Also: the barometric altimeter is a must have for mountaineering purposes.
I guess it very much depends on what you need it for.
The only available Garmin alternative is $200. The one I'm replacing was $30. But I'm willing to go to $75.
Also, it's a bit large because it has a screen, but that's not a deal-breaker.
The one I'm replacing didn't even have a screen, just a light for power and a light to indicate it was connected to the satellites.
https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/87768
I have it, it does the job well. It can store about 14 days of walking, the 25 hour battery life is accurate, it can do more with good batteries (uses 2 AA) and if you reduce the recording interval.
The map is rubbish, I deleted it to get more data for the exported tracks, which you can download to any computer with a USB cable, no special driver needed. Unfortunately it doesn't have a card slot.
The great thing for hiking is it supports just about any coordinate system you can think of (at least supports all that I know).
If my memory serves me good, then a https://www.amazon.com/i-gotU-GT-120-Travel-Logger-Software/... should also do the trick.
That's basically what I'm doing to record my bike rides, with the exception that I leave the display and mobile internet on, since I use it as my bike computer. In my case it lasts around 3 hours, but the screen is at max brightness and there's a continuous websocket connection to my server, GPS is recorded in realtime, accelerometer and magnetic field multiple times a second.
So I guess that if I'd only record GPS once a minute with the screen off and no mobile connection that battery would last for more than a day.
You could also use it as a camera.
Plus, when you get home, you connect it to wifi and let it upload the data to your server.
I mean a cheap phone with a big battery.
Off topic, but since you work with GPS tracking files, perhaps you can recommend a GPS tracking device for me.
Until last year, I used one I got around 2005 that was about half the size of a pack of cigarettes. You turned it on, and it would start logging waypoints at 10 minute intervals to a standard text tracking file on a microSD card. I could unload that text file into my computer and plot the route on a map in a bunch of mapping applications.
It was great because when I was going on an adventure off the grid, or traveling overseas or something, I'd clip it to my backpack and then when I got home look at all the fun places I'd been.
I recently tried to find a replacement on Amazon, and nothing is suitable. They are all:
- Built with a big magnet for clamping to the underside a car
- Just a stripped-down Android phone, so large, fragile, and complicated
- Require a subscription
- Require cellular connectivity
- A watch
- A piece of software
I don't want connected. I don't want to subscribe to anything. I don't want it to drain my phone's battery. I don't want to stalk my ex-girlfriend.
I just want something simple that I can turn on and turn off. I know it's possible, because I had one. I just want to find another one.