Do any of the tom-tom models support a readout of altitude?

Reason I ask is that my old Garmin GPS on our boat (comes with option for
fish finder and water temperature...) does give altitude. Whenever it locks
on three or more satellites, it can do 3-axis navigation. Nice except that
the outputs are only Lat/Long; requiring chart reading skills.

My wife has some medical issues that dictate we should stay below 2000 ft.
Travelling through the mountains by road, this sometimes can't be helped.
Just nice to know what the altitude is and not have to keep looking over at
wifey to see if her lips have turned blue... a navigation equivalent of the
canary in the coal mine.

Oppie

"Oppie" <(E-Mail Removed)> a écrit dans le message de news:
X2Xgm.99160$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Do any of the tom-tom models support a readout of altitude?

altitude is OK on my GO630
http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/t...OPIC_ID=122323

Hallo,

as has been told in an other reply, there are ways to show the altitude.
The question is however, how reliable is that value? I have a TomTom GO
630 and I am logging the NMEA-output of the GPS receiver. There you can
see that the receiver is reporting the elevation and geoid-height. It is
however also reporting the type of satellite fix. This is for me always
a 2D-fix (no 3D-fix). It is also a 2D-fix when I have 8 satellites
fixed. There is also no VDOP reported by the receiver.

This shows that the GPS-received used by the TomTom is only capable of
giving a good 2D-fix. You can't use the elevation.

Regards,
Vincent

Oppie wrote:
> Do any of the tom-tom models support a readout of altitude?
>
> Reason I ask is that my old Garmin GPS on our boat (comes with option
> for fish finder and water temperature...) does give altitude. Whenever
> it locks on three or more satellites, it can do 3-axis navigation. Nice
> except that the outputs are only Lat/Long; requiring chart reading skills.
>
> My wife has some medical issues that dictate we should stay below 2000
> ft. Travelling through the mountains by road, this sometimes can't be
> helped. Just nice to know what the altitude is and not have to keep
> looking over at wifey to see if her lips have turned blue... a
> navigation equivalent of the canary in the coal mine.
>
> Oppie

On Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:31:24 +0200, Vincent Smeets
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>as has been told in an other reply, there are ways to show the altitude.
>The question is however, how reliable is that value?

Not enough to risk the OP's wife's life on. In my experience altitude
is very unreliable compared to your position on the ground on car
Satnav's, where altitude isn't important for 99.9999999% of consumers.
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In article <X2Xgm.99160$(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed)
says...
> Do any of the tom-tom models support a readout of altitude?
>
> Reason I ask is that my old Garmin GPS on our boat (comes with option for
> fish finder and water temperature...) does give altitude. Whenever it locks
> on three or more satellites, it can do 3-axis navigation. Nice except that
> the outputs are only Lat/Long; requiring chart reading skills.
>
> My wife has some medical issues that dictate we should stay below 2000 ft.
> Travelling through the mountains by road, this sometimes can't be helped.
> Just nice to know what the altitude is and not have to keep looking over at
> wifey to see if her lips have turned blue... a navigation equivalent of the
> canary in the coal mine.
>
> Oppie
>
>

I have a Magellan Meridian Platinum Color unit, that I use for off-road
stuff. For street navigation, I use the Tom Tom 930. But the older
Magellan has altitude readout, as well as full contour mapping in
colour, and is by far the more useful unit of the two when I'm either
off-road driving in the LandCruiser, or bushwalking on foot. The TomTom
is useless for that sort of activity.

I would have thought that any of the off-road types of unit, like my
Magellan, or others such as the Garmin eTrex range, etc would read out
altitude for you.

However, caution is warranted, as altitude is NOT the most accurate
measurement on any of the terrestrial units. But as a general guide, my
Magellan is not too bad.

The other thing you may want to consider is one of the watches (eg
Casio) that will give you altitude as well. But don't forget that they
work on pressure, not GPS, so they need to be calibrated against known
altitudes (eg sea level) many times, as atmospheric pressure varies from
day to day - even hour to hour sometimes.

--

NightStalker

>
> Oppie wrote:
>> Do any of the tom-tom models support a readout of altitude?
>>
>> Reason I ask is that my old Garmin GPS on our boat (comes with option
>> for fish finder and water temperature...) does give altitude. Whenever
>> it locks on three or more satellites, it can do 3-axis navigation. Nice
>> except that the outputs are only Lat/Long; requiring chart reading
>> skills.
>>
>> My wife has some medical issues that dictate we should stay below 2000

eat raw food ...

>> ft. Travelling through the mountains by road, this sometimes can't be
>> helped. Just nice to know what the altitude is and not have to keep
>> looking over at wifey to see if her lips have turned blue... a
>> navigation equivalent of the canary in the coal mine.
>>
>> Oppie


I suppose the soft at http://opentom takes care of such problems??

There is "Height" you can install..

I have it on mine ..



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Here's what NightStalker wrote on 8/13/09:
> In article <X2Xgm.99160$(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed)
> says...
>> Do any of the tom-tom models support a readout of altitude?
>>
>> Reason I ask is that my old Garmin GPS on our boat (comes with option for
>> fish finder and water temperature...) does give altitude. Whenever it locks
>> on three or more satellites, it can do 3-axis navigation. Nice except that
>> the outputs are only Lat/Long; requiring chart reading skills.
>>
>> My wife has some medical issues that dictate we should stay below 2000 ft.
>> Travelling through the mountains by road, this sometimes can't be helped.
>> Just nice to know what the altitude is and not have to keep looking over at
>> wifey to see if her lips have turned blue... a navigation equivalent of the
>> canary in the coal mine.
>>
>> Oppie
>>
>>

> I have a Magellan Meridian Platinum Color unit, that I use for off-road
> stuff. For street navigation, I use the Tom Tom 930. But the older
> Magellan has altitude readout, as well as full contour mapping in
> colour, and is by far the more useful unit of the two when I'm either
> off-road driving in the LandCruiser, or bushwalking on foot. The TomTom
> is useless for that sort of activity.

> I would have thought that any of the off-road types of unit, like my
> Magellan, or others such as the Garmin eTrex range, etc would read out
> altitude for you.

> However, caution is warranted, as altitude is NOT the most accurate
> measurement on any of the terrestrial units. But as a general guide, my
> Magellan is not too bad.

> The other thing you may want to consider is one of the watches (eg
> Casio) that will give you altitude as well. But don't forget that they
> work on pressure, not GPS, so they need to be calibrated against known
> altitudes (eg sea level) many times, as atmospheric pressure varies from
> day to day - even hour to hour sometimes.

That might actually be better, since the OP's wife is probably more
interested in the density of the air than the actual altitude...

I have a portable aneroid altimeter, about the diameter of a pocket
watch and twice as thick, that would be perfect. I bought it shortly
after the fall of Rome, however, so I can't say where to get such
things today. Google would presumably help.

--
Gene Bloch 650.366.4267 lettersatblochg.com

"Oppie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:X2Xgm.99160$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Do any of the tom-tom models support a readout of altitude?
>
> Reason I ask is that my old Garmin GPS on our boat (comes with option for
> fish finder and water temperature...) does give altitude.

What use is altitude on a boat? "We're still at sea level" :-)

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
(E-Mail Removed) says...
>
> What use is altitude on a boat? "We're still at sea level" :-)
>
>
>
>

..... VERY big waves...!

--

NightStalker

Graculus wrote:
> "Oppie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:X2Xgm.99160$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Do any of the tom-tom models support a readout of altitude?
>>
>> Reason I ask is that my old Garmin GPS on our boat (comes with option for
>> fish finder and water temperature...) does give altitude.
>
> What use is altitude on a boat? "We're still at sea level" :-)
>
>
Altitude >= 0 is good
Altitude < 0 is *not* good......

Unless you're in one of these:-

http://gizmodo.com/356883/squba-subm...-amazingly-fun

--
Tciao for Now!

John.