 An Excellent Product |
| Review Date: October 2, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Larry in Berkeley, Berkeley, California |
The new Foretrex 301 is an excellent product (not to be confused with the old Foreunner 301 also presumably OK-- even Garmin sometimes gets them mixed up.)
The improved GPS receiver is very fine -- you can get reception while driving, wearing it on your wrist. Fuctions are much like those of the obsolete eTrex, plus new things, such as a compass heading readout.
The vendor, Mountain Gear, is very good, with extremely prompt shipment, and their customer service, in the unlikely event you need it, it also excellent.
Software is not furnished with the Foretrex 301.
The Foretrex 301 acts as a hard drive on your computer, through the USB port. Unfortunately, I know of no Garmin software that recognizes the Foretrex 301. However, Garmin's Trip and Waypoint Manager running on Windows XP Professional (and presumably Vista) will read Foretrex 301 data using the File option on the manager, so waypoints etc., can be read, mapped, and stored on your computer. This is not obvous, but easy to use specifying the GPX format.
Oddly, the Trip and Waypoint Manager does not work properly on the Microsoft VirtualXP under Windows 7, and the software is not yet supported for Windows 7 and will not run on it (I am using manager version 3).
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extremely good for size and cost
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| Review Date: January 9, 2010 |
| Reviewer: L. J. Wobker, Raleigh, NC USA |
Very happy with this little guy. I chose the 301 over the 401 because I wanted to track things based on GPS altitude and NOT barometric altitude. Specific example: pressurized aircraft cabins will not read correct altitude on the 401 because it's barometric... the GPS readings are slightly less accurate but ideal for what I needed.
There are lots of free software tools that read the GPX format that this device uses. You can also edit the onboard .gpx file directly if you really know what you're doing, which is very nice for bulk imports, etc. Just copy a valid .gpx file into the "GPX" folder (one level ABOVE the one that you download in the first place).
The GPS receiver is much, much more sensitive than earlier generations. It locks on to satellites in much less time, holds the signal better, and works through more overhead cover. This does NOT mean that you can take it into a cave and get a signal, nor will it work in the center of a widebody airliner... but it's still much better than anything else I've tried.
The logging and interface are a little cumbersome, but that's the tradeoff for making something this small and rugged (there are only four control buttons plus the one power button).
All in all, I've been exceptionally happy with mine. |
My husband says he loves it
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| Review Date: December 12, 2009 |
| Reviewer: K. DuQuet, Lacey, WA |
| My husband is in the military and wanted it sent to him in the desert. I am not really sure to be honest with you how easy it is to use or how compatible the software is but once he gets back I can ask :-) |
Rugged, sensitive, crude
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| Review Date: December 5, 2009 |
| Reviewer: stephenghowe, Frederick, MD USA |
| This is more sensitive and has a larger screen than the previous Forerunner series. It picks up satellites a little faster than my (recently stolen) Venture HC. The display is crude low res mono. You can only show one track or course at a time, and only when you are "navigating" it. Unfortunately, the active track log is read only; I suppose Garmin did not want it to be used as a map substitute. Why should they care, you can't buy maps for this anyway. Because the active track cannot be cleaned up, I usually leave it off. Garmin limited the tracks and routes to 10 and 20 respectively. The names of waypoints tend to cover everything else and cannot be turned off. The mass storage is only 4 megs (not gigs). It's only for putting .gpx in the gps. Transferring the .gpx out of the mass storage to the actual gps requires a reboot of the gps. You can't use the mass storage for anything else, it erases itself on reboot. After reboot, the mass storage will have a backup .gpx of your saved waypoints, routes and tracks. Mass storage is not an improvement over prior technology, but being able to edit the .gpx with a text editor does relieve Garmin of having to provide software support. The stitching on the wrist band is messy and loose at points. It won't fit up most shirt sleeves. |
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