GPS - What works for the oilfield?
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 6,102
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From: Red Deer, Alberta Canada
Jason,
I think a standard hand held GPS will do just fine for what you are wanting.
The Garmin that is sitting on my dash, if I remember will hold about a 1000 waypoints, and 50 routes or something along those lines.
I average seeing 10 to 12 satellites at all times and that is with it sitting on the dash, an external antennae will apparently lock me into all 12.
The factory loaded road map is almost nuts on for accurate, at least the main highways and a portion of the secondary stuff. A lot of secondary stuff doesn't come up but you can save those as your own "tracks". It even lists small rail sidings and roads that are not even on modern maps!
For the LSD waypoints you program into it as you go to them, etc will have to be "adjusted" name wise so you don't clutter up the screen. As you "mark" a waypoint or position, the unit names it 001, 002, 003 etc. You can rename them as well as change the icon to whatever you want but the screen will get busy so you will have to come up with something that works for you. Leaving them as numbers and having an external list might work for you.
In my case for example, all my Superpass sites are just labeled Fuel1, Fuel2, etc using a gas pump icon. I don't need to find them, I just want them to show up on the screen. Each waypoint does have an accessible description menu with an area for your info input, Long & Lat, date created, elevation, etc, etc. Of course, the more positions you mark, you just zoom the view in to open the everything up and keep the clutter down. I believe the zoom levels go from 100 meters out to 120 kilometers.
I'm thinking more along the lines of keep it simple but that works for me in this case anyways.
I was in Red Deer the other day, I should have chased you down for a chin wag and a cup of mud while we sat in the truck and pushed buttons on the GPS like little kids.
Jeff
I think a standard hand held GPS will do just fine for what you are wanting.
The Garmin that is sitting on my dash, if I remember will hold about a 1000 waypoints, and 50 routes or something along those lines.
I average seeing 10 to 12 satellites at all times and that is with it sitting on the dash, an external antennae will apparently lock me into all 12.
The factory loaded road map is almost nuts on for accurate, at least the main highways and a portion of the secondary stuff. A lot of secondary stuff doesn't come up but you can save those as your own "tracks". It even lists small rail sidings and roads that are not even on modern maps!
For the LSD waypoints you program into it as you go to them, etc will have to be "adjusted" name wise so you don't clutter up the screen. As you "mark" a waypoint or position, the unit names it 001, 002, 003 etc. You can rename them as well as change the icon to whatever you want but the screen will get busy so you will have to come up with something that works for you. Leaving them as numbers and having an external list might work for you.
In my case for example, all my Superpass sites are just labeled Fuel1, Fuel2, etc using a gas pump icon. I don't need to find them, I just want them to show up on the screen. Each waypoint does have an accessible description menu with an area for your info input, Long & Lat, date created, elevation, etc, etc. Of course, the more positions you mark, you just zoom the view in to open the everything up and keep the clutter down. I believe the zoom levels go from 100 meters out to 120 kilometers.
I'm thinking more along the lines of keep it simple but that works for me in this case anyways.
I was in Red Deer the other day, I should have chased you down for a chin wag and a cup of mud while we sat in the truck and pushed buttons on the GPS like little kids.
Jeff
I would welcome the chin wag. And thanks for the insight, I don't have anything GPS related so getting up on the features makes it easier to understand what I am getting into.
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 3,901
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From: On the Farm, Manitoba
My kid works in the oil patch in very remote places often without cell coverage so a GPS is a necessity. He recently bought a new 2011 3500 manual trans that was the only one left around but it didn't have GPS, he thought he would get away with using his handheld but after seeing my factory GPS he wanted one with a larger screen so he had one installed. I will find out the make next time I hear from him but I suspect it was a Garmin as he likes that brand. I have seen it and it looks pretty good but even he says it's not as good as the factory one which is more integrated into the truck. A couple of things to be aware of is not all GPS allow the lat and lon to be entered as a destination, don't trust Google maps for a lat and lon and always check the co-ordinates twice when entering. On aircraft the co-ordinates are entered twice by two individual crew members for a reason, that because the nav system whether IRS, INS or GPS will take you to the co-ordinates you entered even if they are wrong.
In the early years of GPS I used to import and sell GPS, back then there were 3 basic kinds, the ones that tracked the satellites up to 99 MPH (marine type) the next tracked up to 999MPH (aviation type) then the ones capable of using a fixed ground based station to provide the error or differential, these were very accurate and used for surveying. Not sure about the tracking speeds today but it wouldn't surprise me if the hand held ones for hiking don't track fast enough for use in an aircraft.
In the early years of GPS I used to import and sell GPS, back then there were 3 basic kinds, the ones that tracked the satellites up to 99 MPH (marine type) the next tracked up to 999MPH (aviation type) then the ones capable of using a fixed ground based station to provide the error or differential, these were very accurate and used for surveying. Not sure about the tracking speeds today but it wouldn't surprise me if the hand held ones for hiking don't track fast enough for use in an aircraft.
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