Garmin Geko 201

...me and bought me a Garmin Geko 201 GPS and it's beautiful. It caters exactly to my needs and is a nice handy size.

But I'll start at the beginning so you know exactly what this model does…

'''Geocaching'''

For those who don't know about geocaching, you might want to pay a quick visit to www.geocaching.com Geocaching is the exciting, and rather geeky, hobby of using a GPS (or a map if you so wish) to go ...
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I use the Garmin Geko 201 for walking and geocaching and it works perfectly for these activities. You can store quite a few waypoints, but you are limited in the length of labels you put on them. The GPS is really light and is supposedly waterproof, but I won't test it! The batteries are AAAs and seem to last ages - so long as you remember to turn the GPS off after you've finished using it! Price wise I can't help so much with as I received ... more

I've wanted a GPS for ages - not for finding my way about in the car - but for the geeky pursuit of geocaching. This Christmas my boyfriend treated me and bought me a Garmin Geko 201 GPS and it's beautiful. It caters exactly to my needs and is a nice handy size.

But I'll start at the beginning so you know exactly what this model does…

Geocaching

For those who don't know about geocaching, you might want to pay a quick visit to www.geocaching.com Geocaching is the exciting, and rather geeky, hobby of using a GPS (or a map if you so wish) to go for nice pleasant walks and search for hidden treasure. This treasure is in the form of a box with a log inside to sign to prove you have found the box. Inside the box there are often small trinkets to swap for something of your own, sometimes special 'travel bugs' to take to other caches, and many other themed items. However caches come in all shapes and sizes and some are even as small as a film canister, so searching for these little boxes is much aided by the possession of a portable little GPS.

The Geko 201

Back to the actual product itself - the Geko is very small, even for a modern GPS. It is roughly 10cm long, 5cm across and 2-3cm thick. The LCD screen is about 4cm by 3cm. The front of the product sports 5 buttons and every function can be accessed with the use of just these buttons.

My geko is a bright lime green colour and all other Gekos I've seen have been this colour, but don't quote me on it. One design feature I have been particularly impressed with is that the screen is at the bottom of the GPS as you look at it. By positioning it in this place the user is inclined to hold the GPS from behind and is less likely to wrap their hand around the bottom of the product (as you may do with a mobile phone). The result of this is that pretty much all of the GPS is exposed to the sky and this maximises the potential for finding satellites to track on to.

Using the GPS

So you've decided you want to go somewhere with the aid of your GPS. How do you go about operating it, and is it simple to use?

Turning the GPS on is simple. Rather like a mobile phone, you just need to press the power button once. This button is indicated with a traditional red power sign. Instantly the GPS will start searching for satellites so that it can ascertain its position. It is best to turn the GPS on outside when you use it for the first time. The first time you turn on your GPS it may take a long time for it to work out where you are as it probably will have travelled thousands of miles from where it was made and it will have no idea where in the world you might be. Ideally you should turn it on a fair bit before you need to use it.

On consequent uses I have found my Geko has been much quicker in tracking on to satellites and this is often aided by being in a wide open space - for example the countryside.

I leave my little box of tricks to bumble along and look for signals from space until at least 3 numbered bars on the screen have turned from see-through to black. By pressing the button with the page symbol on it repeatedly you can cycle through all the different displays the GPS is able to offer. This includes a target shape (showing available satellites and a graph at the bottom to indicate black lines when they have been tracked) which I use the most when I first turn it on.

Once your GPS has found a strong enough signal (usually 3-4 satellites with bold black lines shown on the graph) then you can cycle through the display (pressing the page button) until you reach a menu.

Entering Co-ordinates

When I use my GPS for geocaching I have the co-ordinates for the place where the cache is hidden which I have got from the web. To enter them into the Geko and list them as a 'waypoint' is slightly less straightforward as there are so few buttons. However, once you are used to the process it just becomes laborious rather than complicated, and in the end its worth it - so stick with it!

Basically you go to the menu that says 'Mark' at the top of it and press the OK button. To go to other options on this menu you just scroll up and down using the arrow buttons and choose OK to make your selection.

Once you click OK you will be presented with a default waypoint which usually has the general name of 001. To edit this to what you want all you have to do is use the arrow keys to select each thing (you know its selected once the name or coordinates are highlighted in a black box) and press OK. You will then be presented with a drop down menu which you can scroll through with the arrow buttons and press OK once you have found the number or letter you are after. This process applied to both naming the waypoint and entering the numbers of the co-ordinate.

Tally Ho!

Once this is all done you're pretty much ready to set off. You just go to the 'Waypoints' option on the menu, choose OK and then find the waypoint you just named. They are all stored in this section rather like a phone book with tabs down the side, so you just go to section A-B if you named it something like ABC1, or S-T if its something like 'SUN1", and so on. Then click on the way point and choose 'Go To' in the menu that pops up.

From here you just cycle through the menus using the page button until you reach a compass-like page which shows an arrow pointing in the direction you want to go and a countdown as to how near to the marked point you are.

When you get within 20 feet of the target the GPS will tell you that you are arriving at your destination.

Other Features

There are loads of features hidden on this GPS. Amongst these my favourites include a map that shows exactly where you've been, as well as a predicted route to the upcoming marked point, a speedometer and even a games section. There are other features, like those that tell you when the best time to hunt and fish is, but I tend not to use these so much.

Find a Field

The games options on the Geo 201 are ideally played in a very large space. You can play games where you run around a virtual maze collecting flags, or have to catch little lizards (gekos). However, I tried playing the games on a walk and found I was constantly running into (real life) fences. Later on we found an empty beach and this was ideal. Admittedly the small children collecting driftwood gave me some rather strange looks, but I was enjoying myself.

Stumbling Points

Some things that aren't obvious on the Geko 201 are how to turn it off (push and hold the power button for 2 seconds), how to turn on the back light (press the power button once to turn it on and once to turn it off), or indeed how to enter the co-ordinates if you've never used a GPS before.

Overall

If you know what you're looking for in a GPS then hopefully this review has helped you. If you don't, then I hope it's given you some insight into how to use one and what the Geko 201 can offer.

I use the Garmin Geko 201 for walking and geocaching and it works perfectly for these activities. You can store quite a few waypoints, but you are limited in the length of labels you put on them. The GPS is really light and is supposedly waterproof, but I won't test it! The batteries are AAAs and seem to last ages - so long as you remember to turn the GPS off after you've finished using it! Price wise I can't help so much with as I received my GPS as a present, but brief searches on the net show you can get hold of this GPS from about £65 upwards.

I plan to add some photos to this review soon - so do come back and check them out.

Thanks for reading and rating!

©tac20 

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