GPS App's - What do you recommend?

[HIALT2D]

Ok, I decided to play around with Gaia and Motion-X. Now, I need to decide on how to get the GPS signal to my wifi-only I-Pad Mini. From what I can tell, the dongle is out as there is no way to connect it to the I-Pad. It looks like there are a number of GPS signal receivers that will send the GPS signal to my I-Pad via Bluetooth. Anyone have any experience with these devices?

Thanks,
Glen

 

[thispiece]

A friend of mine uses a Dual Electronics XGPS150A to bluetooth GPS to his iPad. He has only good things to say about it. I purchased it, but don't have an iPad yet to give you my personal experience with a non GPS enabled device. I have connected my iPhone to it and where I used to have a poor GPS signal in the desert between dunes, it is now perfect.

 

[HIALT2D]

A friend of mine uses a Dual Electronics XGPS150A to bluetooth GPS to his iPad. He has only good things to say about it. I purchased it, but don't have an iPad yet to give you my personal experience with a non GPS enabled device. I have connected my iPhone to it and where I used to have a poor GPS signal in the desert between dunes, it is now perfect.

I'll take a look at it. THX

 

[ScorpioVI]

Another vote for Gaia here. Wasn't too sure about it at first playing around with it at home but I now have a couple of trips under my belt running Gaia and it works great!

 

[TheWitchAndTheWoodsman]

Gaia's added the NatGeo Trails Illustrated maps on top of the usual smattering of USGS topo, USFS maps, land use maps, and dozens others. That makes it a pretty easy choice for me. It takes a subscription these days, but it's amazing for pretty much any kind of navigation I've thrown at it so far. I haven't had a chance to try it outside the US yet, so I can't comment on its international content.

 

[HIALT2D]

Ok, after doing a little research and reading thru the posts here and on another forum, I decided on giving both GAIA & Motion-X a try. I purchased the GAIA Premium subscription and for now am using the free version of Motion-X. I purchased the DUAL XGPS160 Receiver in order get the signal to my I-Pad Mini via Bluetooth.

I also downloaded the free DUAL GPS app.


The I-Pad is held in place with a RAM Mount X-Grip and a RAM Mount suction cup base.

The suction cup base would not hold to the smooth plastic bottom, so I purchased a suction cup mounting disk.

With the disk, the suction cup base hold just fine......

The DUAL GPS Receiver comes with a rubberized base that holds it in place and prevents it from sliding around.

The DUAL GPS Receiver had trouble linking to the I-Pad at first. It took about 5 or 6 tries, but once it finally linked I have had no trouble. It also had a little trouble locating satellites, even after setting out on the ground in the open. It took about 10 minutes of searching before it was able to locate several satellites, but like the Bluetooth connection, once it did, it has worked great every time since.

I'll be taking the van out this weekend to play around with the navigation system and see how everything works.

 

[SpikeMD]

Samsung Tab A 8 inch
Gaia gps pro
DeLorme InReach 1st gen bluetooth to tablet
DeLorme app
Google maps for backup

All must download maps before your trip but DeLorme app has most maps already downloaded

I will be heading to Baja in 2 weeks and will be seeing how accurate the maps will be down south.

I really like InReach for GPS signal, breadcrumb trail, and satellite text messaging as well as SOS in extreme emergency. Worh the money.

 

[Steve_OR]

I use Hema Maps with an iPad mini. It has very good offline mapping as well as multiple maps to switch back and forth. The record trip feature has some very fun options like adding photos instantly of your tip and sharing them when you publish. Other Hema users can download your trips with pics and go, republish with their own pics and comments to the trip. Trip building if simple and user friendly. Trip building can be done at a desk top on there cloud base site, then automatically uploaded to your devices. Cost is very low and a one time fee.

 

[SpikeMD]

Gaia GPS also allows u to record trips as well. You can also see other Gaia user trips which is helpful for offroading to see if that 5 mile trail will take a few minutes or a few hours based on other users tracks.

I've heard Hema is good in Aus.

 

[loucao_jr]

I use OruxMaps, It has been quite a good experience and, as said before, it's totally free and you have a donation option. Since I think it's such a good product I'm running the Donate version.

With Orux You can either use online or offline maps. A few releases ago google earth was one of the the online map source.
I normally use offline maps sourced from https://www.openandromaps.org/en/ . These maps are developed for Orux and Locus.

Orux is pretty customizable and even has a auto emergency SMS among many other features that I've never used!

 

[HIALT2D]

Ok, so I'm a bonehead I finally got a chance to take the van out and play around with the RAM Mount, the GPS receiver and the GAIA app.

The RAM Mount worked great, the GPS receiver appeared to be working just fine, but all I could get on the GAIA map screen was "No Data Available".

After a frustrating hour of trying other maps screens, turning everything off and back on, and putting the GPS receiver in several different locations, I came home and read the instructions.........

What do you mean I have to download the maps first

 

[loucao_jr]

Hi,

I've just installed GAIA, and from what I was able to see it's based on online mapping and has some kind of caching.
The first time I powered it up it started showing my location topo map.

I'll try to dig more into it.

EDIT.: Check the following link for the map download tutorial
https://help.gaiagps.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003525127-Download-Maps-for-Offline-Use

 

[Ruckup08]

I've used several including MotionX, Backcountry Navigator, etc. and prefer Gaia by far. Works well on an old iPad2 and a iPhone5 not so well on fairly new Android tablet. The Android tablet doesn't have a lot of memory and was cheap so not sure if it was a fair test but Gaia is fairly new to Android. Its very intuitive IMO. I especially like that I can log into there website create waypoints, routes etc. and they push to all my devices and share with other users. Also as a backup you can print maps sheets with your waypoints, etc. marked. Well worth the fee!

 

[Ruckup08]

The DUAL GPS Receiver had trouble linking to the I-Pad at first. It took about 5 or 6 tries, but once it finally linked I have had no trouble. It also had a little trouble locating satellites, even after setting out on the ground in the open. It took about 10 minutes of searching before it was able to locate several satellites, but like the Bluetooth connection, once it did, it has worked great every time since.

In my experience, its typical for a GPS to take a while to acquire when starting for the first time. Subsequent start ups in that same general area will be quicker but it can still take a few minutes though based on signal strength. Same is true if you turn it off and then fly to the other side of the country and start it. ...it will take a while the first time

 

[Road]

Ok, so I'm a bonehead I finally got a chance to take the van out and play around with the RAM Mount, the GPS receiver and the GAIA app.

The RAM Mount worked great, the GPS receiver appeared to be working just fine, but all I could get on the GAIA map screen was "No Data Available".

After a frustrating hour of trying other maps screens, turning everything off and back on, and putting the GPS receiver in several different locations, I came home and read the instructions.........

What do you mean I have to download the maps first

Ha! That's hilarious.

 

[Mongol_Riding]

I use the soviet military maps app which work great here in Mongolia and gives me a good TOPO map. The issue is that its quite dated. I supplement this with my Garmin Montana loaded with Open Street Maps which is actually really detailed here and shows roughly 95% of all camel trails. Navigating here isn't really demanding, if you're in any bind, you just need to follow the empty vodka bottles and that'll bring you straight to the nearest town.

 

[Venture Overland Gear]

I really like the Gaia app, i eun it on my Samsung phone and tab!

 

[HappyOurOverlanding]

Another vote for Gaia here. Wasn't too sure about it at first playing around with it at home but I now have a couple of trips under my belt running Gaia and it works great!

I'm with you @ScorpioVI and @Ruckup08. I've had two trips with Gaia GPS and it's worked great. Also, I pulled a public route off the Gaia GPS website and followed the route on the way back from DV last week.

I mapped the entire trip on my Android and my wife was following the downloaded route on her iPhone. This was the first venture at using at using the app with someone else's route. It proved easier than expected. When I checked my maps in my Gaia account, I saw that the public route was overlaid perfectly on that portion of the trip. Hmmmm.... I guess it's time to grow up and get the big boy tablet....

I did notice that the layout of the iPhone app is a bit more user friendly than the Android so I have a feeling the end result of the tablet choice will be....... ... not sure I can say it.....red fruit.... there I said it.

 

[bnyc000]

Like others on this site I use Gaia Maps on an Ipad (mini) mounted to a Ram mount bluetoothed to a Dual GPS receiver. When I go out in the field and have no cellular service, my navigation bundle keeps me on track!

 

[HIALT2D]

While doing a little digging around for some info. on the GAIA GPS app. I found a 178 page User Manual from May of 2017. I've only glanced through it but it appears to cover just about all the features of the app. It's in PDF form and too large to attach here. If anyone wants a copy, I can e-mail it to you.