the price of £117. I intend to use Openstreetmap so total cost should be £117 + about £15 for a bike mount. Absolute bargain IMO. I already own an Edge 205, but having a GPS with maps is just better for navigating, plus I will know where I am, not just that I'm on route.
 

jay clock

Massive member
Location
Hampshire UK
I am interested in more feedback on the Garmin Etrex Legend HCx and how you use it in conjunction with openstreetmap (which looks excellent by the way)

My needs are mainly for day rides pre-plotted on Tracklogs or mapmyride or similar, then uploaded to a device that prompts me like a car satnav.

Does the Etrex legend do this with Openstreetmap and how easy is it?
 

amaferanga

Veteran
Location
Bolton
I'm new to openstreetmap and just got my Legend HCx so I could be missing something. I've just loaded openstreetmap onto my legend HCx and I must say I'm extremely disappointed with a) the appearance of the maps and :smile: the coverage in and around sheffield. I was expecting a proper looking map like you see on the openstreetmap website, but what I see on the GPS is extremely poor. I also loaded andygates routeable maps, but the coverage around sheffield then was virtually non-existent.

Is there something I need to do to get the mapping to look reasonable? So far I've just been taking .img files of the whole country and loaded them onto the device directly in mass storage device mode. I haven't used mapsource - can I somehow combine maps in mapsource and improve coverage and/or appearance?
 

clownfishrob

New Member
Location
Colchester
Well had the road angel 7000 now sold it. Biggest problem was memory map software is a real pain to use and the unit only has 8 hrs battery life. You can't easily charge it if you are camping either unless you want to carry a mains charger or some other specialist charging device like a power monkey. In the end I've opted for tracklogs software and printing out the maps as it's easier to use and the print functionality is better than memory map. Still undecided about whether to bother with a gps (my iphone has one anyway) at all or stick to a good old compass when needs must.

The Road Angel does have some good points though if you can live with the battery life and only cycle on roads. You don't need any extra maps for the uk and it will also autoroute for you just like your tom tom for the car. You can set it up and tell it you are on a bike or walking.
 

Will1962

Well-Known Member
Location
Edinburgh
clownfishrob said:
Well had the road angel 7000 now sold it. Biggest problem was memory map software is a real pain to use and the unit only has 8 hrs battery life. You can't easily charge it if you are camping either unless you want to carry a mains charger or some other specialist charging device like a power monkey.

I've got a Road Angel 7000, and recently bought one of these http://zzing.de/English_Zzing/ to charge from my SON dynamo hub. The Road Angel connects via USB to the Zzing for charging, while the internal batteries in the Zzing are charged from the dynamo. I'll have to wait a few months before I can test it on a camping tour.

Will
 

andym

Über Member
I'm intrigued by the dynamo charger, but unfortunately I get a 'suspected malware' warning from that site. Is it just me?
 
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