Garmin GPS-V

The Garmin GPS V has been out for a while, but it is very expensive. I have a GPS III+; is it worth the upgrade to the GPS V model? Yes, but I wish Garmin had retained some features from GPS III+.

With the 2002 Winter Olympics coming to Salt Lake City, not far from my stomping grounds, and with my activity in the Boy Scouts of America, I decided to get the "best of the best" in handheld GPS.

This is a really slick little ROUTE FINDER that knows about roads and streets, and can follow them. It is hard to describe and the result, when I got it, was far more interesting and useful than I had supposed. See the slide show (below) to get an idea of what it does. In short, you point and click on where you want to go, OR, choose a waypoint that you have entered previously (or uploaded from a computer), OR you type in an actual street address (number, street, city; etc); and it will compute a reasonably good route to get you there and give you instructions along the way. You can preview the instructions if you like, either turn-by-turn on a text page, or see the highlighted route on a map.

You can also use the unit as a traditional chartplotter where it knows nothing about the map other than where you are on it (the mode it uses when using older map data sources, such as MapSource Roads and Recreation). You can use the routeable basemap or City Select street data as a "smart" chartplotter if you are not following a route: as you drive, it will identify the roads that cross the one you are on as you approach them.

It works in reverse, too. If you place the cursor on a road on the map, it will not only identify the road, but reveal the street number (such as 1051 Hill Road).

SLIDE SHOW. Click on the link to see a six-slide show of routing in action.

BEWARE: Detailed, routeable street maps exist only for large metropolitan areas. Also, the purchase price gives you one region only (about four to 8 states). Garmin's website gives details about which cities are included; the named cities tend to include surrounding metropolitan areas. The Nationwide routeable basemap, a permanent part of every GPS V, is good down to state and county roads, some city roads -- pretty much anything with a route number on it. Apparently you can mix-and-match maps, something impossible with GPS III+; allowing you to have a city map for your nearby metropolis, and Roads and Recreation for your rural home or farm. I haven't tried it yet and the boundaries of City Select do not correspond with the county boundaries of Roads and Recreation. Where maps overlap, the more detailed one is supposed to have precedence, "covering" the less precedent map (Roads and Rec covers the basemap, City Select covers Roads and Rec, but I haven't tried it yet). You can turn these maps on and off in the GPS so you could probably have overlapped maps and choose which one you want (slick, no? Have topo, Roads and Rec, and City Select all for the same area!?).

More Beware: You must upload maps using the most current uploader software. The software contained in the 1999 MapSource Roads and Recreation confused the GPS V sufficiently that I was obliged to take the batteries out just to turn it off! The City Select CD worked fine, it takes a LONG time to load 18 megabytes using a serial cable, and presumbably the uploader in City Select will also upload Roads and Recration and maybe Topo.

Summary: The route finder works . The streets on City Select, at least in my area of interest, are more accurately drawn than in my favorite personal computer based street atlas. It is FUN to use. It is actually USEFUL at night, or in fog; anytime visibility is reduced and you cannot see your intersection or turn approaching. It is USEFUL even if you CAN see your turns -- if you live in Phoenix or Tucson where all the turns look identical; or on Bangerter Highway in Salt Lake City where all the turns seem identical and the signs are six inches high and you are going 50 miles an hour or more -- whiz-by, what was that street? This GPS will tell you EVERY STREET APPROACHING if it is not routing. If it is routing, it will tell you the name of the next turn and how far distant it is, then it will beep you several alerts to get you into the proper lane for a turn.

Speaking of fog, a couple weeks ago the fog was so thick in Cache Valley that I could not see streets on the left side of the road, one of which was my road home. My Garmin eTrex Legend with topographic map showed me where to make the turn. Problem with eTrex: it is very small and not well suited to automotive use. The GPS III+ or GPS V would have been better for finding my way home in a car at night in the fog, either that or a Furuno marine radar set!

New Goodies (compared to Garmin GPS III+)

• include a nearly-double resolution screen,
• brighter nighttime illumination,
• vastly increased memory capacity (19 megabytes up from 1.4 megabytes)
• ROUTE FINDER.
• Minor new goodies: Vertical speed (ascend, descend, feet per minute). Distance and time to next waypoint as well as distance and time to final destination (GPS III+ can only show time and distance to next waypoint). Improved celestial information and lunar phase prediction.
• Possibly important new goody: Apparently you can load maps from different sources and have them in the GPS at the same time. Load a city from City Select, and load Roads and Recreations or TOPO for some back-country four-wheeling and hiking. I haven't tried it yet. You can also turn the maps on and off, revealing the underlying routeable base map while you drive to the high country.

GONE, removed, missing:

• The voltmeter is gone. I used it to check on my automobile charging system and check internal batteries.
• Most of the screens are gone. I'm sure nobody uses ALL of the screens, but they ought to be able to have a checkbox in the setup menu to return certain screens to the main sequence.
• The COMPASS is gone. This is almost intolerable. I WANT A COMPASS . A nice, sexy, aircraft style compass with course deviation indicator (as in the eTrex Legend, now there's a compass that I like!) whether I am on a goto or not. If I am navigating a highway, just for kicks how about the course deviation indicator showing distance from the route centerline as compared to actual driving? You'd have to zoom up pretty close to get any deviation (City Select is very accurate most of the time and knows the difference and distance between north bound lanes and south bound lanes, for example, on Interstate 15). Actually, you do get a compass but only if you have selected an "off road go to" do you get a compass. If you are just cruising along, you don't get a compass.

Suggested new goodies:

• Oblique view of the map, AKA "road" display, but instead of displaying straight lines between waypoints, actually display the map in oblique perspective. This might be very handy for nighttime country and mountain roads.
• TRACKER/TRANSPONDER: The kids get a small, "eTrex" size GPS. Dad gets a GPS V style unit. Each has a transponder and a code. Dad pushes a button, the other unit responds with a coded datablock and an icon appears on Dad's GPS. The Compass displays TWO arrows; one to whatever active GOTO exists, and an outline arrow points in the direction of the kid's GPS. The map displays two bugs; one for self (solid), one for remotes (hollow and perhaps selectable). For the purpose of privacy, the transponders will establish a common "secret" either by manually entering a key into each participating unit, for more sex appeal, use infrared beam to establish the common secret. This would have obvious benefit in the first few minutes or hours of a kidnapping event or stolen car event.

Commentary and Suggestions on Route Finding:

Your Mileage May Vary: Deterministic versus Non-deterministic. "Deterministic" means you can determine, in advance, the outcome with good accuracy. You sacrifice something to get it. Non-deterministic means you cannot determine the outcome; it might be better than the deterministic solution, it might be worse.

For route finders, this means that freeways -- lacking traffic stopping lights -- are deterministic, predictable (most of the time). City streets are non-deterministic, especially where left turns are involved. A synchronized traffic control system is wonderful but Utah doesn't do it; except in reverse (get stopped at EVERY stoplight). Left turns are horrible; you may have to wait three cycles of the lights to make that turn.

Consequently, a route finder should have an option to turn on a left turn penalty of 2 to 4 minutes per left turn, and a straight-ahead intersection penalty of 1 minute or so (on average, in the city, where streets intersect). What this does, is cause the "fastest route" computation to favor right turns slightly and avoid left turns -- is this not what any smart driver does?