MEPIS Community Forum

I have now been using my Garmin 405 quite a while. I like it, but it has 2 limitations, 1) the battery life is probably too short for a really long ride or a multi-day ride without opportunity to recharge and 2) sometimes I want something more like a car's GPS that would map a ride in advance and show you where to turn --- at some point I might get a larger unit that would display a map, or use a smartphone or android device to do that. With a larger device, you could also upload GPS data on the route you want to take and have the device display a map -- for example, maps from Adventure Cycling (ACA).

See my posts on page 1. A Garmin eTrex unit will do the job. Battery life on my Vista Cx is more than 2 full days cycling using 2300mAH rechargeables. I haven't used my microSD card to upload maps to the unit, but friends have. Some eTrex models come with detailed maps.

I regularly upload waypoints and routes (I'm just preparing them for 12 days in the Hebrides in 3 weeks time). I limit these to turn points with straight lines between, which works fine for road cycling. I have the Garmin set to beep 30m before the waypoint, which gives me time to glance at the display. The base map in the Garmin shows most of the roads I use.

I have uploaded full tracks for odd day rides, but I ran into capacity limits when I tried the 17-day, 950-mile trip from Lands End to John O'Groats. The system worked well - we only pulled the maps out of the bag to check details about 4 or 5 time in the 17 days.

Phil