Yeah, i think you're right there Tony. My backyard in Baton Rouge had a tree line that was about 40 feet deep to a drainage ditch, and it was LOADED with poison ivy. I never got it, though i'm sure i was rolling around in it at some point. I know last week's first geocache... i MUST have had contact with it, i was sliding down rivines and grabbing onto all sorts of plants. Well, regardless, i'm not gonna push it, i'm still gonna avoid the stuff. I'm going to do this geocache tomorrow... which is supposed to have Poison Oak everywhere, so i'll be on the lookout.

Doot doot...

You can now order the City Select update. It actually doesn't cost a cent for the CD or shipping, but if you want to actually do anything with it, you'll have to purchase an unlock code after you get it. (Unless you unlocked your V on or after 4/22/02, of course.)

http://www.garmin.com/unlock/index.html

Details:

• Full coverage for metropolitan and rural areas throughout the United States!
• Updated mapping detail for the United States with coverage of Canada
• Updated points of interest - to include over 5 million business listings. New categories such as movie theatres, campgrounds, post offices and more.

Alex

Sweeeet. Ordered that sucker. They won't [censored] until 6/24 though... bah.

Wow, that's a long time to hold it in.










(Yes, I'm aware it was an unfortunate typo. I couldn't resist.)

LMAO... that's hilarious. I had no idea i'd typed that. Wow... i must type shit more than ship... nice slip. hahah.

Ok, when this thread appeared, I was still in my expensive GPS mode of going the route of an in car system, complete with DIN sized LCD, etc.

But, I now realise that idea will be quite expensive for the little I will use it in car. So, I'm looking at the Garmin products now to decide on one for car, motorcycle, and possibly portable use. I had an impressive demo of the StreetPilot III thanks to the trip to Dionysus's new apartment at the empeg meet. How does the GPS V compare to the StreetPilot III for navigation? I'm assuming pretty close. Beyond the color screen, and some extra "portable" features on the V (like the sun/moon screen), how do the units differ?

And lastly, battery life. How many batteries would I need to look into if I plan on using one of the above units all day on my motorcycle?

OK...

The StreetPilot III is awesome, mainly, IMO, because of the color screen. It just makes it sorta easier to make stuff out. As far as navigation goes, i believe they are exactly similiar. The V gives you the arrows and a visual representation of what you're supposed to be doing. Where the V gives you beeps to notify of turns, the StreetPilot has got the advantage of voice prompting, however, i'm not sure how well this would work. Sometimes these things give you directions too late, and then start giving a slew of directions as they catch up with themselves.

What i like about the V though, is its size. This makes the screen smaller, but i think its worth it, and anyways, you get used to it. I'd say if you were planning on mounting it on your bike, the V would be easier. I'm sure you could get the StreetPilot mounted, but it might be a distraction.

The streetpilot also gives the advantage of the 32mb memory card, on to which you can add as much as 96 more MB. The V only comes with 19mb. On my V, i have all of LA, San Bernadino, Orange, and San Diego Counties loaded. LA county took the most space at 7 mb, so take it from there. If your'e planning on doing a lot of traveling, you might need the extra memory. But if not, i think the 19 is plenty. Plus, its not like you're screwed if you don't have the residential level detail, but it IS nice to know where all of the Dairy Queens are around you.

As far as battery life goes, i'd say i've put about 12 hours of life on the alkalines that i put in there when i got the V, and its still going, but it won't let me turn on the backlight (which kicks ass by the way, however, i think the color screen out does it). I'm planning on getting some rechargeables from thomasdistributing.com. I know the V has the option to choose weather you're using NiCads or Lithium Ions. I'd go to the boards on geocaching.com , they have a cool hardware forum where thats a talked about subject.

Anyhow, i hope this helped. For me, doing all the research about them was half the fun of buying one. I'm totally stoked with my V, and i think Loren will agree with me that V is a kicksass toy. Its got its drawbacks, but its still being improved. They just recently put out a nice firmware update. Also, i think with the V you can get a nice little deal where you get the unlock codes for the whole US for an extra 50 bucks. Pretty nice.

PM me if you have questions.

Having never played with the III, i can't really comment other than to say I love the Garmin V. The more i use it, the more little subtle cool things and shortcuts i find. I used it this weekend plenty... namely to find the Ghost Town geocache down near San Jose... check out my pics!

The only negatives i've found are that the screen can be a little hard to read in the car if it's not mounted at the right angle, and that the screen redraw can be a little slow... all stuff we've hashed over in this thread already. But the size and low price makes up for it's negatives. I pocket it and walk with it all the time. Someone told me they saw one online for $320 the other day!

The battery life is pretty good.. supposed to be 25 hours without the backlight. I haven't left them in long enough to have them run out since i rechard my NiMH batteries after each geocache. The last firmware upgrade added support for NiMH and a couple of others as well as the NiCads and Lithium Ions.

The StreetPilot III is awesome...

Yes it is. I've had it for a little over a month now and I absolutely love it.

The voice prompting is just right, it warns you a few times before you get to a turn (i.e. "Turn left in 1.7 miles" .... "Turn left in 300 feet") so it's never too late.

I was originally going to get a V, but after thinking about it and realizing that the main reason I'd be getting one was for navigation in the car, I thought it better to get one that was better suited to be a "navigator," not having to look at it all the time, and just be (yet another) distraction.

I knew the V was small, but wasn't really sure how small until I saw it the other day at Best Buy. Wow, talk about hand-held. I was expecting it to be kind of bulky.

One of you guys should take a picture of it to show the relative size.

Here's a pic with a quarter on it for reference.

Same here, went and saw it as Best Buy last night (though I won't buy it there, $450 or so was their price), and it is quite small. It will probably work out best for the motorcycle and portable use.

Time to find the best place to order it. I think I saw one for $370 with overnight shipping, time to dig into my history.

this is where i got mine... they shipped it overnight for $8 too!!! Great service.

Looks about the same size as my 3+. Small enough to take anywhere without a hassle, large enough to still be functional

Hmm, they quoted $27 for me on overnight service, I must be farther away from their shipping point.

I did find the retailer from yesterday, they give free ground shipping, and are only 60 miles away, so it's overnight for me. But they are out of stock.

I'm still browsing the list of online retailers Garmin maintains.

edit: Just bought it for $375 shipped overnight. Now to impatiently wait for it, and pick up a motorcycle mount for it locally.
(second edit, typo in my price)

Wow, how'd you get it for $275?

right on man,

you'll have tons of fun with that thing. I got practical use out of it the first night i got it. You should check out Geocaching, you might like it. Also, make sure to get the firmware update once you get your unit, although, i'm sure you knew.

and check out the new geocaching "game": Benchmark Hunting

oooooohh.
didn't know about that one, i'll have to try that out.

I got around to finally playing with my GPS V today, and I definitly like it so far. One complaint, my dash is anti sticky. I ended up having to buy some 3M mounting tape to get the base to stay put, and it's still a bit loose. Though I can't hold that against Garmin.

I also grabbed the handlebar mount from a local store (They had the GPS III for sale, and the accessories were for the GPS II, I think they need to update their stock :-). Finally got it on my motorcycle after a bit of decision making, and it works out well. (I had to mount it on the left side, due to the middle part of the bar having a big bolt head keeping the mounting kit from getting around the bar). I let it lead me on a trip to Garden of the Gods, and was amazed it had all the small roads for the park in it. Unfortunatly the turn notification sound is worthless on the bike, but since it has some tweaks for the turn notifications, it should work well as long as I look at it from time to time.

I wish the ETA to next turn would update based off the recent average speed, since it kept saying I'd be somewhere earlier then rush hour traffic would allow.

I figure I might try out the handheld GPS functionality tomorrow by visiting a Geocache.

And in case other owners missed it, 2.05 of the software came out on the 11th, download it here http://www.garmin.com/products/gps5/download.html

Software update! Thanks.. didn't notice it.

Did you try the temporary adhesive? It's like super thick sticky tac... i'd say it works better than their permanent adhesive disks.

Drakino,

out of curiosity, what sort of motorcycle mount did you get and how exactly does it hold the unit? I'm looking to get some sort of GPS device in the next couple of months mainly to put on my bike, but also to use in the car if necessary. Since I have a Gold Wing, I can probably put it on the bars, on the false gas tank, somewhere on the inside fairing, on top of the dash, or all sorts of places. I'd like to see how other people are doing it to see if I can narrow down my options a little.

Here's a Garmin question for you guys:

Does the Garmin V (or others) allow pedestrian directions (e.g. ignoring one way streets) and car directions (with directionality in mind) as a mode?

Calvin

I got the Garmin handlebar mount. It looks like this:


The bracket is what holds the GPS, and detaches from the ring that fits arounf the handlebar. It comes with two pieces of rubber that get put on the inside of the ring, and a screw to hold the ring shut. It hold it in place well, and the rubber helps to mimimise vibrations on a motorcycle. It's probably the best place to mount it, since you hand can easially press any of the buttons without moving far from the grips. The kit is ment for a bycycle, motorcycle, ATV, snowmobile, or similar devices. The GPS V is waterproofed enough to allow it to survuve even if your caught in the rain.

If you want, I'll take a picture of mine tonight when I get home.

And Geocaching is awesome. I hit 3 sites yesterday, 2 with a friend. I got him hooked, and will probably be getting my roomate into it as well.

Yeah, I'd like to see a picture on your bike, if possible. Some more questions. Did you look at the RAM mounts (http://www.ram-mount.com/)? Any advantage this would have over the RAM mount. How much does the Garmin bracket cost?

Lets see:

GPS with the mount attached http://riocar.org/upload/empegbbs/motogps1.jpg
GPS mounted on the bike, riders view http://riocar.org/upload/empegbbs/motogps2.jpg
GPS mount that is visible on the handlebar http://riocar.org/upload/empegbbs/motogps3.jpg
And the backside of the mount http://riocar.org/upload/empegbbs/motogps4.jpg

I looked at the RAM mounts, their advantage seems to be the ability to move the GPS once it's attached. Though in this case, the position is fine. Plus, the RAM mounts don't seem to have anything to reduce the vibration. The rubber insert into the part that goes around the bar seems to work as both a spacer and vibration reducer.

Yeah, I like what I've seen about the RAM mounts, but I don't know so much about that U-bolt handlebar mounting part. Maybe it actually works well in real life, I don't know.

as far as i know... nope. It does have "off road" mode... but that's not the same. Interesting point though...

Having used the RAM mounts on my last boat and new boat, I can say they are very good. The ball that the RAM mount mounts to is rubber coated to reduce sending the shock through to whatever it's mounted to.
I had my old Garmin III+ mounted on my old boat and this big Lowrance LCX-15 on my new boat with a 1" RAM mount. Though I am considering switching to the 1 1/2" ball for the bigger Lowrance unit. Attached is a picture of the unit you can't see the RAM but you can get an idea of how big a unit can be on a RAM mount. I also have my camcorder mounted occasionally to the boat with 5" RAM arm...

The ball that the RAM mount mounts to is rubber coated to reduce sending the shock through to whatever it's mounted to.

Ahh, cool. Hadn't come across that. Though on my motorcycle, the handlebar mount works great since I really don't need it any higher, and the mount left behind on the bike is unobtrusive.