GPS Logger

The i-gotU GT-600 Personal GPS Travel Logger records route information that can be downloaded onto a computer. It doesn’t provide a display of GPS coordinates or any kind of navigational aid. The logger has performed well on it’s first test hike in cloudy weather, hilly terrain and dense forest.

Some key figures are:

• Data storage: 262,000 data points (at a tracking interval of 5s, this is over 350 hours of walking)
• Battery life: 30 hrs (with standard settings)
• Battery capacity: 750 mAh (one solar wrap mini should charge it ~3 times, so 90 hrs total)

The logger is just a small white box with a large button, 2 LED lights and the power/data connection. All options are controlled through the computer software (so can’t be changed without access to a computer). Options include:

• button control (on/off) vs automatic scheduled time on/off
• smart tracking (stop recording if stationary, or below a certain speed)
• circular logging (overwrite old data points when storage is full or just stop recording)
• customisable tracking interval

Below is my old discussion of what I wanted, and what options there were.

I want a GPS tracker to record where I go, especially for when I am just going cross-country rather than on marked trails. It needs to be/have:

• long battery life (at least 10-12 hours, preferably 20+)
• rechargeable, pref from USB (not batteries, otherwise I’ll have to bring a separate battery charger)
• low power use – I need to be able to either carry enough power to recharge it, or generate enough (probably from solar)
• able to store weeks worth of data (300 hours?)
• lightweight (obviously)

I wasn’t intending to use this for navigation (I’ll have maps and compass for that), but just to record my path for my own interest. I guess it would be useful if it could give me GPS coords, help point me towards set GPS coords (e.g. a town) and store maps and waypoints for set routes but I really don’t want to be walking along following a GPS device – I want to have my head up looking at landmarks, noticing where I am and where I’m going (with occasional reference to map and GPS!!).

I don’t seem to be able to find anything suitable for this, though I’m hoping this is just because I don’t know where to look (or don’t know enough about the capabilities of the devices I’ve seen). There seem to be 2 options, neither of which are exactly what I want:

1. GPS tracker which gives live location updates via the web tracking where you are, and sometimes enabling emergency communications or messaging. These are generally light, with long battery life, but require an external service/data management company so have an ongoing fee (the data isn’t stored on the device, your location is detected by an external server/computer and stored on the web).
2. GPS device which is used for navigating. Is usually bigger, shorter battery life but it can navigate for you and store maps etc. They can record waypoints/locations as you’re travelling but I’m not sure if this is manual or if you can set it to record every minute or so (and then if they can store enough data points, or have enough battery life).

The map storage thing is actually another interesting issue. If the GPS device could store lots of detailed topo maps, then this might save me significant weight in paper, and make pre-planning everything less critical, giving me freedom to change my plans and go somewhere different once I’m out there.