Smart phone vs gps

[flatlander51]

Db how many charges do u get off of 2 AA?

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

I like orux maps for android. It has offline or online options and a lot of pretty nice features.

 

[Darktimber]

I have used my Iphone as a GPS for several years now. It is my camera, video camera, GPS, compass, iBooks, mirror (camera reversed), light, ballistics calculator, note pad, and phone (if in service area.) I use Gaia for GPS software, but there are other good ones. You must load the maps while in a service area. You can load aerial photos (Google Earth) Topo, USGS, and many other maps. The phone cannot be placed in Airplane mode; that also turns off the GPS. You can turn off cellular services along with Wifi and Bluetooth to save battery usage. I take a cheap charger that uses 2 AA batteries (found on eBay or Amazon) for a charger. Solar chargers are too slow for me. At first I carried a backup GPS but with time have gained trust in the iPhone GPS. When counting ounces, this is the way to go.

I once got snowed in for two days in Alaska and the iBooks I had downloaded were a life saver. Having the portable charger allowed the two of us to read books and play games while waiting out the storm. It would have been a long two days otherwise.

 

[Chem-E]

I use my Samsung S3 with Backcountry Navigator. I bring a Mophie battery back, which is about 1 full charge and is a case that my phone fits into. I also bring an external, recharchable lithium battery pack rated at 7000 mAh. This gives me about 3 extra charges if I charge it at night with the phone off. I download all the maps with a strong internet connection at home. Then, in the field, I put the phone in airplane mode, power saving mode, and disable all features except GPS and Bluetooth. I use the Bluetooth feature to link to my SPOT CONNECT unit. This is my emergency beacon and allows me to text my wife with updates and "Im OK". I was recently on a 3 day, 2 night trip and I used the GPS all day long in the field. I only went through my phone's initial charge, and I didn't use all of the juice from the Mophie!. Never had to use the external battery pack!
I plan on upgrading to the Samsung S5 and I am pretty excited to have the additional camera (16 mp) and other features.

The maps are detailed.
I usually download standard USGS, CalTopo, and Satellite images. Nothing like having Google Earth Quality in the GPS!

I personally feel that standard GPS units are outdated technology at this point.
Smart phones are the future.

I never had to use the 7000mAh external. I am very happy with the set up. I am going on a 10 day backpack hunt next month and I have not decided if I need an additional battery pack or not. I know the area pretty well, therefore I really will not need the GPS to be turned on most of the time.
Watching videos or listening to music would require extra batteries for sure. I would personally use an iPod Nano for music/Audiobooks.
Generally I am content with cave man TV (the camp fire) and the sounds of the wild.

 

[wapitibob]

I think it's more a case of the phone starting to catch up to a GPS. From what I've seen to date, batteries and loading maps are still lagging on the phone. No PC front end to any of the phone apps is a deal killer for me at this point as is the task of picking and loading tiles from BCN/OnX on a phone. What I could do is use TopoFusion to download and create a units worth of topo or sat imagery and use Mapc2mapc to convert to a BCN map but I do that for my GPS. At that point the battery life of the phone is the deal killer.
If BCN for example had a pc front end like TopoFusion that allowed me to download different map types and sat imagery for offline use, add waypoints, tracks, gpx data, KMZ files and also had the ability to add geo refrenced tiff/ mrsid raster images, and .shp files like ArcGis Explorer, then transfer all or a portion to an Android/Ios device I'd easily pay $100+ for it. I'm Internet Scouting every day of the year and doing that on a 3" screen isn't going to happen.

 

[Chem-E]

I think it's more a case of the phone starting to catch up to a GPS. From what I've seen to date, batteries and loading maps are still lagging on the phone. No PC front end to any of the phone apps is a deal killer for me at this point as is the task of picking and loading tiles from BCN/OnX on a phone. What I could do is use TopoFusion to download and create a units worth of topo or sat imagery and use Mapc2mapc to convert to a BCN map but I do that for my GPS. At that point the battery life of the phone is the deal killer.
If BCN for example had a pc front end like TopoFusion that allowed me to download different map types and sat imagery for offline use, add waypoints, tracks, gpx data, KMZ files and also had the ability to add geo refrenced tiff/ mrsid raster images, and .shp files like ArcGis Explorer, then transfer all or a portion to an Android/Ios device I'd easily pay $100+ for it. I'm Internet Scouting every day of the year and doing that on a 3" screen isn't going to happen.

Backcountry Navigator allows you to do all of those things you listed above from the Android system, right on the phone. You just have to download the maps of your choice and import previous waypoints and markers at home before you go out to the field. Then when you are in the field you have access to all of the maps, waypoints, and markers you downloaded at home. The map quality is superior to anything I have seen on any handheld GPS system costing $600 or less.

I have never had any problem with map tiles not loading in the field. But I can see how there could be errors downloading maps if a guy was trying to use the 4G network and not a WiFi connection. But if you download the maps with a WiFi connection Before you go into the field, then you have access to these maps when you are in the field and have no cell phone service and only the GPS feature of your phone enabled.

I do not know how Apple systems perform. I suspect the performance of an Apple system is inferior to an Android system for these types of applications, but I do not know for sure since I have not used an iPhone for several years.

 

[dangerousD]

I'm glad this thread got revived and I found it! I then started doing some subsequent searching and read several backpackinglight threads and it looks very promising for using my iPhone 5s as my GPS mapping tool this season. I have Verizon and I found how to lock the SIM card to completely disable the cell service and prevent draining battery from the phone searching for service where there isn't any in the back country. I will have to play with this in the coming weeks before the hunt, but I'm excited to test this out. Seems as though there as been lots of testing and info written on this and GPS apps. I will probably try the Topo Maps or Gaia GPS apps. This year I will still carry my old school Garmin eTrex Vista GPS (no mapping) and my map/compass, but it should be fun to play with the iPhone as well since I use it for so many other things in the back country anyway such as recording a video diary, photos, daily log of my hunt, etc. Here's a good source that I found through BPL.

http://adventurealan.com/iphone4gps.htm

 

[Sapper]

I used my iPhone 4s last yr in SW CO and it worked fine. I looked up a site on the net about what to shut off on your phone to save the battery. It's about 20 steps but works. I also only turned my phone on when I needed to checky location. Once everything is off, as well as your cellular data your phones gps will still work without signal. I also downloaded Gaia maps ($20) which worked well but truthfully didn't really need it. Could've used my phones map as well.

 

[wapitibob]

Chem, I understand how BCN works and as you pointed out, it all works from your phone. I'm not interested in Internet scouting on a 3" smartphone. I would really like to see them get a pc front end for scouting purposes. Downloading closest scale sat imagery for a 15 mile wide by 20 mile long unit will take BCN how long? Will BCN import geo tiff, geopdf, and shape files?
If BCN had a pc front end, could download those sat files in 2 hours, and will import those file types I would look at it again. Mule has peaked my interest in the app but unless something has changed or I overlooked something it doesn't do what I need in an app.

 

[wregier]

Trimble GPS Hunt Pro app. Download maps ahead of time otherwise have had excellent luck catching GPS signal from 10-12,500 ft. Use iphone 4 and 5s on airplane mode when not looking at map and it's lasted 4 days+ in backcountry. Carry a battery backup recharger that will charge phone up to 4 times as well. Never had any issues and we rely on it alot!

 

[Brandon Pattison]

Trimble GPS Hunt Pro app. Download maps ahead of time otherwise have had excellent luck catching GPS signal from 10-12,500 ft. Use iphone 4 and 5s on airplane mode when not looking at map and it's lasted 4 days+ in backcountry. Carry a battery backup recharger that will charge phone up to 4 times as well. Never had any issues and we rely on it alot!

Do u need the $70 maps for this?

 

[cvandervort]

Thanks DangerousD...
I think Gaia maps and a AA power pack ought to get me through my next trip.

 

[dangerousD]

Thanks DangerousD...
I think Gaia maps and a AA power pack ought to get me through my next trip.

I ended up using the Gaia app and pre downloaded a topo map, satellite map, and terrain map. It worked fantastic! Just kept phone on airplane mode until I wanted a location.

 

[Biggs300]

My cell phone doesn't work well in the mountains in CO and a number of other areas where I hunt. With its poor battery life, it is just not reliable. Get a GPS that has replaceable batteries. Better yet, get a Garmin Rino which is a GPS and a 5-watt radio that will allow you and your hunting buddy (he will need one as well) to communicate with each other. My hunting buddy and I have been using them for the past 4 years.

 

[MattBC]

Smartphones can be really handy when coupled with the right map and the right app. The app Avenza pdf maps works great when using a "georeferenced" map that is loaded onto your phone. The map will show your exact location anytime you are looking on the map. Photos can be taken and you can link the photos to your location on the map so you know exactly where you took the photo. The app is being used alot in the forestry industry in BC nowadays.

 

[G5Archer]

I use the OnX Hunt maps on my Note 2 and it works great! Just have to download the maps you want prior to your departure. Here is just a couple of samples of the latest topo updates they have included on their mobile app. I also have a Garmin but I really like the 5.5 inch screen for viewing maps on the phone. Also like the fact that I can take a picture and use that as a way point. I just have to remember to turn the phone to airplane mode to save battery but I also carry an external charger for longer trips.

 

[Ironman8]

Do the onyx maps have anything besides topo? I like having a satellite image to show the terrain as well as topo. Overlayed would be nice too but I can deal without that. As of right now, Gaia maps are what I've used, but I'm open to looking at something different. Also, is onyx supported on iPhone?

Anybody with experience with Trimble maps? Do they have what I've listed above?

 

[G5Archer]

Do the onyx maps have anything besides topo? I like having a satellite image to show the terrain as well as topo. Overlayed would be nice too but I can deal without that. As of right now, Gaia maps are what I've used, but I'm open to looking at something different. Also, is onyx supported on iPhone?

Anybody with experience with Trimble maps? Do they have what I've listed above?

.. And yes you can also use it on iphone.

 

[G5Archer]

Do the onyx maps have anything besides topo? I like having a satellite image to show the terrain as well as topo. Overlayed would be nice too but I can deal without that. As of right now, Gaia maps are what I've used, but I'm open to looking at something different. Also, is onyx supported on iPhone?

Anybody with experience with Trimble maps? Do they have what I've listed above?

Trimble pretty much has the same options. It works good I was actually playing with both apps while I was in the backcountry elk hunting a few weeks ago and had zero problems with both .

 

[miller1]

I used backcountry navigator on my LG G3 and it was awesome, I left my phone on airplane mode and usded the GPS on and off for 3 days before I had to recharge. During that time I turned airplane mode off when I wanted to text or call home. We went to a New spot and it came in real handy when we wanted to find water or sneak into a small meadow or find the tent after dark.