Wrist Watch GPS's

Does anyone know of or has experiance with GPS Watches??? Any recemondations on one brand or the other if more than one manufacture out there?

I would think that this would be a good item for us Cat sailors that do distance racing, if they had the functions that we need on them.

Mark
1973 H16

DO NOT recommend the Suunto M9. Neat idea, seldom works, lots of head-down button pushing at critical times when you can't afford it. If it does turn on the GPS and it does have a signal and your battery doesn't expire (life is about 1 1/2 hr) and the delay is not too great (several second speed change lag compared to a fixed Garmin), it is neat to see SOG on your wrist. I recommend any portable unit on a lanyard around your neck or in a clear pouch on your clothing over the M9. I mounted a Garmin 176 on my front beam and it worked great with either a chart view or huge and legible numbers.

I think that this "thread" is ahead of its time. Give it a few more years and you can have a good discussion about some gps receivers that are easy to read, small, lightweight, will "update" regularly, and can maintain their battery charge for more than a couple of hours.

But for now, we (catsailors) have some intersting options. I am biased toward the product that I am using. I can clearly declare a couple of reasons that I am partial to this product and neither of these reasons is because I think that it is 'The Best.'

My two reasons are that 1) the company has the best customer service that I have ever seen and 2) that the unit most closely resembles what I would call my "perfect" gps receiver for catamaran sailing.

Garmin is the company and their customer service is so excellent, that I want to work for them. (Not happening when we are thousands of miles apart. Where the heck is "Ole'!thee?"

The other reason is that the Garmin Etrex Legend is about the closest thing, these days, to the perfect gps receiver for me, a serious cat sailor. It is waterproof (jis 7 standard or something like that...you had better expect it to NEARLY be able to keep up to what we can do on cats.)

It is small, has lots of information, can be used outdoors in lots of spray, has a lot of memory, can manage to track my posisions for a long way, makes batteries last long, and fits in the palm of my hand.

It is not perfect and it certainly can not sustain prolonged salt water spray hits, but it can certainly do the trck in most usual catamaraning situations.

I am about to build an arm band mount for my Garmin Etrex. I am going to start with the pouch that Garmin sells. It has a steel belt clip on the back. I intend to build or buy an arm band that will accept this "holster." This should give me a good hiking, sailing mount for my gps while it is recording my tracks.

GARY

Ditto - absolutely love my legend...I sometimes do wish that it had a magnetic compass in it though.

We're getting ready to carry two legends on the Tybee 500. I'm thinking about devising a mount for one to the boom and one for the crew to wear.

While their water resistance is nice - don't consider it "catamaran water proof". They aren't. I've been through one myself. Keep it in a drybag, or the very least, a zip lock bag. It can handle moisture in a leaky bag, but not being thown in the water or trolled behind the boat after it falls through the trampoline lacing (whoops).

The top o' the Etrex line with a compass, altimeter, more memory, and all the great features of the rest of the line plus BlueChart compatibility. Gary's right - best support I've ever seen with downloads and upgrades, training, FAQs...

The Vista kicks butt - on a lanyard in a clear water-proof bag, a quick glance down puts me in touch with as much info as I can assimilate.

GPSCity.com - great prices on any GPS and quick delivery.

Thanks all for the replys... I currently use a Garmin 48 marine handheld for sailing, and like you and other posters have said, it is a good unit and Garmin does have good customer service.

One would have thought that there would be more wristwatch gps's or aftermarket straps too allow the user to strap the gps to the forearm by now.



Let me know how this turns out. I would like to see a picture of it.

Mark
1973 H16

I also love my Garmin Legend for auto and Cat use BUT: Garmin is out with a new color unit that appears to blow away the Legend. Here is a link. Garmin 60C/60CS Check it out.

Regards,
Mike

I agree with the post on the M9. I bought one and I was disappointed with it. M9 is not made for catsailors, it might work better for monoslug tacticians.

The GPS take forever to acquire, it loses the signal easily and the battery life is poor. The magnetic compass works well and I am going to keep it as a back up GPS in case of an emergency and as a backup compass on longer trips. The other issue I have is the computer interface is next to impossible to figure out, the manual on this is poor and the maps are very hard to find and expensive. Dont bother with the M9, unless of course you want to buy mine for full retail.

I am interested in what people think of the Timex version with the detached gps receiver.

I went through 3 etrex, they are not waterproof, I think what happens to them is that the salt water crosses the connections and the unit shorts out, but thats just a guess.

Bill

Check this out. Arm/wrist mounted GPS - but is it really waterproof.

http://www.garmin.com/products/foretrex201/#

That unit is meant for joggers, when they bring one out for swimmers I will consider it waterproof and buy one.

You do need to seal the patch cord terminal cover wtih elec. tape to keep the salt water out. Otherways you get 'lectrolysis that destroys the contact points AS it uses up the batteries. See attatched picture.

Not really - it has the same IPX7 waterproof rating as the etrex series. They are both rated for being submerged in one meter of stationary of water for 30 minutes. That's a lot different than getting hosed during a catamaran pitchpole. I wish they would come out with a version that is screwed together with an internal 0-ring seal like my epirb has. Technology CAN bring us a catamaran proof GPS.

Things have advanced quite a bit lately, but I'm not sure about ALL the bells and whistles. I've got an old Garmin 76 (not the mapping one), and with its big display, I can tape it to the mast so that both skipper and crew can see it (in a bag, of course). I've got Dist to next, Speed (straight line races) or VMG (distance races) and heading to next waypoint (compas rose) on the display in 1 1/2" characters - I can see them from the back beam! Not bad for under $100. Oh, and I can download my track afterward, too. I think all Garmin products do all of the above...

I don't think I need the map, since the chart would only cause me to stare at it too long. I can usually tell that the water is getting shallow before the GPS can, and that's about all I need. The 76 DOES, however, plot some nav aids on their "map" screen, so if I'm REALLY lost in the fog I can use that to get home.

The Garmin 76 is now listed at $228: they have sexed it way up. How do I get a big display one for $100? I'd surely do it if possible.

No, that unit is the Forerunner; this is a new unit. It has the standard "waterproof" rating that the other Garmins have and a few other features that the Forerunner does not have that are found on the Gekos. It looks as close to what the original poster was looking for as he is going to find right now. Check it out again at: http://www.garmin.com/products/foretrex201/#

I still have my trusty old GPS 12 that is starting to act a little too much like my own memory! So I am glad to see this unit and with a sub $200 price I might just spring for one. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

BTW, here is the description of the waterproof rating that Garmin marine units have (including the new one mentioned above):

Most Garmin® GPS units are waterproof in accordance with IEC 529 IPX7. IEC 529 is a European system of test specification standards for classifying the degrees of protection provided by the enclosures of electrical equipment. An IPX7 designation means the GPS case can withstand accidental immersion in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes. An IPX8 designation is for continuous underwater use.

Mike

Dave,

Look at the Garmin 72 (I think that's what Jay is referring to) - no mapping but the same case and large display as the 76. $149 can be found on the net / ebay. I would like to know where Jay found one for under $100!

Jake

See Attatchment

Today's track. Shifty Winds; trying to stay close to shore; 17 knots max.

Each of the black dots represent track log points that (in this case) are 30 seconds apart.

GARY

I have a base model Garmin Etrex, and am considering buying a cable to link it to my PC, What I am wondering is what data I can get out of it.

The manual says that it outputs posn and velocity in NMEA or ASCII format, but it does not make it clear if this is historical data or real time data. If it is historical data i.e. how often does it store this i.e. every second every 30secs etc.

does anyone have any experience of this, or can reccomend some software.

Only GPS coming close is the garmin Geko 201, the others are just way to expensive. Geko 201 = 145 US$ when I bought it.

Wouter

Hi Gareth -

I'd recommend the interface cable, though Garmin only offers the serial connector right now for your model. I understand there are one or two of the newest models that are USB. If you use one of the Mapsource software packages, you can either download whatever's in the GPS, upload maps and waypoints, or use the GPS realtime with a laptop in a car or motorhome. There's also some freeware out there that will do lots of the same stuff but without some of the glitzy features. I purchased the Mapsource to get the product support, which is considerable. I occasionally see people posting info from Mapsource on the forums (including this thread, thanks Gary). In the Worrell and Tybee races, we use Mapsource daily, and I have the last several campaigns on file - nice to look at when preparing for the next one, in addition to giving us some fixes on features to seek out (a safe cut through jetties at night) or avoid (Newkirk's Island).

Cheers -

You can use a variety of software to extract the information from the GPS - what you've seen mostly here is the garmin software. I use Garmin Roads and Recreation. It has detailed maps of streets throughout the the US and most waterway navigation marks. Obviously this is a big benefit if your gps can display mapping information because you can download it to the GPS unit. If you don't have a GPS with mapping capability, this software will still extract track history and place it on the map.

There are a lot of options out there once you have the communication cable. See this website for a list of a lot of various software options. I really like the ability to put the track over a Terraserver image (satellite picture).

http://www.iron-horse.us/mtb/gps_software_guide.shtml

You can buy the cables a lot cheeper on ebay.

Try [url=http://www.geocaching.com.]www.geocaching.com. Click on "Discuss Geocaching and then Click on "Enter Groundspeak Forums" and scroll down to "GPS Units and Software". There is plenty of info on gps units and free software.

Again, thanks for all of the info... be interesting to check out that new wrist mount GPS from Garmin... The only downside that I can see right now is the battery life on it... hope that they provide a quick car charger for it for all of us sailors, or provisions for a second battery to swap out on it...

Slow but clueless, do you know anything about the Suunto X9 gps watch??? Looks like a new product that they are launching that is also waterproof. I know you said to stay away from the M9 from your experiance with it. Just wondering you had a chance to check it out or not.

Mark Colby
1973 H16

Today I was in our computer department getting some maintenence done when I noticed one of the techs was making his own serial to Garmin connector.

Apparantly the diagrams for the pin connections are available somewhere on the net. or in the Garmin manual. (Etrex) I didn't ask where but will, if I think of it.

For the Garmin connect he used a piece of plastic a bit thinner than a credit card, cut down to size so it would slide in. There was a positioning slot cut into it. Then he used a knife (his tiny drills were at home) to drill holes for each wire to be fed into the plastic.

Then he made other holes further up the card to knit the wires in place so they wouldn't slide out. Then he lightly glued the wire to the plastic right where the contacts on the Garmin were.

He had an old serial connect kickin around that he connected to the other end of the wire. Then he just verified that the connectons were correct with an Ohmeter.

Hey any port in a storm! It worked!

He is still employed and as far as I'm concerned that's the type of guy you need working for ya!

I am thinking about a unit for navigating in my car. (mostly in Canada) I want something that will tell me where to go (voice) (I know, I know... that was wide open)

My secondary purpose would be for catamaran usage. Mostly just for fun, not racing. ie download my trip. Save waypoints of shoals, rocks etc and warn me when I am approaching them.

Any thoughts or model suggestions!

Hi Alan, Perfect timing on this very topic! There is a very good review of GPS units for giving directions in the March issue of Laptop magazine. Turns out that a number of units work well until they are in a city with tall buildings surrounding them. Here is a reference website: http://www.techworthy.com/Laptop/March2004/index.htm

Good luck!

Mike

Thanks Mike I will get the mag.

Off topic but has anyone used a wireless wristwatch fishfinder from ( www.hummingbird.co ) called Smartcast? Saw it in Popular Mechanics December 2003 issue page 29.

I was thinking in terms of checking out the water depth for checking out new areas to sail.