This Christmas is GPS Christmas for the oldest Daughter and the Wife.
We do a lot of outdoor activities in the Coast Range and Cascade mountains of Oregon. Wheeling, camping, hunting, hiking & etc. I currently have a Garmin 62st with the 1:24k chip installed. I trust it, and use it constantly. Tracks and waypoints are downloaded to the laptop and analyzed in two different mapping programs, depending on what I am trying to determine.
The wife and I picked up a Garmin 64s and a Garmin 600 Oregon for about $200 each this last weekend. Couldn't decide which one to give to the Daughter, so we went up into the hills to thrash them out a little.
The three GPS units in the test were the 62st, the 64s and the 600. Put fresh, fully charged Ni-MH batteries in all three. Moved the 1:24k map chip into the 64s, and booted all three up in the house. The 62st found it's satellites and got a lock on it's position in about 30 seconds. The 64s took about a minute and half to find satellites and achieve a position lock. The 600 about two and a half minutes to find satellites and achieve position lock. The 64s and 600 were brand new, and were starting out with no idea where they were. This would be the equivalent of driving several hundred miles and then turning your GPS on.
Once a lock was achieved, we let them run for about 15 minutes or so to see how much the position wandered. The 62st and the 64s were similar in this regard. Both reported an accuracy of 32 feet, and the track was about 32 feet in diameter. The 600 reported an accuracy of about 75 feet and the track was about 100 feet in diameter.
We threw a couple of pistols and some gear into the Jeep and headed out to the coast range for a couple of hours. All three tracked reasonably close to the road on the map. Close enough, anyway. Trying to get a map and a GPS to exactly match ground truth is a fools errand anyway. With survey grade gear you can come really close, but this is consumer grade gear...the maps we have access to will always vary from ground truth in any event. (another discussion for another time)
We arrived at our destination without incident, and commenced testing the wife's new revolver out with various loads. When we were done with that task, we tested the GPS units in the clearing. This test involved setting a point, letting the GPS units settle on that point, and marking it.
We then wandered to the far side of the clearing and, called up the marked point and told the unit to "Go To" that point. The 62 and the 64 performed about the same. In this instance, the addition of GloNASS reception on the 64 made no difference in it's ability to navigate back to the marked point when compared to the older 62. They both announced that they had arrived at the marked spot within about 20 feet of the actual marker. Zooming in on the display allowed us to get closer to the actual mark. Giving the GPS time to "settle" decreased the distance from the mark to the GPS unit. So far, so good on that test. I can live with getting within 20 feet of the mark. The 600 announced that it had arrived at the mark while still a good 75 feet away. It never did settle enough to allow us to get closer than about 25 - 30 feet of the mark.
We loaded up, changed the 24k chip over to the 600 and headed back. The 600 displayed an interesting phenomena. It would loose signal as we drove through the canyons and under heavy tree cover. It would draw a straight line from it's last know position to it's next know position, and then "curve match" the road in a few seconds. The straight line would "snap" to the road. That was a little disconcerting. I'm guessing that the processor was making assumptions about our line of travel, and correcting the GPS track to match. We were only travelling about 25 mph or so.
The 600 is a touch screen, high-zoot unit. There are only two buttons on the side. Power and mark. The rest of the input is through the touch screen. Does it work? Yes. It even works with gloves on. But, we found several issues with using the touch screen. If you are going to throw it in a pocket or a pack, the screen must be locked, otherwise, you will never know what screen it will be on when you pull it out. It is difficult to use one handed with gloves on. The wife could only one hand it in her left hand with gloves on. She has small hands. The accuracy of input goes out the window and things like wiping water drops off the screen cause unexpected results.
The 62 and 64 use the same input method. Buttons under the screen. Screen selection and input were old school, but worked right or left handed with gloves or without. Naming waypoints was a pain, but do-able. Naming waypoints on the 600 was easy and fast.
All three units can connect to a tablet or laptop through USB. The 62 and the 64 have the ability to be connected to an external antenna. All three support internal microSD cards for mapping chips. All three have plenty of built in memory for additional mapping products. The 600 and the 64 support GPS and GloNASS satellites, though GloNASS was turned off by default on the 600. All three can store more tracks and waypoints than you are likely to generate in a year.
The bottom line is the 64 and the 600 are both good units. They will both do what needs doing. The wife and I prefer the 62/64 and the Daughter is getting the 600 for Christmas. We will return the 600 if she doesn't like it and get her a 64s if she wants one, and she probably will.
We do a lot of outdoor activities in the Coast Range and Cascade mountains of Oregon. Wheeling, camping, hunting, hiking & etc. I currently have a Garmin 62st with the 1:24k chip installed. I trust it, and use it constantly. Tracks and waypoints are downloaded to the laptop and analyzed in two different mapping programs, depending on what I am trying to determine.
The wife and I picked up a Garmin 64s and a Garmin 600 Oregon for about $200 each this last weekend. Couldn't decide which one to give to the Daughter, so we went up into the hills to thrash them out a little.
The three GPS units in the test were the 62st, the 64s and the 600. Put fresh, fully charged Ni-MH batteries in all three. Moved the 1:24k map chip into the 64s, and booted all three up in the house. The 62st found it's satellites and got a lock on it's position in about 30 seconds. The 64s took about a minute and half to find satellites and achieve a position lock. The 600 about two and a half minutes to find satellites and achieve position lock. The 64s and 600 were brand new, and were starting out with no idea where they were. This would be the equivalent of driving several hundred miles and then turning your GPS on.
Once a lock was achieved, we let them run for about 15 minutes or so to see how much the position wandered. The 62st and the 64s were similar in this regard. Both reported an accuracy of 32 feet, and the track was about 32 feet in diameter. The 600 reported an accuracy of about 75 feet and the track was about 100 feet in diameter.
We threw a couple of pistols and some gear into the Jeep and headed out to the coast range for a couple of hours. All three tracked reasonably close to the road on the map. Close enough, anyway. Trying to get a map and a GPS to exactly match ground truth is a fools errand anyway. With survey grade gear you can come really close, but this is consumer grade gear...the maps we have access to will always vary from ground truth in any event. (another discussion for another time)
We arrived at our destination without incident, and commenced testing the wife's new revolver out with various loads. When we were done with that task, we tested the GPS units in the clearing. This test involved setting a point, letting the GPS units settle on that point, and marking it.
We then wandered to the far side of the clearing and, called up the marked point and told the unit to "Go To" that point. The 62 and the 64 performed about the same. In this instance, the addition of GloNASS reception on the 64 made no difference in it's ability to navigate back to the marked point when compared to the older 62. They both announced that they had arrived at the marked spot within about 20 feet of the actual marker. Zooming in on the display allowed us to get closer to the actual mark. Giving the GPS time to "settle" decreased the distance from the mark to the GPS unit. So far, so good on that test. I can live with getting within 20 feet of the mark. The 600 announced that it had arrived at the mark while still a good 75 feet away. It never did settle enough to allow us to get closer than about 25 - 30 feet of the mark.
We loaded up, changed the 24k chip over to the 600 and headed back. The 600 displayed an interesting phenomena. It would loose signal as we drove through the canyons and under heavy tree cover. It would draw a straight line from it's last know position to it's next know position, and then "curve match" the road in a few seconds. The straight line would "snap" to the road. That was a little disconcerting. I'm guessing that the processor was making assumptions about our line of travel, and correcting the GPS track to match. We were only travelling about 25 mph or so.
The 600 is a touch screen, high-zoot unit. There are only two buttons on the side. Power and mark. The rest of the input is through the touch screen. Does it work? Yes. It even works with gloves on. But, we found several issues with using the touch screen. If you are going to throw it in a pocket or a pack, the screen must be locked, otherwise, you will never know what screen it will be on when you pull it out. It is difficult to use one handed with gloves on. The wife could only one hand it in her left hand with gloves on. She has small hands. The accuracy of input goes out the window and things like wiping water drops off the screen cause unexpected results.
The 62 and 64 use the same input method. Buttons under the screen. Screen selection and input were old school, but worked right or left handed with gloves or without. Naming waypoints was a pain, but do-able. Naming waypoints on the 600 was easy and fast.
All three units can connect to a tablet or laptop through USB. The 62 and the 64 have the ability to be connected to an external antenna. All three support internal microSD cards for mapping chips. All three have plenty of built in memory for additional mapping products. The 600 and the 64 support GPS and GloNASS satellites, though GloNASS was turned off by default on the 600. All three can store more tracks and waypoints than you are likely to generate in a year.
The bottom line is the 64 and the 600 are both good units. They will both do what needs doing. The wife and I prefer the 62/64 and the Daughter is getting the 600 for Christmas. We will return the 600 if she doesn't like it and get her a 64s if she wants one, and she probably will.
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