GPS recommendation?

"Bob in CT" wrote in
news
On Fri, 06 Apr 2007 13:19:55 -0400, Richard B
wrote:

"David L. Johnson" wrote in
:

Snip


-------
Neil:
I also have a Garmin Vista CX for my bike.
The specs say it is water resistant for submersion in one meter of
water for thirty minutes (not 30 meters). It uses Micro SD memory
expansion cards and is supplied with a either a 32 or 64meg card
(can't remember which). I put a 1G card in mine and I am able to put
most on the Southwest on the card using less than 256M.

I have the Garmin mapping software and the mapping goes down to the
detail level of the 4X4 dirt roads found in the desert. If you use it
for navigating to a GPS coordinate in a remote area, using the
"follow road" selection, these will be marked as unnamed road so the
navigation will tell you "turn right at unnamed road, turn left at
unnamed road, etc."

I usually commute by bike so I use it almost daily to track my
statistics including total ascent, total descent, average moving
speed, etc.
--------
David:
As for running the Garmin mapping software under Linux have you
looked at the Wine project?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_(software)

I am a Linux newbie but I have seen Wine referenced as a way to
execute windows based programs on a Linux platform, maybe it will
work for you. I'm still working out the Linux basics so I don't want
to fiddle around with this quite yet.


Richard B.



Do you know if you can program in a route? For instance, if you have
a 60 mile ride, could you program in the turns you'll take?


No you can not directly input a specific route with only the GPS, but
you can set up a series waypoints and have it take you through the
sequence; this will limit the choices it can make for the route.

There is a route preference setting choice of "bicycle", if you select
this the GPS will try to avoid higher traffic roads. (Unfortunately the
maps do not include Class 1 bike paths, sigh.)

You can capture a route and save it, then have the GPS follow that saved
route.

With the mapping software, "MapSource City Navigator North America"
(MSRP $139.27) you should be able to plan a route, save it as a file in
the PC and then upload that to the GPS.

You will need the "MapSource City Navigator North America" software as
the included "Trip and Waypoint Manager" software only includes maps
with the major traffic arteries. The "MapSource City Navigator North
America" software is licensed for 2 GPS units and is registered to, and
checks, the serial numbers of the units when they are connected to the
PC.

Routes are saved as a series of GPS coordinates and altitude readings
and the included "Trip and Waypoint Manager" software lets you download
this information through the USB portto a Windows PC so you can plot it
on a map and it can even give you an elevation plot of the route
you captured. You can also export this captured data to an Excel
spreadsheet.

Here is a link to the Garmin Vista CX webpage so you can check out the
specs and suggested prices:

http://www.garmin.com/products/etrexVistacx/

Richard B.

Kristian M Zoerhoff wrote:
On 2007-04-06, Bob in CT wrote:
Do you know if you can program in a route? For instance, if you have a 60
mile ride, could you program in the turns you'll take?

Yes, you can. I do my routes in MapSource, then download them to the eTrex,
but you can do routes on the device itself as well, with some limitations
on route complexity (presumably due to the mimited memory and CPU on the
unit).

I'm actually planning a 60+ mile ride myself for the unit, to be used early
this summer.

Whatever happened to the under $100 Radio Shack GPS that was on sale in
2001? Was it too simple?
Maybe I don't have enough places to get lost in so I don't follow the
trend??
Bill Baka

Richard B wrote:

Neil:
I also have a Garmin Vista CX for my bike.
The specs say it is water resistant for submersion in one meter of water
for thirty minutes (not 30 meters).

OK, I misremembered. Any depth specs are rather odd, anyway.

It uses Micro SD memory expansion
cards and is supplied with a either a 32 or 64meg card (can't remember
which). I put a 1G card in mine and I am able to put most on the
Southwest on the card using less than 256M.

ditto. the literature that comes with it is dated, saying that it will
support 256 meg. Apparently they never thought that micro sd's would
support 1g or more. But it has not trouble with it, and mine has 400meg
of material on it now (most of the East Coast).

David:
As for running the Garmin mapping software under Linux have you looked
at the Wine project?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_(software)

I am a Linux newbie but I have seen Wine referenced as a way to
execute windows based programs on a Linux platform, maybe it will work
for you. I'm still working out the Linux basics so I don't want to
fiddle around with this quite yet.

Well, I was a big enthusiast for wine in the early years, even
contributing to the project. But I could not get the Garmin software to
run under wine. I will try again, but I have put out a couple of
queries, with no response. Fortunately I have my wife's old laptop
available, though I would rather work on my own computer.

--

David L. Johnson

If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach
a conclusion. -- George Bernard Shaw

Bob in CT wrote:
Do you know if you can program in a route? For instance, if you have a
60 mile ride, could you program in the turns you'll take?

--Bob in CT

Absolutely. I can even do that in linux. Use
http://www.marengo-ltd.com/map/

What happens is that the turns become both part of a route as well as
being "waypoints", and the route from turn to turn is determined by the
software. But it talks to the computer fine for that. Only when
downloading the Garmin maps do you need windows.

You can set it up specifically for bikes, or for cars, or for walking,
to allow/restrict certain routes (avoiding highways for riding, allowing
reverse paths up one-way streets for walking). I don't have much
experience with that yet, but it seems to work very well.

--

David L. Johnson

If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach
a conclusion. -- George Bernard Shaw

In article ,
David L. Johnson wrote:
Richard B wrote:

Neil:
I also have a Garmin Vista CX for my bike.
The specs say it is water resistant for submersion in one meter of water
for thirty minutes (not 30 meters).

OK, I misremembered. Any depth specs are rather odd, anyway.

It uses Micro SD memory expansion
cards and is supplied with a either a 32 or 64meg card (can't remember
which). I put a 1G card in mine and I am able to put most on the
Southwest on the card using less than 256M.

ditto. the literature that comes with it is dated, saying that it will
support 256 meg. Apparently they never thought that micro sd's would
support 1g or more. But it has not trouble with it, and mine has 400meg
of material on it now (most of the East Coast).

David:
As for running the Garmin mapping software under Linux have you looked
at the Wine project?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_(software)

I am a Linux newbie but I have seen Wine referenced as a way to
execute windows based programs on a Linux platform, maybe it will work
for you. I'm still working out the Linux basics so I don't want to
fiddle around with this quite yet.

Well, I was a big enthusiast for wine in the early years, even
contributing to the project. But I could not get the Garmin software to
run under wine. I will try again, but I have put out a couple of
queries, with no response. Fortunately I have my wife's old laptop
available, though I would rather work on my own computer.

OziExplorer ($) works under Wine. Interfaces ok w/ GPS devices.

-f
--

On Apr 6, 6:43 pm, "David L. Johnson"
wrote:
As for running the Garmin mapping software under Linux have you looked
at the Wine project?

I could not get the Garmin software to run under wine.

Indeed. I've been trying Garmin periodically with Wine.
Wine keeps getting closer, but still can't run.
See http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2561
- Dan