Garmin Dakota 10 Waterproof Hiking GPS
Garmin Dakota 10 Waterproof Hiking GPS
- Sunlight-readable, 2.6-inch color touchscreen display
- High-sensitivity GPS with HotFix satellite prediction
- Built to withstand the elements: bumps, dust, dirt and water
- Preloaded with a worldwide basemap plus has 850 MB of free internal memory for map transfers
- One-year limited warranty
- High-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver
- 2.6 inch transflective color TFT touchscreen
- 20 hour battery life
- Rugged waterproof case (IPX7)
- USB interface; RoHS version available
Outdoor navigation meets touchscreen simplicity in Dakota 10. This rugged, palm-sized navigator boasts touchscreen navigation, high-sensitivity GPS with HotFix satellite prediction, and a worldwide basemap in one affordable, power-packed punch. Touchscreen navigation, high-sensitivity GPS with HotFix satellite prediction, and a worldwide basemap. Click to enlarge. (Click on image below to change view.)
2.6-inch touchscreen with easy-to-use interface. Touchscreen navigation for the great outdoors. Touch and Go
Dakota 10 makes outdoor navigation effortless with a tough, sunlight-readable, 2.6 inch color touchscreen display. The interface is easy to use, so you’ll spend more time enjoying
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E. Holm
September 14, 2012Outdoors, Training and Road/Track navigation – In both wet and cold conditions!,
EDIT / New Information August 18. 2012 (read addition).
GREAT FOR:
Any type of tracking or traveling (including motorcycles, bicycles) where you want the security of an accurate, reliable and highly water resistant GPS unit. Always ready to work thanks to the vast availability of AA-batteries, and a good range of quality maps (TOPO, Street etc.).
HIGHLIGHTS:
– Easy-to-use and reliable touchscreen (even for big fingers/hands).
– Good “Classic” color LCD screen (Can be watched with no back-light). Many other units turns the screen off after a certain time which could be frustrating during some activities, like when hiking small tracks or motorcycling.
– Uses two (2) AA-batteries. Very practical for those who travel, and the batteries can be gotten everywhere.
– Waterproof/resistant. When the USB-flap is tightly shut and the unit’s new or haven’t been too much in the sun or in the dry, it has been quite waterproof/resistant.
– Maps. Everything from small Norwegian hiking tracks, city-center maps to typical road/street maps with navigation (no sound though). Garmin has a lot of maps to choose from, and they’re EXPENSIVE!
REMEMBER that you can’t get those special lithium batteries that is required by other GPS units (or phones) everywhere, and sometimes you can even have problems charging them for many reasons (camping, wrong voltage, forgotten cable, dead battery…). In a bad case scenario, this could make you stranded somewhere…
After a few years of service now, my Dakota 20 is still doing it’s job. Perfect for the tracking, bicycling, motorcycling (motorcycle) and other activities I have used it for. After my now long experience with Dakota 20, I still recommend it, with two notes regarding the reliability; The USB cover (flap) should be improved as it can leak in some circumstances. As I mention later in my review, I now use a bit of DuctTape to cover the USB flap. The memory-card holder also need some work (the Memory Card come loose after some travel on bumpy roads.
PREVENT POSSIBLE WATER DAMAGE
First I open the USB flap and battery lid. I remove any dirt and dust with a hot wet cloth. I don’t use strong chemicals or anything with alcohol to prevent the rubber and the sealing to dry out. The mini USB on the top (backside) is covered by a flap that is not locked, or are in any other way protected from opening. The USB-flap is made of a soft material who may harden after a while, something I have witnessed the beginning of allready (because of long exposures to the sun, I guess). I simply use tape (duct tape) to cover the flap and hold it in place. The battery lid is equipped with both a rubber sealing and a lock, so here I just have to check the sealing (easy when changing batteries). This should hold the water or dust out.
New info is added to the review: Durability, road maps and a few overall comments.
THE SIZE/SCREEN
It uses AA-batteries, meaning the batteries can be replaced wherever you travel to, for the most part. AA-batteries are pretty standard (BIG Plus).
It has a smaller screen than it’s big brother Oregon (and others), and the resolution is not the best. When that is said, if you want a better, it most often use more battery power (duration), or it can’t be used in daylight without turning the back-light on. The screen also shows all/most of what you need to know I have big hands, and often use gloves when hiking this time at year (December). I have mostly no problems with using the touch screen, mostly because of the big buttons. Even small buttons, when typing addresses etc, aren’t smaller than what I’m used to from mobile phones etc. No big problem.
Yes, compared to a mobile phone with the same screen size, this unit could look worse. But is that really a problem?? It’s more than good enough to view maps, and everything else that matters, and the colors are good. Actually, I think it’s a good idea! This screen requires less battery power, and make it last longer.
One small useful possibility if you are low on batteries; The screen can be watched without the backlit on, but quite weak, of course (I often use it like this).
RELIABILITY
My unite is very rugged. A lot of soft-grip plastic all around, and the screen it self, sits a little lower in front. Nice if you should drop it, would be hard to hit the screen first unless if there was rocks ot other things in the way. Also, the unit is built tightly. The battery lid and the mini-usb flap sits tightly.
GPS-SENSITIVITY/CONNECTION
I must admit that older Garmin models (don’t remember their name) was a bit more sensitive. But I have had no problems so far. It locks quite fast to the satellites, and I use EGNOS (for Europe), not WAAS that Americans use. Also no problems in heavy forest or around “tall” buildings (not much of them here in Oslo 🙂 )…
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|Warren Merrill
September 14, 2012Easiest to use handheld yet,
I recently decided to start spending some time geocaching with my son. I finally settled on either the Geomate, Jr., the Garmin Dakota, Garmin Oregon or DeLorme PN-40. I asked questions at forums, looked at on-line reviews, checked out the ones I could find in stores (Oregon and PN-20) and finally decided on either the Dakota 10 (a great price on a bundle was the big attraction at the time) or the Oregon 300. The Geomate got great reviews and the most reasonably priced of the group, but it’s only good for one thing, geocaching, tho it does it well. The PN-40 also got pretty good reviews, but the screen is smaller than the Oregon’s, the computer software is in addition to the device purchase and an annual subscription (at a very fair price tho) is needed for all the available advertised map features. It’s also a device with a pretty steep learning curve, especially on the trip planning side. That left the Dakota and Oregon. My two concerns on the Dakota 10 was lack of an SD slot, and a lower resolution screen than the Oregon. But for $100 savings I took a gamble and ordered the Dakota geocache and hike bundle. Turns out my worries were all for naught.
This little navigator has been a pleasant surprise. Dead simple to use, the menus made sense right out of the box, screen sensitively is excellent, even text-entry on the touch-screen is surprisingly easy and accurate. The bundle included the 100K US maps on DVD, which while very good were not as detailed as I had hoped. Not to worry. FREE user-contributed maps are available and many are very good to absolutely excellent. The Florida 24K topo I found at GPSFileDepot was in the latter category. Bathyspheric data, roads, trails, poi’s, extended text descriptions of land features like springs, waterways, landmarks, historical features. All I could ask for, no added charge. No other manufacturer has a following creating compatible maps like Garmin’s. And a recent Garmin application update has even added the ability to easily import and use raster maps(ie, paper maps, attractions maps, etc) in your Dakota. I’m actually working on adding an early 1900’s Central Florida railroad map that I can overlay on my 24K topo for searching out old railway junctions and stations. With any luck I might dig up a little Florida history.
Here’s the best part, and something I didn’t know about in advance. Garmin’s “Profiles” is a powerful menu feature. Out of the box, the menus are customized/organized for specific uses like Geocaching, Recreational, Marine and Automotive. I modified my Automotive to use Garmin’s City Navigator (2009) map, Florida section only, with my 24K topographic maps disabled. I moved “Active Route” and “Route Planner” to the first page and customized the data I wanted displayed on my trip computer and compass pages, then saved it. Now when I tap Change Profile>Automotive, all my settings are ready to go. I customized Geocaching in the same manner, disabling road maps and enabling topo’s, even disabling “ground cover” display so the map screen is even easier to see. What other device other than Garmin’s Oregon series is this easy to use and set-up for your specific needs? Nothing that I’ve seen.
My only complaint, and it’s not even a serious issue, is screen readability. It seems all the newer high-resolution handheld screens suffer screen legibilty issues compared to the older devices like the tried-and-true 60CSx. So far no one has come up with a solution. The Dakota is certainly more readable than the Oregon, even tho the backlight is not as strong. I haven’t yet found a lighting condition that rendered the screen unreadable, unlike the Oregon I looked at side by side with it. Even the Oregon only needed to be turned a bit to see in light shade, a problematic light. Even when used tie-wrapped to my bike I never found the Dakota completely unreadable. But as mentioned by others, there’s room for improvement. For now it’s just a necessary trade-off for the better graphics and detail and easier use on these new off-road devices.
My concern on the lack of additional SD storage for maps was unwarranted. Loading the 24K map for the entire State of Florida, routable City Navigator road maps for all of Florida, 100K topos for Georgia and Alabama and a hundred or so geocache locations with details (gpx files) took less than 300MB of the available 850MB+ of on board storage. I don’t think I’m going to run out of space for hundred’s more geocache locations, waypoints, routes or even additional maps if needed. The Dakota 10 also lacks the tri-axial compass and barometric altimeter of the Dakota 20 (and Oregons), but I can’t see any situations where I would need those. The compass on the Dakota 10 is fine for almost all my uses and I have no need for the altimeter anyway, especially in Florida.
So all in all, I really have only a single complaint. Screen brightness in certain specific lighting conditions could be…
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|Mark Witt
September 14, 2012Excellent upgrade from etrex vista hCX,
After losing a Garmin etrex vista hCX which I loved, I decided to go with the Dakota 20 (D20). I will be comparing the two in the review.
Maps and Storage:
The D20 comes loaded with a basemap, which has most major highways, but no streets. So for your purpose, you can choose City Navigator (required for auto navigation to work), or Topo 2008 (shows mountain countours & most lakes). Luckily, I had both Topo and City Nav on my computer.
Since the D20 comes with 850mb of internal memory, it’s enough for self selected regions in Topo 2008 and/or Inland Lakes map, but not for City Nav. I put in a 4gb microSDHC card, which handled the 1.2gb .IMG file of the city navigator map. What might trouble some is that the D20 does not come with Mapsource(a great program for making custom maps, and upload trails and routes) or any kind of software. The hCX comes bundled with Mapsource. Although if you purchase the City Navigator, it comes with Mapsource.
When combining multiple maps onto the device, the D20 is much more convenient as you simply add the .IMG files (must have different file names) into the Garmin folder. D20 will automatically detect the maps and enable them. In the hCX, you had to merge all of the .IMG files into one or use seperate microSD cards, which was a toll. The D20 stores the saved tracks individually as .GPX files, whereas the hcx clumps all the trails into one file(named by date).
Auto Navigation:
I didn’t find much info about Auto Navigation for the D20 before purchased, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. After trying it a few times, it’s definitely a step up from the hCX. There’s an Automobile mode for navigation, where the map is tilted so you can see the turn coming from farther ahead. The directions text is noticeably smaller on the D20, which might be hard for some to read, but luckily you can adjust the text size of the directions. You can also customize what information you want to see (i.e-distance to destination, odometer, etc.). The D20 gives almost the same beep as the hCX when turns are approaching(no voice of course). The D20 navigation overall is more pleasing to the eye.
Battery Life:
The hCX wins on battery life 25 hrs vs 20 hours on the D20. There is a battery save mode on the D20 that definitely improves battery life. How it works is the screen will turn off in about 15 idle seconds to save power, and you simply touch the screen to see again. On D20’s regular battery mode, I noticed the battery drains very quickly -definitely less than 20 hours. Recharcheable NiMH AA batteries are a must since you’ll be going through them quickly. I use Sanyo Eneloop and Rayovac Hybrid. Be sure to change the Battery type under Setup>System to get the correct battery meter.
Visibility:
This has been the biggest complain by some, but I found the visibility/brightness on the D20 to be suitable for most types of lighting, including in the sun and in the dark. You can adjust the backlight (although brighter means less battery life). I’ll admit it can be harder to see in certain angles of sunlight, but this hasn’t been a problem during auto nav or regular use. The hCX is slightly brighter, but it’s not a significant difference.
Accuracy:
During initial use, the satelites weren’t detected on the D20. I had to walk outside before the Satelites could lock on. The D20 has three modes for Satellite: Normal, WAAS, and Demo. I’ve had the most accurate luck with WAAS as i’m assuming it’s using the new satelite technology. On the D20 i’ve gotten accuracy as close as 10 ft, whereas on the hCX 20ft was usually the closest it would ever get. In general though, the satelite signal on the D20 is about the same as the hCX.
GPS Interface:
This is where the D20 far outshines the hCX. You navigate through all of the menus by touch. This is such a relief from using hCX’s mini joystick and side buttons. What’s nice about the D20 is you can move the map around by sliding your finger on it, whereas on the hCX joystick you have to sluggishly go at an angle. The D20 works much faster in operation. For example, it refreshes the maps considerably faster than the hCX. This equals less headaches when trying to pinpoint a location.
The layout on the D20 is very straight forward. The main menu contains all of the icons (Map, Where to, Track Manager, Setup, etc.) and you can scroll through all of the features by the arrows on the bottom corners. The hCX has a higher learning curve as you have to manipulate multiple buttons to get somewhere.
GPS Use:
I use the D20 for fitness activities: kayaking, jogging, cycling, and hiking. I can easily plot my map with distance and tracks(breadcrumb trails) onto websites that map .GPX files(Mapmyfitness, Motionbased). I use it too, of course, for auto navigation. The hCX is capable…
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