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Spatial Data Handling

GPS Units Available to Check Out to GSD Affiliates

The GSD Computer Resources Group has six GPS units that may be checked out by GSD Affiliates through the Frances Loeb Design Library circulation desk. This page describes the basic capabilities of each of the three models of GPS that we have, and provides links to the PDF user manuals and some references for useful GPS software.

Choosing which GPS unit you want to borrow depends on what you are trying to do. For most purposes I would recommend the Magellan Explorists. They are the easiest to deal with. If long battery life and compact size are important to you, or real-time tracking on your laptop, then choose the Q-Starz. If all of the other GPS units are checked out, then choose the Garmin Etrex.

References

Here are some links to tools and techniques of general interest for GPS users.

Magellan Explorist 510

This backpacking grade GPS has a built-in camera that automagically geotags its photos. It has an easy to use USB interface that lets you easily offload track and waypoint data as GPX files. You can upload vector refeence points and lines by copying gpx files onto the unit through the USB cable. Custom maps can be created and loaded on this GPS using Mobile Atlas Creator. The precision of this GPS is about 6 meters. Battery life on two AA batteries is rated by the manuafacturer at 16 hours.

Resources:

QStarz BT-Q1000-XP

The Q-Starz Travel Recorder XT is a GPS tracker. It has no display, but it will communicate with your PC using bluetooth and display your position in Google Earth LIVE!! It will also save waypoints track files that you can use to georeference your photographs using the Q-Starz software that you can install on your computer.. The good thing about this unit is the battery lasts up to 40 hours. It is a bit trickier to dump your tracks out of this unit as GPX files but this is not necessary if you use their software.

Resources: