There has been a significant and welcome downward trend in the price of some handheld GPS units in the last couple of months.
For instance, you can now pick up a Garmin eTrex Legend HCx, which has the newer high sensitivity receiver chip and can display OpenStreetMap mapping (using mkgmap), for £139 in the UK, €185 in Germany and $197 in the US (prices compared at Amazon). What’s more you can include a 2GB micro SD card for a little over an extra £1 in the UK.
These prices might still be twice those of a basic non-map logging setup and you may still be able to get cheaper prices outside your country, or by bidding for instance for non European models on ebay, but it’s still a big change in the market since Christmas.
If you were ever thinking of dipping your toe in the OSM mapping game then it’s probably never been a better time to do so.
> These prices might still be twice those of a basic non-map logging setup
Have you got any suggestions for a basic non-map logging setup? I’ve been fascinated by the idea of logging where I go, but I’ve found it difficult to figure out the available tech—I don’t drive, so the typical GPS equipment isn’t much use to me.
My dream device would log my position every couple of seconds, run on (preferably built-in rechargable) batteries for 24 hours, plug into my computer via USB, and let me grab a text file with the logged NMEA data (or similar).
Interested to see that the GPSMap 60 is now down to £100 on Amazon – the first affordably priced Garmin with USB.
I have this one (eTrex). I can use it easily and download OpenStreetMap data easily on it. But if I want to use the routing capability, the device continues to use the road (main road only) from the default embedded map and not the roads from the OpenStreetMap. Is somebody known why? Thanks
Can’t say I understand anything about gps and/or logging, but I’m hoping the new iPhones and Android-enabled phones will be able to join the mapping party easily.
If not, I’m wondering how difficult it would be to create a simple app with the required features…
I have a GPS device and I want to use your OSM, such as Singapore Map. How should I go about and what would be the licensing cost involved? Pls advise
Hi, My name is Cuong. I’m developing a Traffic Jam notification system in Germany. Using the Osmxapi I can query a list of highways within a bounded box but I also need the state name in other words a postal code. Is there any query can do that? Lots of thanks for any guidance here 🙂
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Michael – OSM Garmin maps don’t support routing yet, but people are working on it.
Well, I too jumped in and there’s quite a lot of fun stuff.
I’m not one to advertise, but the way I started cost me literally £20 (+vat) http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=115446
First track I laid down was with my laptop (eee), using gpxlogger, because my nokia phone is locked down by 3 to not save out of java apps. I have dug out my old symbian phone and found that “whereami” s60 works wonders (saves my back boiling from the laptop on the motorbike). TrekBuddy seems to be the one to use on java phones.
So really, if you have a bluetooth-enabled laptop or mobile phone that does java in a sensible way, £20+vat+delivery gets you Cartographing!