which GPS??

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which GPS??

Post by popsandme »

m thinking of getting a handheld GPS so i can plot my movements (not bowel movements) in the field so it will give me at least half a chance of not covering the same part of the field over and over without realising, and to help me see where the "hotspots" are.... i aint got stacks of cash so the likes of the GEKO 210 are out of the question, i seem to remember puffin recommended a cheap one in maplins but cant quite remember which one...so its over to you fellas......
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Re: which GPS??

Post by Puffin »

Pops the cheap one I've been playing with is used to add location data to photos and as a track logger. IGatu is the name. You can not see the data, or log a find with the device other then matching the camera and data logger time on a PC at a later date as there is no screen on the data logger. A bit long winded and you need a camera as well.
I think one of the cheaper Garmin handheld GPS units would be a better bet as this gives you a display of the Lat. and Long. or Nation Grid refs.

I put this together a while back, this information should be useful as the cheaper GPS unit have not changed that much.

http://www.forumukdetectornet.co.uk/php ... 92&t=83794
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Re: which GPS??

Post by popsandme »

cheers barry........star!!
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Re: which GPS??

Post by History Hunter »

Most GPS units arn't 100% accurate, so you could miss out on land not covered.

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Re: which GPS??

Post by the barnacle »

thats a great thread barry - i just tried to ocverlay an old map its well hard to match them up.

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Re: which GPS??

Post by Geordie »

the barnacle wrote:thats a great thread barry
Nice one. :g58:

Cheers Barry. :g50:

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Re: which GPS??

Post by jcmaloney »

I use a Garmin E-Trex picked up for bargain on the bay. USB cable from Taiwan and some free software to overlay waypoints on a map.

The first time (and I am a VERY random wanderer) it looked like a drunken spider with inky feet had run all over the map!

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Re: which GPS??

Post by Puffin »

the barnacle wrote:thats a great thread barry - i just tried to overlay an old map its well hard to match them up.

It does take a bit of stretching and pulling, Victorian manual mapping and modern computer mapping tech. coming together is the problem Steve. :g42:

I get about 7 to 15 feet difference in GPS signal accuracy depending on how long the unit is turned on, the available satellites and signal strength. If you put you GPS unit on the window sill for a few hours then down load the data, the track line will move around a far bit, even though the unit has not moved. I mount my unit on the stem of my detector using a bike handle bar mount, so that the screen faces skyward as the receiver is behind the screen.

In most cases the data is good enough for PAS recording to 10 figure NGR. The more money you throw at a GPS unit the better the results.
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Re: which GPS??

Post by PhilD »

There's details on this link re how to set the GPS up, what I used on a survey with Tim Sutherland, don't forget to enable the WAAS :g50:

http://www.atoz.forumukdetectornet.co.u ... %20Tim.pdf
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Re: which GPS??

Post by popsandme »

its looking like a cheap one off of the fleabay, like i said i aint got a stack of cash as ive already taken financial liberties in buying the T2 so the wife wont be too happy if i throw a few hundered squidlies at one of these!!
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Re: which GPS??

Post by philthedigger »

I use a simple Garmin Etrex H with a usb cable and Easy GPS and GPS Visualiser free software and get fantastic results very easily. I also attach photos of finds to the waypoints produced on Google Earth.
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Re: which GPS??

Post by ceasar »

PhilD wrote:There's details on this link re how to set the GPS up, what I used on a survey with Tim Sutherland, don't forget to enable the WAAS :g50:

http://www.atoz.forumukdetectornet.co.u ... %20Tim.pdf

Is the waas now enabled in the UK, I purchased my original one several years ago and remember buying one that was waas enabled only to find out later that at that time this only worked in the USA and not here, its not something I have ever read about since.

When first purchased most find spot reading used to be shown as within 23 to 28ft where as now it often shows at 7 to 8ft, is that what waas does?
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Re: which GPS??

Post by PhilD »

That's a good question Ceasar, a lot of the info on the net is quite old. The best I could find is the link below.

I've just tested mine with the 'normal sky view' changed to 'advanced sky view', both in the 'normal' and 'waas' modes for 15 mins.

It showed 6 metre accuracy in each mode and acquired the same 7 satellites.

In the 'waas' mode it didn't in my opinion download the almanac as discussed on the link below ie no little 'd's appeared in the signal strength bar.

It does mention the almanac can be difficult to download, so whether it is possible or not I don't really know. Be good to see if others can get the little 'd's on the screen.

So possibly the waas mode comes with the same data installed as the normal mode?

Some info off the net;

Garmin info
http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/dgps.htm

GPS Accuracy
''The accuracy figure displayed on your GPS is not an exact value. If it says '10 feet' it does not mean you are within 10 feet of the location you asked the GPS to go to. To know how accurate the GPS is you need to be a mathematician and understand all about HDoP - Horizontal Dilution of Precision! To try and put it simply. Your GPS is accurate for approximately 95% of the time. This means for 5% of the time it could be very inaccurate. When you switch it on and it starts to download the data from the satellites it starts to work out where it is and depending on how many satellites are visible and how good the atmospheric conditions are it will give you an accuracy figure of lets say 30 feet. If you leave it for a few minutes longer this may (or may not) reduce to say 20 feet. Now with the 95% figure you could be within 20 feet of your target but there is a chance you are not. You might be up to 30 feet away. Of course the person who marked the waypoint would have had an accuracy figure too and their error, coupled with yours means you could be 60 feet away! Does all this matter? Not really, if your GPS shows an accuracy of say 18 feet then you can be reasonably confident it is 'about' right but do not take it as a precise figure, it could be 15 feet or as much as 30 feet''.

''If you enable WAAS then you should get an improvement of accuracy as now your GPS should be accurate for 98% of the time. Typically your GPS may give you 10 feet or even less. But be careful, it can sometimes take around 20 minutes to download the data almanac from the EGNOS satellites''.

''You have to get the EGNOS satellite fairly consistently for about 5 minutes to grab the almanac. If it vanishes for a while, as it often does, it'll take another 5 minutes to receive the almanac when the EGNOS satellite comes back into range''.
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Re: which GPS??

Post by ceasar »

This was my understanding of it all when I first read up on it. I purchased my first GPS and read the blurb about waas and thought it applied to the one I had but could not seem to get it to work so I read up a bit more. The gps system is from American military satellites and whilst they have pinpoint accuracy themselves which is how you get a cruise missile to enter an air conditioning duct on a bunker (and they did) they degrade the signal for civilian use. Waas is I 'think' terrestrial and was used to make the measurement more accurate for civilian use but I dont think was military, it was an add on so people could market more accurate products. The usa knew that other countries were in the process of designing and in the future launching their own series of gps satellites, I think the EU and China are perhaps doing this as partners so they released the degraded signal whilst they still had a monopoly to corner the market. Waas I think was only at that time available in North America but to sell highly accurate stuff for oil, diamond, mineral explorations greater accuracy was needed, think of the giant oil drilling ships which have to maintain a high degree of accuracy on the sea surface even in bad weather to within a few feet, its gotta be good for that.

The accuracy of the signal on my garmin has over the years gone from 20+ feet to about 7 or 8 most of the time now so the Americans with an eye on the commercial market and forthcoming competition are gradually allowing the signal to become more accurate but of course can stop this or degrade it again at will and sometimes do so. I dont think we are far off the time when the European gps will be available but the Americans have pretty much got the market cornered at the moment and no doubt the military have moved on by several generations in how they use gps, possibly dont use it at all because the Chinese have now shot down one of their own satellites which they said was in danger of breaking up whilst in fact it was a warning to the usa saying we can knock them down anytime we want, uncle sam will have noted that and moved on to whatever is next by now I would think.

From all this I would presume that in the very near future we will have gps devices with pinpoint accuracy.
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Re: which GPS??

Post by History Hunter »

Try to buy a gps which has EGNOS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_G ... y_Service/ as it's more accurate, WAAS is under US military control and can degrade the service at any time. EGNOS isn't under their control :Biggestgrin:

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