tmasssey's Journal: Inexpensive GPS receiver?

Welcome to my first journal entry! I need some gadget advice, and I thought I'd turn to the /. horde for some help.

I'm looking for an inexpensive GPS receiver to carry with me when I'm mountain biking. I don't think I need any fancy features: I'm not looking for navigation, or even maps. I just want something that will track where I've been and when exactly I was there, with minimal fuss. In fact, I'll probably never look at it while I'm out.

Of course, the other part is that I will dump the data into my computer when I'm done, so that I can track my biking: where did I go, how fast did I go over specific areas, etc. *That* is where I'd like the features. The fancier the software for managing all of this, the better. But the GPS device just needs to be simple. And cheap.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a device that would work well for me? Or even devices I should stay away from? Also, any suggestions on software for working with the data? I'm open to both Windows and Linux software. Even OS X would work, though the only Mac I've got is a G3 iMac running Jaguar.

Thank you very much for any help you could give me!

Garmin Foretrex

[BWJones]

Hey there. So, I believe what you really need is something like the Garmin Foretrex. This [garmin.com] one is cheaper, but this [garmin.com] one has rechargeable batteries and is actually quite nice. My wife uses the 201 for running and such and I have used it for mountain biking.

It should hook up to Windows, though I don't know about Linux and shhhhhh!, don't tell anyone but Garmin is porting their entire software line to OS X!!!! Yeah!

Re:Garmin Foretrex

[nocomment]

I use a Garmin eTrex, and it's really nice. It's an excellent device if you don't need roads and the like. It autosenses when you are indoors so it knows to boost the power. Although it's not really accurate like that, that feature is useful when you need to put it in your pocket. I have another GPS device (that this one replaced) that would stop getting a signal if I put it in my pocket, and then I'd have to stop and wait for it lock on the satellites again (it also dropped a lot when there was really

Re:Garmin Foretrex

[tmasssey]

Do Garmin GPS's support NEMA? From what I've seen, they seem to be proprietary.

Re:Garmin Foretrex

[nocomment]

Yes, they support lots of formats NMEA being one. At least my etrex does, dunno 'bout the others.

Re:Garmin Foretrex

[tmasssey]

I was strongly looking at the eTrex Vista, but I think I've decided on the Timex Bodylink (see my comment below about this). The Timex system will work better for my workout needs, but I was also getting excited by the idea of geocaching, which the watch won't do. So, I might down the road get an eTrex for $90 just for geocaching. However, I might want mapping in that case, in which case I'd be back to looking at the Vista...

Thank you everyone very much for your suggestions and help! It has certainly

the trick

[robi2106]

The real trick you are asking for is the time / speed information. The Garmin eTrax Venture [garmin.com] I have does NOT store anything more than the waypoints. I bought and use 3d Topo USA which is a fabulous program for 3D mapping and works perfectly with my Garmin. I can create a map in Topo and then upload it to the GPS. OR turn on tracking with my GPS and then download the map to see where I went. BUT.... none of the GPS features store how fast I was going at each point. AND none of the tracking features stor

Re:the trick

[nocomment]

The Venture doesn't? mine does [garmin.com] but it's not the venture model.

Re:the trick

[nocomment]

d'oh! nevermind I see what you are saying, mine doesn't do that either.

Re:the trick

[tmasssey]

I don't need speed information in realtime. I just need timestamped waypoints. If I know that it took me 15s to travel 60m, I can then calculate (later) that I was going 9MPH. If I wanted instantaneous speed information, I'd just use a spedometer/odometer on the bike. Having said that, it would be a handy feature. But I was planning on doing all of that in post-processing the data, not in realtime.

Re:the trick

[robi2106]

I agree. I would love to have either time stamped or velocity stamped waypoints. But I don't know of any consumer system that does that. If you are handy with a computer and programming, you might be able to write your own real time recorder that would add the time stamp info to the incommign track data.... but then you would need an attached PDA or similar device to run the program.

jason

Re:the trick

[tmasssey]

You're kidding! GPS is nothing *but* time, and the NEMA format includes a column *for* time. Why would anyone *not* include time information on each trackpoint?!?

Sigh. That undoes the vast majority of the reasons I wanted a GPS in the first place... :( I *know* where I've been: I can read a map. I wanted to track how *fast* I covered that area.

Yes, I could use a stopwatch. But I don't want just start and end time, but time along different aspects of the trip. I guess I could use a lap timer, but

Re:the trick

[robi2106]

Now hold up a sec there.... It may be part of the NEMA protocol but that doesn't mean I have been able to download that data via 3D Topo USA. It might be there, but ignored by my software. I should check into that I suppose..... I woudl do a bit more research on a few GPS specific board / forums before taking my 1/2 assed experience. :-)

jason

Re:the trick

[tmasssey]

Well, I'm pretty sure I've decided how I'm going to go:

Timex Bodylink [timex.com]

It has everything I want: 3D GPS tracking, simple download to the PC, tracking of location, speed, altitude, ascent/descent rate, NMEA output *plus* heartrate tracked at the same time.

I've been using my wife's heart rate monitor (a Polar F5), and I've been planning on buying one for myself. Now, I get everything at once. And I got a great price on it: $172 for everything but the data recorder. The recorder goes for less than $5

Re:the trick

[tmasssey]

If anyone cares, I went ahead and bought the Timex Ironman Bodylink. It's pretty cool: it tracks speed, distance, heart rate and time, and gives you that data in a variety of ways: instant speed/heart rate, avg. speed/heart rate, total distance, etc. It has a variety of lap timers for time and distance as well.

It's fairly straightforward to use, and gives you just about all of the data you might want for such a purpose. There are only a couple of things that (so far) I miss having on the watch:

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