Welcome to this month’s GPS Training podcast, it’s our 22nd episode.

Today we Tom, from Garmin, Ian from GPS training also myself, Jon, from GPS Training

So, without further ado let’s get on with today’s podcast ……

It's our 22nd podcast.

In today’s podcast look at the following things –

· Time - 1 min 30 seconds - We talk over the waterproof classifications different GPS units get, and believe me we had plenty of fun doing this as we submerged GPS units in water for the duration of the chat.

· Time - 17 min 5 seconds - We talk over the changes to the handheld GPS marketplace with the advent of the Garmin GPSMAP66s

· Time - 23 min 5 seconds - And then we have Ian’s FAQ’s, both Garmin and SatMap and for the first time ever we have a FAQ for those of you wearing a Garmin GPS watch

Next thing we have this month’s podcast is a chat Tom, from Garmin about the some of the standards that some of the navigational products we use are tested to

All Garmin products IPX 7

What is IPX rating (waterproof rating) - International Protection Marking, IEC standard 60529, sometimes interpreted as Ingress Protection Marking, classifies and rates the degree of protection provided against intrusion (body parts such as hands and fingers), dust, accidental contact, and water by mechanical casings and electrical enclosures

So let’s put the unit to the test then – so we can submerse them for the duration of the test

X - relates to the - Solid particle protection - indicates the level of protection that the enclosure provides against access to hazardous parts (e.g., electrical conductors, moving parts) and the ingress of solid foreign objects

X - means there is no data available to specify a protection rating with regard to this criteria.

7 – relates to - Immersion, up to 1 m depth - Ingress of water in harmful quantity shall not be possible when the enclosure is immersed in water under defined conditions of pressure and time (up to 1 m of submersion).

Test duration: 30 minutes - you can watch it online here

Tested with the lowest point of the enclosure 1000 mm below the surface of the water, or the highest point 150 mm below the surface, whichever is deeper.

SatMap Active 20 - IP68 waterproof & IK7 impact rating

6 - means - Dust tight (Garmin get an x for this – it does not relate to?) - No ingress of dust; complete protection against contact (dust tight). A vacuum must be applied. Test duration of up to 8 hours based on air flow.

8 - Immersion, 1 m or more depth - Test duration: agreement with manufacturer

Depth specified by manufacturer, generally up to 3 m

IK rating (Solely SatMap refer to this) - where “XX” is a number from 00 to 10 indicating the degrees of protection provided by electrical enclosures (including luminaires) against external mechanical impacts

IK07 Protected against 2 joules impact - Equivalent to impact of 0.5 kg mass dropped from 400 mm above impacted surface.

Garmin have tested the GPSMAP66s to the following standard - MIL STD 810G ruggedness for thermal, shock and water performance

To find out more about the GPS units we have available from GPS training please go to gpstraining.co.uk – click on – GPS Store – then click on Handheld GPS Units

2 - We talk over the changes to the handheld GPS marketplace with the advent of the Garmin GPSMAP66s

3 – Ian’s FAQ’s

Welcome Ian back to the Podcast to talk over some of his FAQ’s, the frequently asked questions he has been asked on his courses over the past month.

This month we don’t just have a FAQ for both Garmin and SatMap handheld units but we also have a FAQ for wearables, these are wrist based GPS devices.

Garmin – with a Topo Pro map card inserted in a GPS, if while in a National Park, why does a GPS with Topo Europe mapping route in a different way to a GPS without Topo Europe mapping and how do you override it?

As mentioned, I had this on the last Clayton course where two g...