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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Mailing List Archives |
| Subject: | Re: [gislist] Hand held GPS |
| Date: |
05/20/2005 12:30:01 PM |
| From: |
Richard Ash |
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Rick, Virginia, David, list
1. In regards, to running ArcPad on a PDA:
The price of the consumer grade PDAs are very affordable but the main
complaints I constantly hear are poor battery life, ease of data loss and
very limited environmental resistance (moisture, dust, heavy bumps/drops)
can yield those systems as very limited.
There is an environmentally solid PDA called the Recon
(http://www.tdsway.com/products/recon) which nicely answers these short
comings, and relative to the price of its extra robustness is reasonably
priced (especially for professional use). It has a 15 hour run time (GPS
cards will eat into this) on its standard batteries which can be easily
replaced in the field (many external power options as well). It has several
built in interface options for adding Compact Flash Cards (GPS,memory), 9
pin serial and USB ports so you can connect with just about anything.
The kicker is it has BUILT-IN 64MB or 128MB nonvolatile Flash storage (you
can add other Flash cards through the CF slot) and you can store ArcPad and
data files in this area, which is not battery dependent.
*** The key to running any application on a PDA is keep batteries
fresh/charged and store sensitive programs/files in a fail safe medium such
as Compact Flash or SD card. Most PDAs have these options. The problem is
most software defaults to storing programs in the PDAs memory (this is what
goes down with the battery).
Disclaimer: I am in the GPS and field PDA business so I do sell and provide
technical support and training to folks on the Recon and a variety of other
equipment. Before that raises up too many flags, Ive been doing this for
over 15 years and because I provide direct support to my customers for what
I sell, I love a product that is easy to use, has great data integrity (data
loss issues are my worst nightmare) and is reasonably priced. In a
demanding project, the Recon is worth taking a solid look at in lieu of an
IPAQ or Axim.
The retail price of a Recon 200 starts at US$1299 and Recon is 400 is
$1599.00. I can quote prices with specific configurations (including GPS,
etc...) off list, including volume, government and educational prices to
anyone interested.
2. In regards to your Garmin units, make sure to check out the FREE
Minnesota DNR Garmin utility, which will set up as an extension and provide
a Garmin tool bar directly in AV 3.x and allow you to read/write GPS data
to/from shape files, among many other features. You can also use it
standalone. It is great and FREE (and its amazing the non-obligatory but
great support you get from the DNR if you have questions).
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mis/gis/tools/arcview/extensions/DNRGarmin/DNRGar
min.html
3. Agree with David that the power of ArcPad (and making it more friendly
to the non-GIS users) is most exposed by the Application Development kit
(retail US$1500 for this). As out of the box solutions, there are other
good and friendly Windows CE tools for GPS/GIS data collection as well such
as Trimble's Terrasync and TDS Solo Field.
Sincerely,
Richard Ash
GPS for Mapping/GIS Specialist
Trimble MGIS Certified Trainer
Email: gmtgps@peak.org or richard@pacificsurvey.com
Direct Tel: 541-754-3488
-----Original Message-----
From: gislist-bounces@lists.thinkburst.com
[mailto:gislist-bounces@lists.thinkburst.com] On Behalf Of RICK GRAY
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 2:17 PM
To: vmichelin@hydroqual.com: gislist@lists.thinkburst.com
Subject: Re: [gislist] Hand held GPS
Virginia,
We have used two different systems. Love the one, hate the other.
The Garmin GPSMap 60C is easy to use, easy to upload to the PC (as a text
file) and if you buy the additional map sets to go with it, has lots and
lots of detail. I use it with ArcView 3.x and highly recommend it.
Our other system is ArcPad on an iPAQ H2210 with a HAiCOM GPS flash antenna.
The antenna is fine, ArcPad is good if you are an ArcView user. But the iPAQ
is a pain - mainly because the battery lasts a max of 4 hours when it is
turned on, and a max of about 10 days when it is turned off. When the
battery goes dead, you lose all your data and any software (e.g. ArcPad)
that you have loaded on.
Believe me, this is TOTALLY frustrating.
Hope this helps.
Rick Gray
GIS Specialist, Ontario Weather Network
http://www.ownweb.ca
GIS Instructor
Ridgetown College, University of Guelph
http://www.ridgetowncollege.com/
Tel. 519-674-1554
E-mail: rgray@ridgetownc.uoguelph.ca
Ridgetown: -81.883 W, 42.450 N
>>> "Virginia Michelin" <vmichelin@hydroqual.com> 05/19/05 4:21 PM >>>
Hello All,
I was wondering if any of your could recommend or advise against any hand
held GPS units. The GPS points will probably be brought into GIS and
utilized to locate wetlands, potential development sites, etc. We are only
looking to spend a
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