Which GPS

Quoted message said:

How does it cope with addresses which do not have a road
reference in

them?

Not had to go to one of those as yet, Roger, but I imagine
it will cope poorly if at all. What have you in mind? A farm
or similar? I can simply type in a district and street name
or put a post code in and it will then give me all the
streets in that area to pick from but ultimately you have to
tell it a road or street. It let me down for the first time
today when it didn't know an address on what looked like a
new development, but then I discovered the houses went up
six years ago! That's the first miss out of about forty
addresses I've searched for though so a very good hit rate.

--
Dave Newton

Lake District walk&image site daves-lakeland-daves-lakeland-Open ↗
mountains.co.uk

Paul Saunders said:

Adrian Godwin said:

The maps are reasonably interesting but aren't any
substitute for printed maps (or even computerised copies
of printed maps).

real map study should be done before the walk, with
appropriate waypoints uploaded to the GPS. Having studied
the maps in advance and plotted the necessary waypoints,
there is often no further need to consult the map (except
in special circumstances).

True, but you carry the map in case you need to re-plan a
route. The GPS map might then make entering new waypoints
easier (it becomes feasible to put them in with a cursor on
the map screen instead of by painfully entering them using
grid refs).

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Details such as following footpaths is feasible,

I don't know why people keep banging on about footpaths, I
don't expect to see any (or many) of these on a GPS topo
map, I'd be happy just to see contours and streams.

They're important if you mostly walk in agricultural land,
and it isn't always obvious where they're headed without a
map. Even on open ground, they can be helpful in choosing a
good route over steep areas.

However, you'll probably be happy with the level of water
detail - it's pretty good. The contours are adequate for
showing what height change to expect but probably not
detailed enough to find a safe route over a steep section.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

We're a long way from 1m wide, 300dpi LCD screens, and if
you had one you wouldn't want to carry it !

No I wouldn't. But I'm perfectly happing wandering around
with a non-mapping GPS with nothing more than a few
waypoints entered in advance. A little bit of topo detail
would be a welcome and useful extra, not something to be
criticised because it isn't as good as a paper map.

No, I didn't expect it to be - I'm just trying to ensure
that other buyers don't have unrealistic expectations
(especially if they're influenced into the purchase of a
particular receiver).

-adrian

In article <[email hidden]>, Peter Clinch

url=''URL:/url said:

GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote:

[snip]

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

You can't .. there is no 'backlight stays off' option as
far as I can see. You can have 'stays on for 15 seconds,
30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes' or 'stays on forever'.
'Stays off' is not an option (presumably because you'd
never be able to see to turn it on again in the dark).

What version of the software do you have? (it should tell
you on the Setup menu) Looking at the current manual it
says, "If the lighting conditions make it hard for you to
see the screen, you can adjust the contrast or turn on the
backlight. Press and release the POWER button from any
screen to turn on the backlight".

Current software revision on the basic eTrex is 2.14, I
don't know about the others.

Pete.

My understanding from observations of my Garmin Summit when
navigating with it at night, is that once the backlight has
been activated once through a press on the POWER button,
then it will be activated for all subsequent button presses
of all kinds. It also automatically activates whenever an
information menu box pops up such as for loss of satellites,
or for hold level in compass mode.

If you don't press the POWER button to activate the
backlight in the first place, then it does not activate when
you press other buttons.

I've not done extensive tests but I think my Geko 301
behaves in a similar way to the Summit.

Mike <URL:http://www.path.cam.ac.uk/~mrc7/>
--
o/ \\ // |\ ,_ o Mike Clark <\__,\\ // __o | \ / /\, "A
mountain climbing, cycling, skiing, "> || _`\<,_ |__\ \>
| immunology lecturer, antibody engineer and ` || (_)/
(_) | \corn computer user"

The message <[email hidden]>
from "Dave Newton" <[email hidden]> contains these words:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How does it cope with addresses which do not have a road
reference in

them?

Quoted message said:

Not had to go to one of those as yet, Roger, but I imagine
it will cope poorly if at all. What have you in mind? A
farm or similar? I can simply type in a district and
street name or put a post code in and it will then give me
all the streets in that area to pick from but ultimately
you have to tell it a road or street. It let me down for
the first time today when it didn't know an address on
what looked like a new development, but then I discovered
the houses went up six years ago! That's the first miss
out of about forty addresses I've searched for though so a
very good hit rate.

Farms and ex farms I particularly had in mind as they often
do not have a very specific address but any country property
is likely to have a vague address compared to a town
property. I live within the bounds Bradford Met but neither
my address nor the the 2 farms that share the same postcode
have a road in their proper address (per voters list)
although I add a road to my address when I quote it and one
of my neighbours changes the area to lessen confusion.

You can try my address if you like - Clay Hall Farm, Marley,
Keighley. Before the Aire Valley Trunk Road was built Marley
had hardly any public road within its boundaries.

--
Roger Chapman so far this year 34 summits New - 18 (Marilyns
6, Sweats 1, Outlying Fells 11) Repeats - 16( Marilyns 5,
Sweats 11, Wainwrights 11) Knackered knee - 4 times

Quoted message said:

You can try my address if you like - Clay Hall Farm,
Marley, Keighley. Before the Aire Valley Trunk Road was
built Marley had hardly any public road within its
boundaries.

No, it failed at that address. Difficult without a street
name to home in on although I can elect to show a map of the
area which looked quite comprehensive. It showed me Marley
Street in Keighly.

--
Dave Newton

Lake District walk&image site daves-lakeland-daves-lakeland-Open ↗
mountains.co.uk

Mike Clark said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Peter Clinch

url=''URL:/url said:

GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

You can't .. there is no 'backlight stays off' option
as far as I can see. You can have 'stays on for 15
seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes' or 'stays on
forever'. 'Stays off' is not an option (presumably
because you'd never be able to see to turn it on again
in the dark).

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

What version of the software do you have? (it should tell
you on the Setup menu) Looking at the current manual it
says, "If the lighting conditions make it hard for you to
see the screen, you can adjust the contrast or turn on
the backlight. Press and release the POWER button from
any screen to turn on the backlight".

Current software revision on the basic eTrex is 2.14, I
don't know about the others.

Quoted message said:

My understanding from observations of my Garmin Summit when
navigating with it at night, is that once the backlight has
been activated once through a press on the POWER button,
then it will be activated for all subsequent button presses
of all kinds. It also automatically activates whenever an
information menu box pops up such as for loss of
satellites, or for hold level in compass mode.

Quoted message said:

If you don't press the POWER button to activate the
backlight in the first place, then it does not activate
when you press other buttons.

Quoted message said:

I've not done extensive tests but I think my Geko 301
behaves in a similar way to the Summit.

Exactly. And you can turn off the backlight when it is on,
and keep it off despite any subsequent key presses, by
pressing the power button when it is on. And you can find
out if the backlight is switched on when it is too bright to
see it by checking the display page which has the little
electric bulb icon which shows whether the backlight is
active or inactive.

It may be that these backlight controlling functions of the
power button require a longer press, rather like the longer
press of the PAGE button for controlling the compass (on
those which have it). It may also be that it remembers
whether you like backlight on or off through power cycles.

My guess is that you accidentally switched on the
backlight when powering up by holding it down for too
long, or pressing it twice. Just like those folk who
switch on their compasses on those which have them, don't
realise it, and don't know how to switch them off, and
then moan to all the newsgroups about how the compass eats
up your batteries horribly.

I'm sure all this is explained in the manual, that book
thing that came in the box with the GPSR.

--
Chris Malcolm [email hidden] +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
["]http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

In article <[email hidden]>,
Tim Jackson <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Me? But I'm not in south Wales, just go walking there.

We know when you've been here - deep footprints ! :-)

(Runs and Ducks)

We must try to co-ordinate these walks, that is if you want
to.
--
Bill Grey billboy.co.ukbillboy.co.ukOpen ↗

In article <[email hidden]>, Roger
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

How does it cope with addresses which do not have a road
reference in them?

A pal of mine showed me his set-up, it needed a house
number but
couldn't recognise a house name. When it got to our road
it just said
"you've arrived at your destination". My place doesn't
have a number.
--
Bill Grey billboy.co.ukbillboy.co.ukOpen ↗

W. D. Grey wrote on Mon, 28 Jun 2004 23:18:40 +0100....

Quoted message said:

We must try to co-ordinate these walks, that is if you
want to.

Yes, we should sometime.

--
Tim Jackson [email hidden] (Change
'.invalid' to '.co.uk' to reply direct) Absurd patents:
visit patent.freeserve.co.ukpatent.freeserve.co.ukOpen ↗

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
Roger <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

How does it cope with addresses which do not have a road
reference in them?

A pal of mine showed me his set-up, it needed a house
number but
couldn't recognise a house name. When it got to our road it
just said
"you've arrived at your destination". My place doesn't have
a number.

Neither does mine. Most confusingly No.1 is the fourth house
up from the end. How anyone ever finds us is a mystery.
Especially since the local street map shows my road name
attached to a service road at the back - that leads
nowhere...
--
Fran If you need my email address please ask.

GSV Three Minds in a Can said:

Bitstring <[email hidden]>, from the
wonderful person Dave Newton
<[email hidden]> said

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How does it cope with addresses which do not have a road
reference in

them?

Not had to go to one of those as yet, Roger, but I imagine
it will cope poorly if at all. What have you in mind? A
farm or similar? I can simply type in a district and
street name or put a post code in and it will then give me
all the streets in that area to pick from but ultimately
you have to tell it a road or street. It let me down for
the first time today when it didn't know an address on
what looked like a new development, but then I discovered
the houses went up six years ago! That's the first miss
out of about forty addresses I've searched for though so a
very good hit rate.

Try "The Three Horseshoes, Wheathill, Bridgnorth". That's
one that usually gets the delivery drivers wandering around
Bridgnorth looking for a road called Wheathill. I am sure
you could do it (to the nearest mile either way) given the
postcode (WV16 6QT).

Especially as the boozer is west of the pass and definitely
more Ludlow oriented than Bridgnorth.

Good place to stop off when traversing the Clees!

Richard Webb