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Garmin GLO + android


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I was just curious to see what peoples opinions of this combination are.

 

After a long hiatus, my family and I are getting back into geocaching. Started back in 2005 with a Garmin Legend. I've also got an old Droid X2. I've been taking both units and results between the two have been pretty similar. A lot of our searching has been under dense canopy and we've gotten a little dizzy trying to find GZ. So far both units will eventually get us pretty close, and there have only been a few FTF.

 

The wife subtly hinted to getting a new GPSr. We've been eyeballing the 64s. I've checked it out and done a ton of research, but in the end just find it difficult to warrant spending the money, as we are just casual geocachers and day hikers. In all actuality, I just didn't feel very impressed with it in my hand.

 

So with that being said I started looking into options to possibly improve the DX2's performance. The DX2's battery life has always been horrific with it's GPS enabled, and the original battery is on it's last legs. I'm looking into a 3800 mAh extended battery, which should last quite a while with only Bluetooth enabled. It's also no longer used as a phone, so radio is also disabled. I also realize that a smart phone may not be as rugged or water resistant but I'm not really to worried about it.

 

I also have one of those little 4xAA>usb power-packs and will get some eneloops as a back up for both the phone and the Glo if we go that route. Plus I figure it could also act as nav in the car with a tablet.

 

Anyone with any experience with the GLO?

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Anyone with any experience with the GLO?

 

I have used one with my I-devices. I primarily use it on road trips with the iPad - my model does not otherwise have a gpsr and the GLO allows us to take advantage of the bigger screen when using navigon, pocket earth, or other mapping apps. Decent battery life and it has gotten us where we needed to go. At one point, it was very sensitive and would turn on at the slightest touch. Things are better since the firmware was updated, but some old reviews might talk about that.

 

I used it a lot on a trip to Scotland when the rental car's charger did not work. I never ran out of power, although I do have a battery backup. Eneloops would not work with it since it uses a proprietary battery, but after a bit of searching I found a comparable battery for it.

 

I took it out with my iPhone once or twice for caching and got the clip to attach it while hiking. It was hard to tell how much of an improvement it made because the iPhone will default to whatever device is getting the strongest signal. Since the phone worked fine without it, it seemed like one more thing to carry along.

 

I have also attached it to a cheap, small Android tablet, just to attach it to a small android device. It worked fine, but I have not tried caching with it.

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Anyone with any experience with the GLO?

 

I have used one with my I-devices. I primarily use it on road trips with the iPad - my model does not otherwise have a gpsr and the GLO allows us to take advantage of the bigger screen when using navigon, pocket earth, or other mapping apps. Decent battery life and it has gotten us where we needed to go. At one point, it was very sensitive and would turn on at the slightest touch. Things are better since the firmware was updated, but some old reviews might talk about that.

 

I used it a lot on a trip to Scotland when the rental car's charger did not work. I never ran out of power, although I do have a battery backup. Eneloops would not work with it since it uses a proprietary battery, but after a bit of searching I found a comparable battery for it.

 

I took it out with my iPhone once or twice for caching and got the clip to attach it while hiking. It was hard to tell how much of an improvement it made because the iPhone will default to whatever device is getting the strongest signal. Since the phone worked fine without it, it seemed like one more thing to carry along.

 

I have also attached it to a cheap, small Android tablet, just to attach it to a small android device. It worked fine, but I have not tried caching with it.

 

I'm also interested in using the GLO with an iOS device. I'm interested in using the GLO for geocaching as well as creating a GPX track showing where I went. Are there any iOS apps that can record 10hz of data that the GLO is capable of outputting?

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Got a chance to get out and put the phone and the Garmin Glo to work. Hiked 12.5 miles yesterday on Eagle Creek in the Columbia River Gorge. The Glo preformed admirably with the worst noted accuracy of around 13 ft. This trail is through a canyon and has some pretty dense canopy. There were a couple of strange scribbled areas recorded in our tracks, but for the most part it looked pretty good.

 

Only had time to grab one cache. It was GC3AF94. The GLO was reporting around 100' to the east. A couple of the comments in the web log mentioned a similar discrepancy with the coordinates, so perhaps error in the initial recording of coords? I've done some tests at home, averaging a waypoint. Over the course of several days, the GLO has returned me to within 5 feet of the recorded waypoint, with a couple of times bringing me within a foot of the coords.

 

Not sure how much of the GLO's battery battery was used but it survived 11+ hours of constant operation. The extended battery for my phone depleted to 29%. As previously mentioned we also have a spare battery for the phone and a 4xAA to usb charger with 8 high capacity rechargeables just as a backup.

 

All in all the phone/GLO combo seems to be exceeding our needs

Edited by Haphazardly & Elohi
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