GPS Comparison Charts

[mkrolewski]

My Neo is on its way. Can you deleted a left greenside bunker and create something else in its place?

Yes! You can remark, change, or move the 4 custom points as you see fit. This also includes the F/B/C points. Currently, you cannot do this with the SkyCaddie product or the GolfGuru, although they say they will be fixing that in the future.

 

For example, I've noticed that most greens are mapped very well, but the reading to the back of one particular green was off by about 7 yards. You can can select that point (back) and register it again where you want it to be. This is helpful because sometimes satellite mapping can be off. The green I'm talking about here has drop off that's really not part of the green, but it might look that way from an aerial view. You definitely would not want to land a ball there, and the flag would never be there. So it was easy to change this one point in the unit.

 

Renaming points can be a pain because you have to scroll through the alphabet to get to each letter. There are preset custom points like "layup" and "bunker" but not nearly enough in my opinion. One I've made up was "cutdog" because I mapped a custom point for how far a tee shot needed to be in order to cut the dog leg of a hole. Depending on where the tees are that day, this can range from very doable, to nearly impossible. The custom point helps me decide off the tee which route to take.

 

I take it from your comments that the F/C/B are "fixed" points for each green? Not sure how to phrase this so I get a clear understanding. So if I am 90* left of the green, the front yardage will be a yardage to point <F and the yardage to the back qould be a yardage to point <B? They will NOT reflect the nearest and farthest points of the green relative to my position. yardages to points F1 and B1 as I diagram here?

 

------B1

 

>B Center <F ----------fairway----------------------------Tee

 

------F1

 

------me

 

 

You are perfectly correct. Assuming only 3 points f/c/b. It could be possible that the front and back both are the same distance from you. The center of the green distance is still correct. That is the only distance that is always correct.

 

The SkyCaddie's Intelligreen for premapped holes and the Golf Guru's green sense, there are a whole set of points lining the perimeter of the green. It would be possible then to find or to compute between points, the points that represent the f/c/b along the line you are standing to the green. Then the 3 positions are "correct".

 

 

Mike

 

 

PS. Within the previous quote, that is an interesting idea of remapping the f/c/b to be other points. I bet you could do that. But then you will have to remember which is which as I doubt you can rename these points. Kind of confusing to me.

[Diesel]

you could name them FRGHT, or FLEFT, and that would give you yardages to the fronts of the green from different angles...

 

seems like something i could do with my iGolf, which i am really starting to like... the more custom points i'm adding the better it is... i still need to remap some of the greens, cause i wasn't 100% confident with what they said out of the box...

[dizzydog]

Costco now carries the Sonocaddie and I think im going to pull the trigger on it.

[blade_man]

That 10 course download limit is the major detraction of the Sky Caddie IMO.

 

Do any of the other units get better reception than the others? That really is the question.

 

 

Now you know that is 10 at a time, you can always go back and download other courses, you create folders and put in 10 for that folder and create another folder and put 10 in it and so on, so if you are traveling to a different area just download that folder, really pretty simple. Hope this helps.

[blkdiamond]

I recently bought a Sonocaddie off a member here and used it for the first time yesterday afternoon. I am VERY pleased with my purchase. I can't compare it to any other GPS units as I have only used the Sonocaddie, but here are a few observations.

 

-The unit is the perfect size, not too big, not too small. It is no bigger than a small cell phone. At first I had it clipped on my bag as I was worried that it would be distracting if I had it on my belt, but I found that having it on my belt was not an issue and it was more convenient.

-The screen was fairly easy to view, in direct sunlight I just shielded the sun with my hand.

-The unit was very easy to use, the buttons were conveniently placed and the navigation was simple once I got the hang of it.

-The course details that I downloaded were very accurate, some points were off a few yards, but for the most part it was very close. The points were easily editable and it was easy to add and delete points. BTW, there is no subscription fee to download courses.

-I really liked the distance feature on the unit that allows you to easily measure the distance from one point to another (drives, etc.).

-The scorecard feature is great as well, allowing you to enter your score for each hole, calculating your current score. My only complaint is that it only tracks score and doesn't have the ability to track putts, GIR, etc.

 

I highly recommend looking into the Sonocaddie if you are looking for a GPS unit, I am very pleased with my purchase.

[downwindduke]

Great postings.

 

Unfortunately, despite the good advice, I may have impulsively made a poor choice. I have been trying to get my Golflogix GPS 8 loaded for a day now (yes it has been 24 hours of frustrations, one after the other). So far, my 2 phone calls and 1 email to the company have gone unanswered (I did get a responding email telling they cared). In the unlikelihood I ever get this piece of *?##&* working, there is a feature I believe I will find bewildering---every time I load a new course, all courses I had previously loaded will be deleted (what's with that?). Oh well, I did get a good buy on eBay so if it had worked I would have been happy.

 

Downwind

[lologolf]

Great postings.

 

Unfortunately, despite the good advice, I may have impulsively made a poor choice. I have been trying to get my Golflogix GPS 8 loaded for a day now (yes it has been 24 hours of frustrations, one after the other). So far, my 2 phone calls and 1 email to the company have gone unanswered (I did get a responding email telling they cared). In the unlikelihood I ever get this piece of *?##&* working, there is a feature I believe I will find bewildering---every time I load a new course, all courses I had previously loaded will be deleted (what's with that?). Oh well, I did get a good buy on eBay so if it had worked I would have been happy.

 

Downwind

 

Downwind,

 

my gps-8 is coming tomorrow direct from golflogix, I have the first gen unit and had no issues with loading the software. what issues are you having with the software?

[Solutions Etcetera]

there is a feature I believe I will find bewildering---every time I load a new course, all courses I had previously loaded will be deleted (what's with that?).

This is expected behavior. Uploading courses to the GL unit is akin to a write operation to a file... it replaces everything in the file with what you're writing.

 

Anytime you do an upload you have to select "all" of the courses you want uploaded. I believe this is a limitation with Garmin's file system as I have seen the same behavior on other devices I have owned.

[downwindduke]

The main issue has been that right in the middle of any action I try to take relative to Golflogix a warning box appears stating that "golf manager.exe" is experiencing difficulty and must close (which it does). I have now spoken with their techs (actually it was fairly quick, as opposed to my earlier posting) and they informed me (after some prodding) that this is an issue with several customers and they promised to call me back if and when they resolve the issue. Meanwhile, where exactly is that sprinkler head?

 

downwind

[ashokrai]

I have the new Golf Logix unit and uploaded courses without a problem. I am using their mac software (which may be more stable than the windows version). I was actually shocked that I started getting readings sitting in my bedroom. We live in a golf course subdivision, but I was impressed that it was picking up satellite reception inside the house so well.

[lologolf]

The main issue has been that right in the middle of any action I try to take relative to Golflogix a warning box appears stating that "golf manager.exe" is experiencing difficulty and must close (which it does). I have now spoken with their techs (actually it was fairly quick, as opposed to my earlier posting) and they informed me (after some prodding) that this is an issue with several customers and they promised to call me back if and when they resolve the issue. Meanwhile, where exactly is that sprinkler head?

 

downwind

 

 

I'll have to watch for this, thanks for the update.

[thelatorres]

Charlie, you left out the Golf Guru. New company, and from the other posts on this site, great customer sevice.

[Carolina Golfer 2]

I have the new Golf Logix unit and uploaded courses without a problem. I am using their mac software (which may be more stable than the windows version). I was actually shocked that I started getting readings sitting in my bedroom. We live in a golf course subdivision, but I was impressed that it was picking up satellite reception inside the house so well.

So we're dying to know. Is it a 5 or 6 iron from your living room to the green :D

[sshadow2]

I was about to pull the trigger on a Guru, but I want to wait on reviews about the new Sonocaddie V300. I just like the amount of information it gives on the course screen plus all the game tracking ability. It's the only one I see out of all offerings, including the Skycaddie 5, that IMO is worth over $400.

[phil75070]

I would have a few questions about the Sonocaddie.

 

- Although it has 14 satellite channels, is it WAAS enabled? That would determine just how accurate the yardages are.

- Is the GPS "high sensitivity"? High sensitivity units lock onto the satellites very quickly.

- You can have up to 100 rounds of statistics in the unit. What stats are kept and what can you do with them? There is no mention of stat tracking software.

- Are the front, center and back distances to fixed points on the green or to points relative to your position?

 

I like the color screen; I like seeing the hole layout; I like the ability to "personalize" the courses.

[texguy1945]

Super article! But I have a rather unique situation. The area in which I live has only small courses...none of which are in any download databases. I simply want a unit I can map my own courses in. I have a Skycaddie SG2 which does that, but it has stopped working...and Skygolf's support is really poor. Do all brands and models allow manual mapping of individual courses without having to download? I am looking at the iGolf Neo, but I want to make sure I can map any course.

 

Thanks guys.

[phil75070]

The best one for self mapping, in my opinion, is the Golf Guru. Most, if not all units that let you map your own courses only let you map fixed points for the green (front, center and back). With the Golf Guru, you walk the outline of the green and their GreenZense feature, similar to the SkyCaddie Intelligreen function, works with courses you map yourself. Also, I think you can have up to 30 targets per hole! I personally like the idea of self mapping a course I play all the time even if it is available via download. That way I know where I was standing when I marked a target; I have no idea what exact point someone else, either looking at an aerial/satellite photo or even walking the course (SkyGolf) used as a target point.

[puckcoach3]

The best one for self mapping, in my opinion, is the Golf Guru. Most, if not all units that let you map your own courses only let you map fixed points for the green (front, center and back). With the Golf Guru, you walk the outline of the green and their GreenZense feature, similar to the SkyCaddie Intelligreen function, works with courses you map yourself. Also, I think you can have up to 30 targets per hole! I personally like the idea of self mapping a course I play all the time even if it is available via download. That way I know where I was standing when I marked a target; I have no idea what exact point someone else, either looking at an aerial/satellite photo or even walking the course (SkyGolf) used as a target point.

 

 

I thought you returned your Guru ??

[phil75070]

The best one for self mapping, in my opinion, is the Golf Guru. Most, if not all units that let you map your own courses only let you map fixed points for the green (front, center and back). With the Golf Guru, you walk the outline of the green and their GreenZense feature, similar to the SkyCaddie Intelligreen function, works with courses you map yourself. Also, I think you can have up to 30 targets per hole! I personally like the idea of self mapping a course I play all the time even if it is available via download. That way I know where I was standing when I marked a target; I have no idea what exact point someone else, either looking at an aerial/satellite photo or even walking the course (SkyGolf) used as a target point.

 

 

I thought you returned your Guru ??

 

It doesn't change the fact that when it works it is the best for doing your own course maps, very quick to synch with satellites and one of the most accurate (GPS-wise) units out there.

[Ginman47]

I have been looking at the UPro gps unit. has anyone else tried it?

[phil75070]

I have been looking at the UPro gps unit. has anyone else tried it?

 

There is a whole, very lengthy thread on the uPro.

[Stern100]

I have been looking at the UPro gps unit. has anyone else tried it?

 

There is a whole, very lengthy thread on the uPro.

 

Yeah, it's awesome.