[geeks] Good, cheap GPS?

[microcode at zoho.com]

Hi Will,

On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 01:45:35PM +0000, William Enestvedt wrote:
> There are USB-connected units meant to be hooked to a laptop for use with
> route-planning software, for pretty small money. Even DeLorme (who makes the
> handheld GPSr that I use) -- who is never cheap -- sells a line called the
> "Earthmate Laptop GPS units" for like forty bucks new:
> https://shop.delorme.com/OA_HTML/DELibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10091

Thanks, I'll look at this. I'm suspect it won't work for me because of the
concrete jungle effect where I am. I need to be outside in a place where I
can see a little sky, and it's not easy to do. It used to be, but not now.

>    Or do you mean a handheld?

Yes. Last time I looked all they had was handhelds. Now all the taxicabs
have them. I didn't realize there were so many. When I did a web search I
realized I needed to ask about this.

> If you want a handheld, buy a used yellow Garmin Etrex or something. They
> have a grayscale screen with a direction indicator and not much else --
> but that will grab you the coordinates pretty easily. 

Oh, that is exactly the kind of info I wanted. Thank you very much. There
are zillions of models and I have no idea which are any good.

>     Mind you, newer units are faster, so your question will be balancing
> "newer and thus faster, but more expensive" against "cheaper but slower and
> probably older."

The phone locks in about 5-10 minutes but it takes another 10 to 20 minutes
to settle down. Until then the numbers are bouncing around quite a bit, as
if it's doing some kind of algorithm to smooth out errors.

Do you have any idea how long the Etrex takes to get a good reading?