New gadgets
I got a GPS thingy yesterday. A Garmin xTrex Legend. It should be fun.
According the manual, this thing eats batteries. In “power save” mode, it goes through two AAs in 18 hours. “Power save” means the GPS is off. It didn’t come with a handlebar mount, so I’ll have to go get one of those.
There are an awful lot of features, and only a few buttons. It’s kind of a quirky interface, but I suppose I’ll get used to it. Here in the middle of the city, I can get ahold of five satellites, but none of the WAAS ones since they’re equatorial an my view is obstructed. With the satellites it can track, it has “30 foot” accuracy at best so far.
I’m happy to say, not only is it water proof to 1 meter for 30 minutes, it’s impervious to coffee as well.
One strange thing … it has a PC interface and my Topo USA can apparently talk to it (which is the main reason I wanted it) but the interface cable is serial!?!? Whaaaa?? Who uses that any more? My desktop machine doesn’t even have a serial port. My laptop and server do, so I suppose I’ll have to jury rig something. I see they also make Serial/USB adapters, but I’d rather not spend $20 on a stupid thing like that.
Anyway, more geeky goodness ahead.
