GPS recommendation

[SteveG]

I've had a Garmin Oregon 450 for a couple years, but haven't used it much, mostly due to it not being very user friendly. For some reason it keeps tracking then when the unit is turned off, and battery life is terrible.

All I need a unit to do is drop a waypoint at my truck, maybe use it to navigate to the stream (possibly while creating a track), then give me a route back to the waypoint. All while not creating unwanted tracks.

Can anyone point me in the right direction of a decent GPS unit that can do this simple task without splitting the atom?

 

[tomitrout]

I would think you could find a simple phone app for all you want it for, instead of a full blown GPS unit.

 

[Aducker]

Look at the Garmin eTrex. I use the 30.

 

[SteveG]

I've never had a smartphone that held a good signal, even when not too far away from civilization. I started going to Montana once a year, so it'd be used out there as well.

Thanks Aducker, I'll have to look into those. Hopefully the maps I already purchased can be put on there.

 

[mattwolf]

I have the Oregon 550T and mine does everything you want yours to do. I use Lithium batteries and turn off my tracking when I don't want it on. Do you have a users manual?

 

[SteveG]

I do not. I tried to turn off tracking, but am unable to.

 

[troutbert]

SteveG wrote:
I do not. I tried to turn off tracking, but am unable to.

I've used a Garmin 600, and there is a way to turn off tracking on that GPS, so there probably is on other models.

I figured out how to do a lot of things on the GPS unit by doing Google searches and YouTube searches.

There is a lot of tutorial stuff on YouTube, some from Garmin, some from other people.

The battery life is an issue. Turning off the tracking should help.

The other thing is to make sure that the unit is turned off, and not just in rest mode, when you are done.

It is not very intuitive. You must hold the button down until it beeps twice. Then it's truly off.

If you just push the button briefly, it seems off, but it will be in rest mode, not off. And the next time you go to use it, the batteries will be totally dead.

 

[SteveG]

Ok. I have been turning it off properly. I'll check some tutorials see if I can figure out how to shut off the tracking.

 

[salmonoid]

SteveG wrote:
I've never had a smartphone that held a good signal, even when not too far away from civilization. I started going to Montana once a year, so it'd be used out there as well.

Thanks Aducker, I'll have to look into those. Hopefully the maps I already purchased can be put on there.

What does GPS have to do with proximity (or not) to civilization? Your location is determined by the devices ability to see satellites, not cell towers, whether you are using a smartphone or a standalone handheld GPS device.

 

[SteveG]

When I'm away from civilization, I tend to not have a signal on my phone. I can't be the only one with this issue.

 

[salmonoid]

SteveG wrote:
When I'm away from civilization, I tend to not have a signal on my phone. I can't be the only one with this issue.

The quality of the cell signal has nothing to do with the GPS signal. I use my phone's GPS all the time, while in airplane mode (i.e. no signal). The only way that cell signal comes into play is if you would be using a GPS app where you want to download realtime data for your location and you were out of range of a cell tower. But just like a handheld GPS, you plan ahead and download map data for offline use to the smartphone.

You've got four (at least) different radios/receivers in your phone:

Cell
Bluetooth
Wifi
GPS

They can work simultaneously or independently.

 

[SteveG]

Ok, I didn't know you could download map data for offline use. Anytime I tried to use it, it just showed a blank screen on Google maps. Figured tht meant it wasn't usable.