[OSM-newbies] Best GPS hand held device for my needs

[John McKerrell]

Assuming that you want a car navigator, which I think it sounds like  
you do, I can recommend a TomTom, I think I have the TomTom Go 530  
which is one of the more expensive ones, but I'm sure you can get a  
cheaper one.

I then installed NMEALogger[*] which works pretty well, it just sits  
alongside the normal tomtom software so you can have tomtom routing  
you and this logging the raw GPS signal in the background. The page  
explains what devices it works on so hopefully that will help you with  
deciding which to get. One thing to be careful of, make sure you set  
"Decode frames" to "No" so that you get the raw GPS signal. If you  
have this set to "Yes" then it will snap the GPS signal to the roads  
in the tomtom's database, which will mean the data is tainted and  
can't be used for OSM.

Hope this helps

John

* - http://www.webazar.org/tomtom/nmealogger.php?lang=uk

On 28 Jul 2008, at 02:03, Lauri Hahne wrote:

> First of all, the type of device you should considered depends mainly
> on whether you're more likely to
> a. map by walking/cycling
> b. map by driving
>
> If 'a' is your choice, I'de recommend you to get a Garmin device such
> as eTrex Legend HCX which is an excellent portable device and also
> features car navigation for in car use. By default it apparently comes
> with a map which includes the US interstate system but you can buy a
> road map for it and it does routing.
>
> If you're of of the 'b' type, then you should buy a car navigator
> which can record tracks. At least TomTom units are known to work if
> you install some third party software in it though I'm not sure
> whether the latest software versions allow you to do this.
>
> Yet another possibility is to buy a smartphone with either internal
> gps or with a bluetooth gps dongle. Then you can run a logging
> software in the phone to generate gps tracks and you can buy a
> commercial navigation software if you want to use it for driving
> directions.
>
>
>
> 2008/7/27 Dick Angus <RJA-Linux at shaw.ca>:
>> As my profile says I am a raw newbie at GPS and mapping. I've never  
>> owned or
>> used a GPS device. I live in a small town in Southern Alberta,  
>> Canada and as
>> a retirement project would like to try and add some information  
>> about my town
>> of Okotoks and area to Open Maps. I run Kubuntu Linux (always kept  
>> current)
>> on both a desktop and a laptop.
>>
>> I have friends who have built in nav systems in their new cars so  
>> I've seen a
>> bit of what goes on. I would like to get a hand held device that I  
>> can use as
>> an in car navigator for trips around North America or Europe and  
>> also use as
>> a mapping device for this project. Being able to ask how to get me  
>> from my
>> house to my son's place in San Francisco by the shortest route and  
>> then have
>> the device guide me would be amazing. I have looked at the various  
>> guides in
>> the WiKi, but I don't even know enough to understand what they are  
>> saying.
>> Can anyone pass on advice on a good device to meet my needs or  
>> should I say
>> desires?
>>
>> TIA and I look forward to being able to add to this great project.
>> --
>> An old mainframer getting modern
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> newbies mailing list
>> newbies at openstreetmap.org
>> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/newbies
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Lauri Hahne
>
> _______________________________________________
> newbies mailing list
> newbies at openstreetmap.org
> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/newbies