[OSM-newbies] looking for a good introductory GPS unit

[SomeoneElse]

On 01/05/2011 23:11, Andrew Salzberg wrote:
> I'm looking to contribute to OSM and looking for the cheapest, 
> reliable unit that has a USB interface. 

Are you looking for a datalogger (which will probably be the cheapest 
option) or something that can do a bit more (show tracks, perhaps 
perform basic routing etc.)?

Also - are you looking for a handheld unit or something that can be 
mounted in a vehicle?

What continents/countries do you live in / intend to visit?  (in order 
to work out whether paying extra for something that supports WAAS would 
be worthwhile).


> I'm also wondering what the difference is b/w using a mobile phone GPS 
> unit (can that be done while 'offline' - ie, in a country where i 
> don't have cell service) and something like a Garmin handheld - 
> accuracy? cost?

Not all mobile phone GPSs are brilliant at being GPSs - shoe-horning 
several radios into a small package can mean that they sometimes don't 
work as well as dedicated units.  Do you have a particular phone in 
mind?  If so, someone might be able to say what it's like as a GPS unit.


> I work in transportation so ideally I'd also like a unit that's great 
> for storing a fair bit of detailed tracklog data that could be used 
> for reconstructing things like speeds, times spent moving/not moving, etc.
>
Someone's already recommended the Garmin Legend HC X; if you stick a 
microSD card in that it can log tracks there until the cows come home.  
As an anecdotal example on a similar device, 5 hours driving and 6 hours 
walking came to about 900kb; so obviously you could repeat that a few 
times before filling a card.

There are pages on the OSM wiki for various devices (for example 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Garmin/eTrex_series).  They're always 
not all especially up to date (and sometimes contain contradictory 
information!) but are still worth a read - certainly better than online 
sellers' "review" pages.

Cheers,
Andy