Nuvi 255W

[SURVEYOR]

How have Ya'll been? I took a break for a while doing other things like burying my father in law and mother in the same year. As my screen name is SURVEYOR. I am a Land Surveyor. I have been doing some neat things surveying while using GPS survey grade, and consumer grade GPS units. I don't have anything too fancy. A couple of Ashtec Pro Mark 2's, a Thales PM 3, ang my little friend the yellow Garmin Etrex. I can't say enough good about my GPS fleet. They don't do anything fancy. They just get the job done. I've been in SE Missouri! doing some survey work. The survey grade GPS units I have are static carrier-phase GPS that have to be post processed to a known position for accuracy. That means I have to find NGS monuments that have been adjusted with GPS Lat Lon Coordinates. That's where the NGS Data Sheets for control monuments come in handy. I can get close to where my survey project is, take a GPS reading. Get on the NGS web site and find the control monuments Lat & Lon. I then can key these Coordinates in to a mapping program creating a waypoint, then up load to my Garmin Etrex. From there I chase the monument down with the Etrex. It's been fun. I found 3 fairly old monuments. 2 from the middle 1950's. One from 1927 using the Etrex. That unit is a recon workhorse. I've gotten to within 3 to 2 feet of the monuments I was looking for with the Etrex. Just outstanding in my book. I've got several thousand dollars wrapped up in my survey grade GPS units. I really don't want them bouncing around on the dash in the truck, or in my pocket. So the little $100, ugly, hand held consumer grade gets the job. None of my units have a map display that I use. But today I bought a Garmin Nuvi 255W. I have been needing a navigational grade GPS unit with a map display to get me around the country side. I'll be playing around with the Nuvi and will give a review or 2. But I can already tell I'm going to like this unit. I first turned it on at about 8 pm Friday night. Went to the Garmin web site and updated the software and maps. I went into the controls and changed some of the settings. I'm liking what I see so far. The Nuvi is not going to take the place of the Etrex. But it's going to get it closer to the location before it starts going to work. I've already change the voice commands to Female Australian English. It's just easier for me to listen to. I've found the setting from D.ddd to d mm ss.ss. I even found the compass screen. I'll try to find my mother in law's house tomorrow.  

[woodchukhntr]

Thanks for the short review.  I tried both the Tom Tom 330S and the Garvin 255w and ended up with the 255.  I especially like the window mount.  The Tom Tom is difficult to mount with one hand on my sloping windshield and fell off twice.  I will be getting a friction dashboard mount since we had my son's stolen this summer while on vacation.  The cop said that the thieves noticed the mark on the windshield, which prompted them to look a little closer and saw it on the floor.

[SURVEYOR]

I got to play with the 255W some today. This Nuvi 255W is slick. I keyed in my mother in laws address, and the first thing I found out was the 911 data base is not very accurate. It's close. But you better be looking for the address rather than listening to the gps unit. The reason I know it's the data base is I set the location of the drive way as a way point. Then after going shopping I used the way point to return. The 255W was right on the spot. One trick I found was if you put your finger on the satellite signal bar for a few seconds this screan will come up.



I used the 255W to navigate to Walmart, Office Depot, Harbor Freight, my mother in law's, and then home. Everything was spot on. I just went to Google Maps using the address of my church to send the lat / long coordinates to my 255W. I have no doubt I'll get to church. I like Track Up Map. My wife likes the 3D Map view. Being a surveyor I prefer the plan view, but the 3D view is not bad. I really enjoy the way the unit changes from day time to night time colors. The voice commands are just fine with me. My wife has ridden on long trips with my sister in law that owns a Megallin. She said the Nuvi was much nicer to listen to because when you were coming close to a turn it gave a short nice notice. Where as the Megallin would hound you time after time to turn, turn, turn you idot! I don't know! I've never ridden with the sister in law. I did take a detour after setting a route. No problem! I pressed detour, and the new route was displayed.

So far I'm really enjoying the Nuvi 255W!

 

[SURVEYOR]

I had the Garmin Nuvi 255W since Friday. I can't say enough praise about it. The ease of use is very good. It helps to do one's research. There's a bunch of info on the web from Garmin, reviewers, and of all places youtube. Satellite reception is fast, and accuracy is fine. I have found the 911 address data base is a little off. But being a surveyor I have found most gis data bases are lacking. Close. But not survey grade accurate as most lay people would think. I did my best to fool the Nuvi yesterday and today by keying an address, then taking a slite different route. The Nuvi did a great job of recalculating a detouring route without a hitch. As I said the heads up map is detailed enough to get me where I want to get to, and a detailed area view for me to see what roads are around me. My wife likes the 3d map. I like it myself. I started looking at different topo maps to load to the Nuvi. But as I got to looking at the maps and Nuvi, I started thinking it would defeat the purpose of having a road navigating gps unit with voice directions. The main propose I got the Nuvi!   

[Siskiyou]

SURVEYOR:  I am glad you are back, I was afraid you might have fallen down an old well while running out a property line.

My wife and I get a kick out of our Garmin recalculating the route when I take a detour.

I loaded the U.S. Topo Maps 2008 on a SD card and plugged into my street pilot.  Discovered that I like the installed City Navigator better when beating around.  Most of the old “main” logging roads are found on City Navigator.  I fire up my handheld for points of interest related to mines, and such.

Enjoying the post.

[SURVEYOR]

I'm the say way about City Navigator. I find it nice to see where I'm going and been. I have been able to upload waypoints and tracks into several programs and formats. I really like how you can find an address in google. Go to the google map, then send the location to the gps to navigate to using the Garmin with City Navigator. Oh it won't take the place of my survey grade centimeter accuracy units. No am I ready to retire the little Garmin Etrex. But it's nice to have a talking gps unit navigating for you.