Discussion
what mobile phone do you have? depending what OS it uses you can be away for peanuts.
guy in the office does a lot of walking and has a nokia phone and a wireless gps receiver he bought off ebay. its about the size of an AA battery and cost £20 including postage.
he downloaded a gps program and mapset for the phone, and uses bluetooth to access the gps receiver. job done.
afaik, you can get a program to work with pretty much any recent phone save for LG. i have a viewty which is java only and not supported.
guy in the office does a lot of walking and has a nokia phone and a wireless gps receiver he bought off ebay. its about the size of an AA battery and cost £20 including postage.
he downloaded a gps program and mapset for the phone, and uses bluetooth to access the gps receiver. job done.
afaik, you can get a program to work with pretty much any recent phone save for LG. i have a viewty which is java only and not supported.
sadako said:
I've not known any mobile phone GPS application be able to use ordnance survey maps.
+1, OS dont make their digital data available for mobile GPS applications yet. besides their data is very expensive for large area coverage; OSNI charge £100,000 a year licence for full coverage of Northern Ireland AFAIK (although that licences you to produce your own maps with OS basemapping, perhaps cheaper just on a read-only licence?)It will most likely be Nokia Maps/Google maps etc or something open source like OpenStreetMap, or maybe even pirate copy of tomtom or garmin street mapping.
I have a handheld Garmin GPS but it is an older one with no facility for mapping, but some of the newer garmin stuff has mapping pre-loaded and are pretty good units, check ebay.
I would get a basic GPS for positioning and a stack of OS maps for your £200. I really wouldn't fancy staggering around the top of Scafell relying solely on a 2inch screen (probably greyscale on a sub £200 gadget). I've got an Garmin Etrex Summit and it does everything I want. It was less than £50 on Ebay so I don't worry when I fill it with mud/water/mint cake.
As an aside if you do get a GPS - always take spare batteries, and ideally still take your map in case you drop your GPS down the mountainside.
As an aside if you do get a GPS - always take spare batteries, and ideally still take your map in case you drop your GPS down the mountainside.
Used a previous version of this for the past couple of years mountain biking and walking the hills:
http://www.memory-map.co.uk/how_it_works.htm
I use a HTC Touch mobile phone running Windows mobile and an external Bluetooth GPS receiver. Both work really well and batteries last for ages. Even got me out of a scrape last weekend!!
From what I've been told you have the ability to scan OS maps in and use them somehow, but have the package with all the OS maps I use.
http://www.memory-map.co.uk/how_it_works.htm
I use a HTC Touch mobile phone running Windows mobile and an external Bluetooth GPS receiver. Both work really well and batteries last for ages. Even got me out of a scrape last weekend!!
From what I've been told you have the ability to scan OS maps in and use them somehow, but have the package with all the OS maps I use.
RicksAlfas said:
I would get a basic GPS for positioning and a stack of OS maps for your £200. I really wouldn't fancy staggering around the top of Scafell relying solely on a 2inch screen (probably greyscale on a sub £200 gadget). I've got an Garmin Etrex Summit and it does everything I want. It was less than £50 on Ebay so I don't worry when I fill it with mud/water/mint cake.
As an aside if you do get a GPS - always take spare batteries, and ideally still take your map in case you drop your GPS down the mountainside.
As an aside if you do get a GPS - always take spare batteries, and ideally still take your map in case you drop your GPS down the mountainside.
You need waterproof, shockproof, spare batteries NOT rechargable, and a lot of dry runs in good weather to familiarise yourself with it in an area you know well before tackling something serious.
This might fit the bill http://www.satmap.com/ but at £290 plus teh maps its a bit over budget. ALso while I havnt looked into it recently the Satmap had a lot of issues when it came out .. might have been resolved now but probably worth checking.
I personally use a couple of Garmins, a GPS 60 cx and a Colorado 300. Both are a bit over £200 I think but neither come with anything other than base map as standard so you need to buy the detailed maps from Garmin at extra cost. I think it was about £130 ish for the whole of the UK at what is pretty much OS quality. All the Garmin units are pretty much water and bash proof and teh after sales care is very good ( I had a screen replaced FOC on a 2 year old unit ).
I personally use a couple of Garmins, a GPS 60 cx and a Colorado 300. Both are a bit over £200 I think but neither come with anything other than base map as standard so you need to buy the detailed maps from Garmin at extra cost. I think it was about £130 ish for the whole of the UK at what is pretty much OS quality. All the Garmin units are pretty much water and bash proof and teh after sales care is very good ( I had a screen replaced FOC on a 2 year old unit ).
Mike400 said:
sadako said:
I've not known any mobile phone GPS application be able to use ordnance survey maps.
+1, OS dont make their digital data available for mobile GPS applications yet. besides their data is very expensive for large area coverage; OSNI charge £100,000 a year licence for full coverage of Northern Ireland AFAIK (although that licences you to produce your own maps with OS basemapping, perhaps cheaper just on a read-only licence?)It will most likely be Nokia Maps/Google maps etc or something open source like OpenStreetMap, or maybe even pirate copy of tomtom or garmin street mapping.
I have a handheld Garmin GPS but it is an older one with no facility for mapping, but some of the newer garmin stuff has mapping pre-loaded and are pretty good units, check ebay.
fugawi
Compatible with many Palms and win mobile 5 OSs too
ETA mind you, I only know of the site cos its a great name...not cos of how good the product is in use.
Edited by DrTre on Friday 9th January 16:44
Not quite what you're after, but could be worth a look
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/314493/garmin-gps-6...
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/314493/garmin-gps-6...
Memory Map works with windows CE, so some smart phones do support it either with built in GPS or bluetooth thingame. All the details on the memory website someone linked to above.
I've got a Road Angel 7000 which runs a very odd version of windows CE in the background. I use it for green laning etc.
The memeory map software on the PC recognises it as a portable device and instals the software and maps. Bit fiddly with the licensing on the latest version, but still pretty easy to use.
You can then sync it with your PC at home and store all your routes. Keeps track of speed, altitude etc. Quite handy.
I've got a Road Angel 7000 which runs a very odd version of windows CE in the background. I use it for green laning etc.
The memeory map software on the PC recognises it as a portable device and instals the software and maps. Bit fiddly with the licensing on the latest version, but still pretty easy to use.
You can then sync it with your PC at home and store all your routes. Keeps track of speed, altitude etc. Quite handy.
sadako said:
I've not known any mobile phone GPS application be able to use ordnance survey maps.
..
Nokia smart phones.
Running GMobileXT (Garmin Mobile).
This has the ability to either stay on roads, of ignore roads.
So I can plot a co-ordinate to the middle of the Sahara or the middle of the North Sea if needed.
I actually have both Tomtom and Garmin on the N95.
the Tomtom uses an external bluetooth GPS for receiving the satt. signals.
Whilethe Garmin makes use of the built in Satt. receiver.
Tomtom is easier to use, but garmin maps seem better.
My 2p
I use a garmin vista HCx, got it for £150, I had a mono screen before with no topo info. Make sure you get UK basemaps, not US - a lot of ebay sellers are selling US units.
I use it with memory map. it doesn't have OS mapping but it has roads, lakes, rivers etc. It's excellent, battery life is superb, mapping is easy and it makes walking in blizzards so much easier! Plot the route on memory map, upload via USB and you're away, accuracy to 6ft out on the hill. Bike mount is available too which is very useful for speed, distance and getting lost!
There are new units around that have OS maps, if you can afford it I imagine they are very good.
http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/...
If you need any advice drop me a line.
Edit: just to add: memory maps and any OS maps are very expensive!
I use it with memory map. it doesn't have OS mapping but it has roads, lakes, rivers etc. It's excellent, battery life is superb, mapping is easy and it makes walking in blizzards so much easier! Plot the route on memory map, upload via USB and you're away, accuracy to 6ft out on the hill. Bike mount is available too which is very useful for speed, distance and getting lost!
There are new units around that have OS maps, if you can afford it I imagine they are very good.
http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/...
If you need any advice drop me a line.
Edit: just to add: memory maps and any OS maps are very expensive!
Edited by chrisk on Friday 9th January 18:42
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