Our guy that clears Right-of-Way on highway projects is looking for a GPS that will give him the total distance in feet. Kinda like an odometer that will read in feet even when you get several miles down the road.
Whether it's a navigation model or the handheld style doesn't really matter.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
James
Garmin's have a trip odometer. Or routes that can be created. Or tracks that can be stored, followed, measured ect, ect. I love my Rino 530hcx, but it seems like almost all of todays handheld units, no matter the brand, will do what you ask. Im just partial to Garmin from experience.
The catch is that he wants the readout in feet. Most will read feet until it gets to 528 and then switch to decimal of a mile. Do you know if the Rino will keep measuring in feet?
Thanks,
James
That's a big peeve for me on the older Garmin I have. ITenths of a mile is reasonable for traveling but not for many recreational, scientific, and business uses.
The unit will read out the distance from a set waypoint that is nearby in hundredths of a foot, which is ridiculous since 1 foot is below the internal computational accuracy for absolute positions, and much less than the measurement accuracy. But there is no way to display a reasonable estimate of a 600 ft distance. You should be able to see feet all the way out to a few miles if you want.
I've found Google Earth to be pretty accurate. You can have it display in feet.
Lat-lon registration of photos may vary easily 50 ft and sometimes much more. The relative distances if you stay on one sheet are pretty good.
I remember years ago a distance measurement device mounted to my Suburban that would accurately measure to the foot as you drove. I believe it was made by distomat (not the old laser EDM). Here is a link to something similar that is still being produced:
http://www.jamartech.com/DMIs.html
Frank:
How do you import Google Earth to your handheld unit?
I have not found a low priced hand held that will stay in feet past 528 feet.
Garmin is probably my favorite of the handhelds.
My PM3s have settings for feet or meter readout but they are L1 grade GPS units and more costly.
I recently picked up a Delorme PN40 on sale with map application for my PC. It appears to have the correct county road numbers that is a plus and has the same map on the unit itself.
It is easy to pick a point off Google Earth and input it on the PN40 to find out in the field.
TxDot uses them quite often. I just wish they would calibrate theirs more often also.
I have a Nitestar DMI in my truck. They are around $500. Either one may be the best option.
That is a peeve of mine, too. You can read out in km, nautical miles, etc., etc. but you can only get a readout in feet up to 528 feet. I was trying to use my Magellan to rough-measure some stuff in feet on lines up to a mile long and I had to just stop when it clicked over to a new hundredth and tape the additional footage. It would seem to be so simple to program them with a foot readout, but I guess they didn't plan on us using them that way.