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singleton · 02-28-2004

Couple nights ago I bought a Garmin Geko 201 GPS.

My first impressions:
- Small and light, fits in a coat pocket easily.

- Waterproof.

- 500 waypoints (more than enough for me)

- It even has some games builtin which I've yet to try.

- The GPS even comes equipped with WAAS mode.

- Price is right

- Nice backlit display (you can turn the light on and off while the GPS is on...and you can set how long it stays on for)

- It can even take note of elevation level which I thought was pretty cool

the downsides to it:
- No antenna jack (wasn't that big of deal for me because I didn't want one)

- If you want to connect it to a laptop you require a special Garmin proprietary "data" cable (garmin<->serial) because it uses a special 4 contact design on it. Too bad it doesn't have 9 pin serial. This wouldn't be so bad if the adapter was cheap but it costs $50 CAN (!) from Radio Shack. For $10 more you can get the car cig lighter adapter for it too, to run it off your car not AAA batteries.

- Accuracy. With WAAS enabled, I went out on a clear blue sky day in my backyard for 15 minutes and it still has trouble. This was with no trees around :P I'd see it ocassionally dip to 19 feet, but it averaged around 30 feet accuracy.

My final thoughts:
It'd make a great GPS for those who don't need (or want) a ton of features. The price is right so it'd make a great tool for Geocaching and hiking as accuracy isn't that important (when you're in the bush, 30 feet isn't that big of a deal). Had I known about the data adapteer I might not have bought it. I will need a serial<->usb adapter anyhow as that is all my laptop has. For less than the cost of the Geko 201 + data adapter I could have bought a Magellan SPORTRAK MAP unit or a Garmin eTrex venture (apparently this Garmin comes "With PC interface cables").

I'm not too sure about Radio Shack's return policy but if they let you return items money back I will most likely return it and choose one of the other two GPS units I've mentioned.

02-28-2004	#1 (permalink)
singleton Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 32	Bought a Garmin Geko 201... Couple nights ago I bought a Garmin Geko 201 GPS. My first impressions: - Small and light, fits in a coat pocket easily. - Waterproof. - 500 waypoints (more than enough for me) - It even has some games builtin which I've yet to try. - The GPS even comes equipped with WAAS mode. - Price is right - Nice backlit display (you can turn the light on and off while the GPS is on...and you can set how long it stays on for) - It can even take note of elevation level which I thought was pretty cool the downsides to it: - No antenna jack (wasn't that big of deal for me because I didn't want one) - If you want to connect it to a laptop you require a special Garmin proprietary "data" cable (garmin<->serial) because it uses a special 4 contact design on it. Too bad it doesn't have 9 pin serial. This wouldn't be so bad if the adapter was cheap but it costs $50 CAN (!) from Radio Shack. For $10 more you can get the car cig lighter adapter for it too, to run it off your car not AAA batteries. - Accuracy. With WAAS enabled, I went out on a clear blue sky day in my backyard for 15 minutes and it still has trouble. This was with no trees around :P I'd see it ocassionally dip to 19 feet, but it averaged around 30 feet accuracy. My final thoughts: It'd make a great GPS for those who don't need (or want) a ton of features. The price is right so it'd make a great tool for Geocaching and hiking as accuracy isn't that important (when you're in the bush, 30 feet isn't that big of a deal). Had I known about the data adapteer I might not have bought it. I will need a serial<->usb adapter anyhow as that is all my laptop has. For less than the cost of the Geko 201 + data adapter I could have bought a Magellan SPORTRAK MAP unit or a Garmin eTrex venture (apparently this Garmin comes "With PC interface cables"). I'm not too sure about Radio Shack's return policy but if they let you return items money back I will most likely return it and choose one of the other two GPS units I've mentioned.