Garmin Foretrex 201 (and Some Other Good Gear)

[+twilliams]

First off I'm newish to geocaching, However I have a lot of navigation gear and experience in treking, sailing, and other pursuits. What this topic is about is the absolute most convient solutions I've come up with for short (less that 2 day) hiking. I'll get to the Foretrex in a sec. [Needless to say I'm not commercially involved with any of these companies]

 

But first a short peeve of mine..outdoors people use crappy compasses.

I really suggest getting a good (well dampened, easy to read, tough) handbearing compass. They fit in your pocket and won't lie (like GPSr's) about your direction when you aren't moving very much. If you need to take bearings from a distance to narrow in on a cache which has bad local GPS reception you can't beat them. They are accurate.

Cruising boaters will know the solution, the Plastimo Iris 50. For some bizarre reason they aren't listed in most treking catalogs, but rather sailing/boating outlets. You should be able to get one for $65. Really it will last forever and kicks butt. It has one degree graduations, is "point and shoot" to read - no messing with mirrors (scratch,break), built in photolum - prism for enchancing available light... With a map and a pencil you can get pretty much anywhere and unlost from anywhere during the day.

 

 

Now for the Garmin Foretrex201..

I've used a lot of Garmin products, handhelds both mapping and not, even a serial GPS for my Treo. Depends on the application. I just got a Foretrex201 from Garmin. It's a wrist/leg/arm non-mapping GPS. It is WAAS enabled, It does tracks, trackbacks, waypoint management, sunrise/set, and interesting projection (you can add a waypoint at a certain bearing/distance from your location or other waypoints. The 202, unlike the 101, it's low profile (thicker than a watch but not that bad). It's lighter than some watches I've worn.

It is not a mapper. I love mapping/routers for streets and mappers for marine waterways - of course you can keep them on all the time in that case, there's a powersource in the vehicle. IMHO they are a waste for treking.

A foretrex201 cost about $130. For a mapper to be good with appropriate resolution and color for mapping you add several hundred to that equation.

 

In my preview run with the Foretrex;

 

UPSIDES

I forgot it was there except when I needed it.

Both my hands were completely free.

I couldn't drop it - clumsy me - so I could bushwack with both hands and have the gps handy!!

Backtrack "breadcrumb routing" worked perfectly.

Accuracy was better than my older heavier Garmin.

The battery lasted 16hours (only supposed to last 15).

Didn't miss the mapping for a second.

I actually needed a count down to sunset, and it did.

Easy to read UI for the small display.

 

As you would expect (and it better!)

Acquired very fast

Was accurate

Interfaced with MapSource and GSAK no problem

Has all the display (change fields) customization which would drive me crazy if I didn't have it.

Wasn't worried about the rain

 

DOWNSIDES

the 201 has a builtin battery (101 takes AAAs)

No 4-way disc for moving the cursor to a reference point for measurments (you can measure using waypoints, or interm track locations)

no map (but I don't care)

 

I'm not finished with the evaluation, to be sure, but I think Garmin is on to something here. The price and convience for geocachers should make this something to seriously consider.

[+twilliams]

Update on the Foretrex201. Mostly good results.

 

It has been amazingly nice to not have a handful of something that you'd like to refer to often. I've discovered several different display modes which let you get almost any combo on information you'd be looking for. Have a map in hand, water bottle? It's still easy to glance at your wrist for any GPS related info that you'd want... Never drop the GPS, never have to dig it out of your pocket, never have to put other stuff down/away to read it. It really is just like a watch (a bigger watch). Which could almost make me overlook...

 

The big (but fixable) flaw.

The Foretrex is FOOLISHLY connected to it's armband using standard watchstrap pins (those metal dohickey's which keep the watchface connected to the strap). Unfortunately, these are a weak link in the system, and if you throw your backpack on and off the Foretrex can get hung up on the strap. One of those times that little pin flew out onto the trail never to be found (thank god I pack rubber bands) which leaves the Foretrex dangling by the remaining pin. To fix it I'm going to use some 3m 5200 adhesive (better than shoe goo) to affix the body of the GPS to the strap. The charger provides for the system being on the strap so you don't lose anything by doing this. I'd suggest doing this to new units as well.

Edited November 7, 2004 by twilliams

[+bigeddy]

But first a short peeve of mine..outdoors people use crappy compasses....

Cruising boaters will know the solution, the Plastimo Iris 50.

Interesting looking compass. What would be the advantage of it over a lighter, cheaper orienteering compass such as the Suunto Arrow? These are rugged, fast dampening and designed to use while on the move and with maps.

 

My wife has a Foretrex which I haven't tried for geocaching yet although it looks like it should work for the basics.

[+twilliams]

Interesting looking compass. What would be the advantage of it over a lighter, cheaper orienteering compass such as the Suunto Arrow? These are rugged, fast dampening and designed to use while on the move and with maps.

 

Yes, good question. There are a number of differences, which there better be for the price difference (about $30).

 

First, it's a marine handbearing compass (it is also a traditional compass) so as I try to show (no phototricks here)

the compass is point and shoot. There is no parallax out to infinity so you can take bearings of close trees or faraway peaks and read the compass accurately at the same time. It's nice to stand back get a cache bearing from your GPS and be able to rotate to it while looking at the target area.

 

 

(the red lines are lubber lines you simply line them up for the most accurate read)

 

Since it's built to be usable on a boat in the middle of a storm;

It can be read 12 degrees off horizontal in either direction - compare to about 3-4 degree clearance without loosing accuracy or "jamming" on normal trail compasses. (Note this is different than magnetic needle tilts)

And it has a 20 degree field of view.

 

For trekking/caching; both of these that translate into being able to wear it around your neck and pull it up while walking for a instantaneous reading while walking.

 

As you can see it's 1 degree accurate and easy to read at that scale (it is actually more accurate but you have 1 degree readout). The Suunto Arrow for example has a 1 degree ring, but since the needle doesn't extend nor any of the card lubbers you can't read more than 2.5 degrees.

 

Evening or Nighttime caching? It's photoliminescent - the card glows in the dark so you can read it without a flashlight, but it also has a prismatic lens over the rear area to make the most of whatever light is available naturally.

 

It's rubberized-"armored" so if you're hands/gloves are wet it doesn't slip.

I've accidentally stomped on it.. a BAD idea, to be sure, but amazingly it didn't crack or break like most of my orienteering compasses have done when mistreated. I don't know for sure but I think the construction is extremely sturdy..sure feels like it is.

It's smallish (about 2.5x3.25) so it fits easily in your shirt pocket.

 

Plastimo's website also mentions these features which I can't speak to:

Most accurate bearing : the pivot and very hard stone are a guarantee of long life and shock resistance of your compass.

Soft bottom cell : engineered using ultra-sonic welding, it acts like an expansion diaphragm, preventing the formation of bubbles and leaks.

 

For about the same price (but not good for marine use) you could get a Brunton SightMaster which I've seen one trekker use. It has 10x spotting optics which would mean you'd have to stand still to use it.

[+Milbank]

Very interesting, thanks!

[tubemonkey]

Think of the Foretrex as a Geko-on-a-Wrist:

 

Sporting an ergonomic wristband, the Foretrex 201 is similar in design to the Forerunner 201, yet is chocked full of GPS navigation features found in Garmin's popular Geko 201 unit.

[+Crystal Sound]

Not to turn this into a Foretrex 101/201 cheer session, but I have to agree, the Foretrex units are pretty cool.

 

I'd discovered geocaching by accident back in August. I'd thought about buying a GPS unit before then, but this cool hobby was enough to push me over the edge and go looking at units.

 

I thought about shelling out some $$$ for a unit I could download maps, ect, but decided that the small size, and the wrist-mounting of the Foretrex easily outweighed the map benefit. Besides, I like the extra challenge.

 

With the interface cable, i use a laptop with Streets & Trips for any road navigation i do, during travel. My work-around for the mapping feature.

 

The compact size, makes it great for all the hiking, exploring, ect. With it strapped to my wrist, I'm less likely to lay it down somewhere and walk off.

 

I went with the 101. As much as I liked the idea of the rechargeable batteries, I could see myself running out of battery power in a remote area. The ability to slip a couple extra AAAs into a pocket and be able to swap them out when needed seemed a better approach, for my own application/useage.

 

I've been concerned about the pins that hold the strap onto the unit, but so far, I've not had any problems with it. I've thought, if i have an issue, i'll probabally do the adhesive approach, as one poster mentioned.

[+twilliams]

Yes I agree on the spare batteries, that would be my preference and the 101 is a little cheaper, except that the device gets considerably heavier/thicker by doing that. Having both mapping and non mapping units, I can tell you I leave with the wrist mounted, non-color, non-mapping less expensive GPS every time I head onto a trail (not urban or marine). So, I think you ended up with a better trail caching system than if you'd spent a lot more.

 

Of course, if want to lump a car system and cache GPS together I'd make sure there's autorouting and a lot of memory in the GPS, some can't load all the streets you'd want and unlike waypoints, it takes a long time to download road data every time you go somewhere new.

 

More on the pins, accurately called "watch spring bars", called Garmin Customer Support. Bully for Garmin

 

I would suggest gluing the Foretrex to the strap before losing these things the first time.