ProfitOfDoom

I was watching some youtube vids of the sv27 and one guy had some kinda gps thing to tell him how fast it was moving,I was wondering if anyone uses one and if there are any cheap ones for this? Sounds fun to me!

Quicksilver

you want the garmin etrex. Cheapest gps that tells max speed and it basically is the standard way of measuring speed. Radar guns are used, but seldom. $108 on amazon. I still dont have one though

ryan_t888

I use a Garmin Geko.

Ryan

GRANT ED

I use a Garmin fortrex 101. Works good.

LtDoc

Just depends on your definition of ''cheap''. An average price is probably around $100, give or take some, maybe. They work. ''Course that depends on how well they can ''see'' the GPS satellites, but they usually do okay.
There''s also a way of getting that speed reading ''live'' sort of, but the definition of ''cheap'' will take a sort of large jump. Worth it? Not to me, but then, I''m really a ''cheap'' person, sort of...
- ''Doc

suzukiboy

These are great so small and works perfect in my boats.

SV27dayton

I bike and run also and paid about $112 for a garmin 205 a year ago (target). So I split it over 3 activities. So I can say I only spent like $37.33 on my RC habit . It''s awesome for all three activites. Basicly replaces a cycle computer. It 2.7 oz, 77 grams. I don''t know how that compares to the others but It''s not slowing my V down much.

airickf

Haven''t tried this but as for on the Cheap, couldn''t you mark off a known distance between two buoys and using a stopwatch, measure the time it takes to go from one buoy to the other (get a full speed running start first). Then do the math to figure out speed.... Well thats unless you went to public school...

ryan_t888

Yes, but there is a very large margin for error resulting in skewed numbers. Us boaters need accuracy.

Ryan

airickf

Yea, I can understand if you need the accuracy if race. As for recreational boating, I bet it would give you accuracy at least to +/- 3 mph (no wind, glassy,...). I would be happy with that since I dont race. To reduce your very large margin of error, you could take 5 runs and average the times/speed. I guess it would just be fun to do in any event if you dont have a gps. By the way, does the garmin give you fps? If so, whats the accuracy (tenths, hundreths...)?

CadillacDTS2001

no, you dont even need a GPS if you race, just as long as your faster then everyone else. honestly GPS is used mostly by sport boaters.

dicko

for braging rights

alloutcustom

somtimes GPS's read high #'s too though(when people cant actually make there boat go fast)

SV27dayton

+/-3 at 40 mph would be 15% spread. (how's that for a public school education) That's terrible accuracy. I've probably gained about 5 MPH on my SV since getting it. I'm intrested in things that buy me 1/2 of an MPH. You just keep stacking those little things up.

peterpella

Hi there

I saw some interesting equipment on robbe site....

It measures min/max parametres of your run....


Ryan, you are everywhere.

Peter

ryan_t888

Peter, I'm pretty wrapped up in this boating thing. It runs my life.

Ryan

rmw00

This one is for airplanes, but it should work for boats. 0.1m/s accuracy in speed.

http://www.magtechinc.net/SkyTraceGPS.htm

RC_Bob

What about this one?

http://www.modelflight.com.au/rc_mod...peed_meter.htm

I'm not quite sure about it's accuracy by the looks of the price.
Think it might work in a boat?

SV27dayton

I don't see anything about the method of generateing the speed number. I don't think it's GPS.

1983shovelhead

i called Venom and asked if this will work with any boat and their response "I don't see why not. It's made to run with a Venom but, but can't think why it wouldn't work with another manufacturers boat".
It's not GPS to be sure. Kind of a neat looking device but I'm not getting one. This is one of those "let's get mikey to try it" (for those of you old enough to remember the Life cerial commercial) deals as far as I'm concerned.

I'm leaning towards the Forerunner 101 - seems to hold it's price pretty well on the bay.

skidooguymxz550

the venom speedmeter wouldnt work, it works out speed by meausuring how many times a driveshaft spins and the distance traveled with one spin.

for it to work on a boat you would have to know how far your prop pushs the boat in one revolution and then account for the exact slip. if you ever have a blow out then that will be your top speed for the run

SV27dayton

So it's pretty much worthless. You'd have to recalibrate using a real GPS for every prop and like you said. If you got out of the water as some of us do every now and again, it would false. worthless. Don't buy it Mikey!

rickplt

Just received my foretrex 101 from Ebay. Came with a data cable and usb adapter used for $51. Works great just laying in the hull. The max speed function can be set up to fill the screen. Two clicks and it resets to zero.