Anybody help me on GPS systems?
 

Hi, so for xmas i wanted a bike gps. Many people i ride with have them and i still use a route slip. I was wondering what exactly does it do? Will it do turn by turn routes for me? I am kinda confused :p
I was looking at the garmin, particularly the edge 500. Is it worth it? Is it that much better than the 200? Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

Yes, turn by turn is available. I'd go Garmin 800. Look at this review.

One basic function that the Edge units share is the ability to record your route and other ride data. When you get home you can upload it to your computer and see the route on a map and see your speed, elevation, etc. at points along the route.

The Edge 500 can show a route on the screen and your position along it. You lay the route out on your computer and download to the device. It has no map or database so won't show roads or landmarks and does not tell you when to turn. For example, if you see the route take a sharp right on screen, turn right. If you don't, you'll see that you're off the route and need to find your way back on to it.

The 800 has maps so will show roads and landmarks. Like auto GPSs you can put in a address or search for something in it's database and it will navigate you to it with turn by turn instructions. It chooses the route in this case, which is often not the route you would choose, so what most do is lay the route out on their computer and download to the device. The 800 will show this route on the map and provide turn by turn instructions giving you warning ahead of time that a turn is coming up and showing a diagram of the upcoming turn, similar to auto GPSs.

There are other training functions and features as well.

I have the Garmin 705 with maps. I rarely use the maps but they have come in handy when I needed the nearest store for water etc when on a long-distance ride. I have had my 705 for three years now and it is used 3x a week. Still holds a charge for over 10 hours of use. Highly recommended.

GPS routing works OK if there's nothing to confuse it. Last time I used mine, three of us used "majority rules" or "the cue sheet says" at a number of not-quite-across the road intersections. It was remarkable how many times one would route us left, when the correct route was right, 100', then left, or vice-versa.

Personally, if I was going for a GPS-enabled computer, I'd get the Edge 800 (or the 705, if you can still find one) or nothing. Why? Because the other Garmin devices allow you to upload rides and see where you've been and record speed, cadence (with the appropriate sensor), etc. But they're not of any help to you if you get diverted from a route and need turn-by-turn directions or if you just want to explore a course someone else has done. If you get a 705 or 800, it will last you for years and you won't need anything else. I also like being able to call up all the navigation waypoints on my ride before I get to them so I know what I'm up against.

As far as the comments on turn by turn directions, generally if you feed a Garmin an address, it should give you the same turn by turn directions as anyone else's. Things can sometimes get different when you import a .GPX file that others have mapped if you start in a place that's slightly different from the beginning of the .GPX map recorded by the other person.

Go with the 705 or 800, with a Cadence sensor and you won't regret it. I also find heart-rate training valuable, but you may or may not want that. You can always buy the HR strap later.

I was leaning toward not getting the 800 though because its rather pricey

I bought my 705 on eBay in 2010 (refurbished) for $300. Its been perfect and came with the heart rate and cadence add-ons.

One of the "problems" with the Edge 700 and 800s is that they don't come with maps and the maps from Garmin are expensive. There are people who have successfully used open source maps (although I don't have a link right now).

Another alternative is to use an old android phone and get a program that caches the maps (Google maps now does upon request).

Cheers,
Charles

This is not entirely true. There is a mapping site (I believe it is ridewithgps) that will tell you to turn. It is an overlay that pops up, much like the lap time overlay, or auto pause overlay you see. I have only tested it around my neighborhood (and it was several months ago), and it worked decently well. The command to turn came on AT the turn, not before. That was the only real issue. Maybe in the months since I have used it they have fixed that. Not saying it is on the level of what the 800 has, or that it is even that great, but it is there if you need it. I find, in general, I don't need turn-by-turn where I ride.

EDIT: Here is ridewithgps tips and tricks for the 500.
http://ridewithgps.com/edge_500

Good point. I have used BikeRouteToaster to create TCX courses and it does similar. It automatically puts in a turn warning a fixed distance before a turn and at the turn (which is really too late) but it just says there's a turn, not the direction or the name of the road. I'll have to try RWGPS...

I have always wondered about these GPS devices. There must be millions out there just by Garmin alone. When do these satellites run out of the ability to track each one? Will there be a time of over saturation? Or does Garmin just shoot more satellites into orbit to handle the traffic here?

GPS satellites don't/can't track the GPS units. The satellites broadcast signals that the GPS receivers pick up, which allows the GPS receiver to determine where it is. The satellites have no way of knowing where the GPS receivers are. They just orbit and broadcast their signals.

You can get GPS units that also transmit their location to different satellites (not GPS satellites) for the purposes of tracking. This is a service you pay for and is used by trucking companies, trains and other commercial operators. Your Garmin Edge or typical auto GPS can't do this.

The GPS satellites are put up by the US military. There is a EU system (Galileo) and a Russian system (Glonass) too.

I'm in the market for a dedicated GPS as well. Right now I'm using my Android with the "Cue Sheet" app coupled with "Ride with GPS" for mapping rides. It works but it's clunky. No voice prompts and the tracking is really slow. If they could make this work with Google Navigator Garmin would go out of business. ( I own a Garmin car GPS and Google Navagator beats it hands down )

As it stands Garmin looks like it is the only one offering voice turn by turn. I could get by without voice prompt as long as there is a tone warning before the turn and the tracking is fast. That I could deal with. If the Garmin 500 offered that I'd be on in real quick. I'd like to keep the purchase under $200 though. Ebay might be my best bet.

Garmin Edge units do not have voice, they just beep. You need to look at the display to see which way to turn etc..

Then that's why I pay for a subscription to my SPOT?

yes, SPOT is paying for time on satellites that pick up a transmission from your device.

Thanks for pointing that out. Somewhere along the line I got the impression that the 705 and 800 both had voice if you bought the maps. The Amazon product description says that the Edge 705 has "spoken" prompts. I just checked their reviews and one of the reviewers pointed out the Amazon description was wrong.

I can deal with just a "beep". Does the beep come before the turn or at the turn? I'd like an advanced warning ( at least a couple hundred feet. )

With a little searching maps for the Garmin 800 can be found quite easily...

But yes, there are open source maps too. Check out http://www.openstreetmap.org/

That is the same exact reason, why I asked for the Garmin Edge 200. Only because of its' GPS capability. For everything else on a bike computer, I am sticking with my Blackburn Delphi 5.0

The 705 and 800, when navigating a route, will alert you to an upcoming turn with a beep and also display a depiction of the your path through the upcoming turn and the name of the street, much like an auto GPS. This alert distance before the turn is based on how "major" the route is and varies from .1 miles to .3 miles in my experience. After a short time/distance the alert ceases and the display reverts to normal until you get within several hundred feet before the turn at which point it beeps again, depicts your path through the upcoming turn, and counts down the distance to the turn.

The Garmin Edge 800 is the most popular garmin bike gps, currently. Garmin already announced the release of the Edge 900, i'd probable wait for that. Take a look at this article.

Personally, the 'specs' for the new functionality in the 900 would not make me wait. I WOULD wait if the 900 offered automatic wifi uploading of my completed rides. If a $100 phone can do this (via Strava) why not a $600 grmin? THE biggest pain with a garmin is the required connection by cable to a PC to upload your rides. I will stick with the trusty 705 until that feature comes out.

The phone isn't actually $100 is it? More likely the price is subsidized by a service contract. Then you need a mount, sensors for speed cadence and heart rate, external battery... And of course they sell way more phones and the market is much more competitive which helps drive the price down.

The only reason for me to get a 900 would be if they fix the shortcoming of the 800, like poor screen, buggy software, needless limitations, etc... And by then phones may be a viable alternative in terms of battery life, weather proofness, etc..

Sure it is:

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/shop/...hone/features/

$99 with no contract. So fo $99 you get wifi, gps, sd card etc - why not on the Garmin? If Garmin does not keep up with the ease of other devices they wil eventually go away. The MAIN reason I have the 705 is the excellent battery life - 10+ hours with screen on. When todays' phones start approacing that kind of 'screen on' (even 5 hours) time so that I can track my speed etc, the phone will do to the Garmin what the iPod did to the Walkman. Garmin has to keep up or fade away. I use my phone and 'endmondo' for short rides (less than an hour) and I LOVE the fact that when the ride is done it automatically appears on the endmondo website.

Also, If I were an 800 user Id be pretty upset that my 'year old' $600 device is soon to be 'an older version'. They should fix the 800 before looking at 900s.