gps road and sea

[ollie]

i am looking for one pice of kits what would meet all my requiment but i think it will be hard i would like to get a gps for the boat and a route finder for the car that will hold road and sea charts is there anything on the market that can do it ive been looking at the pda with sat nav but none of them seem to come as a package but as an add on and can you buy a water prof case for a pda hope some one can point me in the right direction if i was going for a handel gps gearmin or corse where is the cheapes out let to get one for i live in the uk and have seen them in walmart in the usa for as littel as £50 and then i could buy my pda with road map and sort out the sea charts later hope there some one out there who can help me and thank any body who reply

[Chris Murray]

Hi Ollie,

Have a look at http://www.memory-map.co.uk/acatalog/gps_products.html

This is great, if you already have an iPAQ.

You can also get navigational software through Memory-Map, which uses Admiralty charts, but I am not sure that I would want to risk my PDA on a RIB or powerboat of any size. There are lots of "cheap" GPS sets that would be a safer bet for your boat.

Good luck!

Chris.

[Garygee]

Have a look at the Garmin 176.

With this you can load road maps, (Roads & Recreation I think) and Bluecharts.

Would need to have two data cards though and swap then depending on use.
Easy to swap though.

These also work in many other Garmin GPS's

Regards Gary

[Mark Halliday]

Have a look at a Garmin GPS V for road and marine use.
I have had a GPS III for ages and have used it on RIBS, yachts and in my Landrover for Off Roading and even in aircraft. I use it with Memory Map Navigator to plan and review routes/tracks.
The V has good route planning for road use now that Garmin have sorted the "Turn Left" on roundabouts to "Left - Right-Straight On" at roundabouts problem.
Excelent battery life, totally waterproof and bullet proof. Comes with Mapsource software, mounting bracket and cabling.
Down sides are - Pricey with small B/W screen and it will not float. (Waterproof bit only usefull if you dive!)


Mark H

[geoff]

Memory Map is a very cool product with charts, OS maps and road maps. I have used it on an iPAQ in a waterproof case which works well. However my advice it to use Memory Map on a cheap lap top in the car and download waypoints and other useful info into a GPS via a cable link and take that with you on the boat.

You will be interest to know that Boatlaunch is launching a Digital Almanac with details of marinas, slipways, chandlery, campsite etc etc in April. It will be compatible with Memory Map and other chart navigation systems and best of all it will be free. Should have some beta versions for Rib.net readers out soon.

I'll keep you posted.

[simmons0]

Garmin 176 or 176c if you can afford it.

[Mike B]

Not sure if this is useful to you or not but here goes.

I currently use the following:

In the car -
Dell Axim X5 pocket PC (£250 ish)
Haicom CF card GPS (£100 ish)
TOMTOM Navigator (£100 ish) (maps stored on a 128 SD card £50 ish)


This give you door to door navigation anywhere in the UK with 3D maps and speech directions. I prefer this to a built in system as I can easily carry it from one car to another and use it for street navigation while walking around.

You could add memory map software to the Dell and this will let you use it as a plotter with their charts. However, I agree with Geoff - I use the memory map charts on a pc and download waypoints and routes to a garmin gps. The Memory map charts can also be printed and I then laminate these to keep on the boat.

If you want any more info on any of these drop me a note.

Geoff cant wait for the Digital Almanac sounds very useful.

Cheers

Mike

[ollie]

gps been looking in walmart in the usa for a gps and have seen the Garmin eTrex GPS Unit for $89.62 which is about £50 is there any where in the uk i can sorce this gps for that sort of money or has any body got a better one thay would like to part with for about that

[gtflash]

do the marine gps units have route planning for on road use. The way i understood it they did not issue commands giving shortest or quickest route etc but instead only navigated to landmarks you have entered

ive been considering this for a while but was concerned that the pda marine sw isnt as good as say garmin. But then the road sw such as tom tom is excellent

for all gps try

http://www.totalpda.co.uk/xgps.asp

[ollie]

not with you on this one mine brain will work out the best route and the gps / sat nav is only a guide for me i am going off the idear of the pda as i don't think it will with stand the sea looking at laptop with gps pluged into it for car and gps on its own on the boat

[gtflash]

oh ok. having seen the road nav sw in action. Im 100% confident that you could not perform aswell as it in a strange place that you have no idea where it is. Also on the pda plus side they do make drop/shock/waterproof cases for pda and compaq ones can be mounted and operated through the cover. I still feel that pda marine sw is not as comprehensive as dedicated gps even though some use the same chart info.

Good luck