Whistler Galileo GPS Receiver

Great value for money

By Philip  Jan 9, 2006 | 2 out of 2 found this Whistler Galileo review helpful

Pros: Bang-for-the-buck, Compactflash expandable memory

Cons: No routing, sometimes slow satelite aquisition, forgets odometer when powered off.

The Galileo can't be beaten for the price, offering all the normal location features, breadcrumb trails, routes, compass, etc., plus mapping capabilities.

The unit I have HAS been beaten. It has been mounted on my motorcycle and cars, taken on boats and up in a sixty year old plane. It has also banged about in my briefcase yet has not missed a beat. A very occasional, unexpected reset was fixed by putting a tiny piece of rubber under the battery mount springs to make them tighter. The rubber plug for the antenna hole fell off at some point and it let in some moisture when riding through torrential rain for hours. Nothing that a few hours sitting on top of a computer monitor couldn't cure and no ill-results have been noted from this incident.

The use of standard rechargeable batteries let to the above-noted problem under conditions of severe vibration but also meant it was easy to keep spare batteries around to counter the short battery life. A car power supply not only eliminated the problem but can keep a set of NiMh rechargeable batteries topped up while they are in the unit. Great so you don't lose satelite lock whn you stop somewhere and turn off the ignition.

I have the software and USB download cable, which works, as advertized but is really just a USB to serial adapter so you still have to contend with slow serial transfers. However, the excellent compactflash system means that I can upload maps to compactflash cards using a card-reader and can even keep a spare card with alternate maps for places I travel frequently - a great way to re-use old flashcards that are too small for my digital camera.

I thought the PC map software was clunky and rather poorly thought-out, but it does the job of loading up maps just fine. It would be nice to have a better display of downloaded track data, etc., and the ability to save or print maps - but I have looked at other companies' offerings and they are al weak in this regard.

The Galileo GPS-100/200 is made by a Taiwanese company and a very similar version is sold by Alan-Electronics in Europe. The maps for the European unit are the sanme format and can be used in the Galileo. Alan have hacked a new firmware with additional features but there may be slight differences in the units such that it won't work in the Galileo - probably only uses metric units anyway.

My biggest gripes? Well, the Galileo displays roads but does not understand them, hence it can not give you road directions. In fairness, that is a pretty advanced feature not found in any competing GPS units either. The Galileio will still route point-to-point if you place the points in suitable places on a map beforehand but it is a tedious process to lay out a route in this manner. Secondly, the Galileo has only one trip-meter/odometer and this resets to zero any time the unit is powered off, making it close to useless for any long journey. Finally, if you leave the Galileo turned off for more than a few days, it can take an hour or two to find satelite signals and work out its new position. I am guessing that it "wakes up" thinking it is at zero-zero (i.e on the prime meridian and equator). Don't know if other GPS's have this problem but it seems like a simple change to the search algorithms would cure it easily.

Overall, a useful, inexpensive and reliable GPS unit, with some nice features and a few flaws but no really major shortcomings.

More basic than it appears to be, but still decent

By hairymon  Dec 10, 2005 | 1 out of 1 found this Whistler Galileo review helpful

Pros: Choice of horizontal or vertical screen, inexpensive, very good maps and POI, memory card option, quick and excellent support

Cons: Sometimes has poor satellite lock, eats batteries, non-standard for geocaching

The Whistler Galileo is a full-featured unit with maps, points of interest, and the ability to add memory from compact flash cards. It is probably the least expensive such unit out there.

The features included a compass, detailed maps on the GPS itself, and a screen that includes info on your speed, location, elevation, etc.

I can't say that I'm totally disappointed, but I really do believe now that "you get what you pay for". If you are not in an extremely open area, the device can (but doesn't always) take up to 15 minutes to "warm up" and find satellites, which is pretty poor. In fact, after 10 minutes it will flash "poor GPS Signal", but if you hit "OK" you will usually start getting a reading a couple of minutes later. We are not talking about the first time you ever turn it on (for which this would be normal), but in situations where it hasn't been on for just a few days.

It also doesn't keep it's lock well in any car I tried it in unless you have the device pressed against a window. Some real "basic" GPS units do have this issue but you wouldn't expect it from a unit at this level. I did buy an external antenna for about $25 on eBay that has helped greatly though (you can magnetically mount it to your car roof or buy a suction device with a metal plate to mount inside your windshield...make sure you buy one with a jack that is "straight through" and not "right angle", because the jack is too deeply recessed for the latter to connect).

If you buy the "accesory pack" or the "Elite" GPS edition you will get a 32MB CF card and more detailed maps. Installing is not very intuitive. First off, you do not simply "install the CD", you create the directories on your own and copy the files there and then manually create the icon and Program Files entry. The instruction booklet does tell you how to do this, but this seems very very crude, I would've expected this in 1985, not 2005.

Then, it can take hours to download the maps with the USB cable. You can improve on this greatly by buying a compact flash reader to do this.

You can only download one set of maps, and the next time you download, it erases that set and creates a new one. The instructions do not tell you this and it is very annoying to find out. And Whistler is not planning to update the maps and points of interest, which date from late 2003 (however, for most purposes they are still fine).

It is also a "non-standard" unit compared to most others in certain ways. In a nod to the standards used by the growingly popular activity of geocaching, most units by defauly display a reading in Degress, Minutes, Decimal minutes (i.e. 40D 58.019' N latitude). This unit will only show readings in Degrees, Minutes, Seconds, Decimal seconds (i.e. 40D 58' 01.5" N). Also, it is not compatible with most standard software out there for downloading waypoints from geocaching sites, etc. If you are not going to use this unit for geocaching (or only will occasionally), this is not a problem at all, but if you are, having to mathematically convert waypoint coords and then enter them manually will be a pain. Also, it does not show an "estimated position error" like most GPS devices do.

The device is not a complete waste, however. Once you get the lock, it works pretty well. If you use it more than once/week, it will not take long to acquire and hold satellites. I find most of the figures to be surprisingly accurate. The lat/long numbers I got vs. looking on maps showed I was usually well within the 45 ft. accuracy they advertised. In my car, I took a trip with the cruise control set at 65 mph and the speed it showed was always between 64-66. The compass was perfectly accurate as well. The one case where the numbers tended to be off was "elevation/
altitude". The instructions warn you that you

By Dejan  Sep 22, 2005

By First L  May 16, 2005

By Ron  May 10, 2005

By TERENCE  Feb 11, 2005

Great GPS Unit For The Money

By Steven  Sep 12, 2004 | 11 out of 12 found this Whistler Galileo review helpful

Pros: Large built-in memory; Easy To Operate; Good Value; Horizonal or Vertical Viewing

Cons: Hard on batteries - recommend you get rechargables

This Whistler Galileo GPS unit is a very good value for the money, and it compares very favorably with the more expensive higher end GPS units.

The unit also does not require you to be a "rocket scientist" to use it successfully - so very easy and intutive to operative. All in all, it should rate about a 8 1/2 out of 10.