Question about gps units.....

I am in the market for a gps unit. Which one kinda seems irrevelant, since they all do pretty much the same thing. The question I have is, people talk about a "yearly subscription". What exactly does that mean? If I don't subscribe will I have to map my course by myself? If I do subscribe for just 1 year, do the courses I download belong to me forever? I see that some units hold 5 courses, some 10, and one has 22,000+ built in already (is this one even upgradeable?) I seem to be leaning toward the SG3, simply because of the "AA" battery option.

Thanks in advance,

Jeff

I can only talk about the SG4, but having the rechargeable battery option is really worth it for me. When you play a lot, you will go through too many batteries otherwise.

My SG4 requires an annual subscription, and you download courses you play. It holds 10 courses at one time, so if you are traveling, you might have to remove some to add the new ones you will play. To do that, you connect to the internet site for Sky Caddie and plug your GPS into a USB port. You can then select the courses you want to download. There are membership options where you get state wide or nation wide downloads at different membership prices.

I have no relationship or interest in Sky Caddie, but it works for me. I would guess all the GPS units work well. I have a laser range finder but no longer use it. The GPS unit is both easier to use and it provides more information. At a glance you can know front-center-back yardages or move the cursor to an approximate pin location. Lots of good features.

While the built-in rechargeable battery may seem like a good idea to some, I didn't like it. I know no one here would EVER do this but...if you forget to charge the thing before a round and it dies, you're done. If you get one with AA's, you just pop in a new set. If you want to still be "green" about it, get rechargeable AA's and keep a set in your bag.

As far as the yearly subscriptions go, most units work like this: You have to maintain the subscription to keep the courses. It's like you're "renting" the data, if you will. I have the Golf Logix and it's like that. You get one free download that is yours no matter what (home course, for example), then it's $30 a year for as many as I want to download (no limit). Most units hold around 20 courses (some less, some more). If you do not maintain the subscription, you lose access to all your courses. Some units offer user mapping, some (like mine) do not.

There is no "best" unit. They all have their pros and cons depending on what you want it to do. I wanted one that gave me yardage with a shot distance feature and that's it. I don't need rotating greens and flyovers and all that. All I need is a number. Do some research and think about the features you want. If you like, I did a small review of the Golf Logix on my site: http://www.laymon-family.com/roadtothetour/?p=80

I pretty much did my homework, and like you, I don't need all of the bells and whistles. Just numbers. I want my game to be as "thought free" as it possibly can. Thats why I walk 99% of the time too. But, if you download courses to the unit, aren't they yours even if you don't renew the subscription? I hate to sound cheap and I know the companies have to make a living too, but I find it difficult to pay a yearly fee for information that I have downloaded already. I do like the all of the units I have see in reviews, and your review was through. Thanks for the information.

-Jeff

The courses are only yours while you have a subscription to skycaddie, you are paying to receive a satelite signal.They will stay on your skycaddie after your subscription expires but you will have no signal until you renew your subscription.Skycaddie will not work unless you pay a annual fee.

For the companies that charge a yearly fee, the courses you download are not yours to keep. Like I said above, the best analogy I can come up with is you are renting their course data. Like most subscription software, I'm sure the GPS management software phones home at least when you connect the unit to your PC and probably checks your subscription status before letting you continue.

From here on out is purely speculation, so take it with a grain of salt:

If you loaded up the unit with 20 of your favorite courses and then let your subscription lapse at the end of the year, in theory, those 20 courses should remain on the unit. However, if you tried to connect it to your PC to try to change out or update a course I'm sure it would see that your subscription had expired and would possibly wipe the courses off the GPS. There is also the possibility that the unit has your subscription data on it somewhere and may render itself useless at the end of your term if you don't renew and reconnect it to your PC.

Again, all of this is theory and I have no idea how this would play out since I haven't had mine a year yet and I plan on renewing anyway. I'm sure whatever you purchase will do what you need it to do. I don't know that there are any bad ones.

I guess that was the answer I was looking for. Thanks to all and happy golfing!!

Technically, you are not paying to receive a signal. The signals from the satellites are free for all to have access to (you obviously just need a receiver). What you are paying for is the GPS company to take the time to layout all the locations on the mapping software and make it available to you (plus maintenance of updating the course if it changes). Skycaddie (nor any other golf GPS company) does not own the satellites and they do not dictate what comes over the signal. It is just a positioning signal and nothing more. The only way you could not have a signal is if, like I posted above, the GPS unit has your subscription data on it somewhere and it shuts down at a certain date.

I would at least check out iGolf... you can map courses yourself, but a yearly subscription gets you 100 downloads... once downloaded I KEEP the courses on my CPU and if I don't renew the subscription, I still have ALL 100 courses I downloaded. My unit holds 40 courses... and I can swap courses back and forth real easy between CPU and GPS. I just paid for subscription the first year and downloaded every course in my area which I might play... also downloaded some possible vacation courses and ones near my parents house back in Michigan. I will not renew subscription untill I need to... Also, my brother-in-law is getting one and he can share his courses with me simply by e-mailing me the files.

pros...
-very cheap (one model is $150)
-easy to use
-shot distance feature
-can add additional points
-uses AA's (I use rechargeable AA's)
-almost every course I have EVER played was available
-subscription NOT essential

cons...
-no intelligreen or smartgreen feature
-some courses could use additional points
-belt clip on my model sucked

I have a golf guru and have not used the other gps units.

I am not sure of how one could block the signal from the satellites. If the poster is correct about the SG#, since the GPS signal has timing information and the GPS receiver has a clock, one could image coding the receiver to stop displaying signals once the renewal date is exceeded. Kinda clever and a bit irritating if you ask me.

Many receivers do not have subscription charge.

As far as the embedded rechargable battery, I really do not think it is a big issue. I have a palm PDA whose rechargable battery is running after 5 years. And that was old technology.
You do have to charge up the GPS receiver. Many units allow up to 3 rounds of play time on a complete charge. But that amounts to yet another check the night before. Most units have reasonable battery shelf life, so charging it after the last round, you should be good to go. I have not properly charged my unit. A low voltage USB port.



Depending on what your course is like or how many courses you play, mapping a course is a bit much. If all that you can or want to map is front/center/back, it still takes a bit of time as you have to physically stand at those positions. Mapping other objects takes still longer. If you could map the green perimeter like the golf guru, still more time. IMHO your best option is to start with a quality course and add a few points eg layup spots. Hopefully, your vendor will map course on short notice for you.

The only system I found that could be done at your desktop was intelligolf's gps, as you could use google earth or the like and a desktop entry system. IMHO this is nice add-on to its' main goals.


As a golf guru user for the last year, I think the most useful features are tracking distances for each stroke and methodology for determining the pin distance. I like the fact the information is being continuously displayed. The pin placement like SG# allows moving the pin to a "new" center. The calculated distance to the front and back green perimeter for the "new" pin from your current position. For the golf guru, you get the information up to and onto the green. Also I feel this type of measurement is better then the F/C/B only systems especially under 50 yds.

From what I've read their are at least two approaches to the subscription model for the Golf GPS units.

The first model (used by SkyGolf - SkyCaddie) involves a yearly fee depending on the "membership level" for courses over a time frame. For the $29.00 level you get unlimited downloads in you registered state; for $49.00 a year you get unlimited course downloads in the USA. These downloads, while unlimited in number, are ONLY available on the device while your membership is active. If you pay $50 one year and download all the courses you want, those courses will NOT be available on the device if you allow the membership to lapse after the year. Presumably this means the device has to talk back to SkyGolf to validate the membership; now to me this could mean that if SkyGolf goes under (not likely but it could happen these days) then there is no way to make your device work again...

The second model I know of is used by Bushnell/iGolf and essentially you pay $35 for a year of unlimited download and they are stored locally on the PC you sync with. I read in a few places that the iGolf membership was only 10 downloads but it appears that is no longer a restriction. From what I understand the courses downloaded to the PC during the iGolf membership WILL remain functional after the annual $35 membership has lapsed.

So while the iGolf Neo only holds 10 courses, you could still conceivably download every course that you thought you'd play and store them one the PC. Then you just load up a fresh 10 with whatever you're going to play coming up. Since this requires no communication back to "homebase" from the device it seems these would continue to function correctly even if the corporation itself were no longer around. Personally I like the sound of this setup better than the SkyGolf one...

The Neo is on Amazon right now brand new for $118.00 shipped. I am probably going to get that one this week.
Good Luck!

I have a lot of friends that use freecaddie. From what I've read, I think it uses the same codebase as skycaddie but for the regular version (not pro) everything is free. The free version basically gives you all the other bells and whistles. For the most part, my friends seem to be very happy with the standard version. Hope this helps..

First of all, you are correct...most of the units do the same thing. The yearly subscription means that you will have to pay an annual fee EACH year to get the services of the unit, which adds up very quickly. So the courses you download will not be valid when the subscription runs out.

As for the course capacity-the Golf Buddy units hold 20,000 plus and it is updated almost everyday (new course additions, modifications to current courses, etc.). These units have NO annual fee, no course download fee, and they also have a AAA backup in case you forget to charge the unit.

All in all, never having to pay a course fee, monthly fee, yearly fee, 20,000 course capacity, AAA backup, and a fair amount of other features it has been the best seller for us and in the area over the past several months.

Hope this helps.

Another note, the AAA is a backup feature so you have the lithium ion battery and then the AAA so you have the best of both sides. If you forget to charge the unit, just have a couple of AAA in the bag and thats it.

Any opinions on the Upro? Im thinking about getting 1 and it seems to fit in this thread.

Titleist Man - I have one and like it a lot. I got it towards the end of last season so I've haven't used it much. uPro released an updated software version recently to fix some of the bugs. They also seem to have a lot of room for expansion since it's equipped with voice activation. There's no yearly subscription which is nice. There's also adding courses pretty regularly. I the fly over is great but you really only use it on new courses. I love how you can pick a point from the aerial and get the distance. This is great for laying up. I do wish they had a feature where you could map your own course or mark a distance on a non-course.

I know there's a couple of reviews on them if you search for it. I added mine to the running thread.

Just another vote for igolf Neo. Great unit for the $150 i paid for it, and if it is $118, I would agree that this is a great deal. No bells or whistles, just consistent front, middle, back measurements. Good luck

I've got the SG4, which can now be had for under 200. I had to pay an annual subscription which cost me 30 bucks. That sucks, but to be honest, the device does everything I really need it to, and it cost 170 less than the uPro, which is what I would have bought all things being equal. Actually all things being equal, I would have had to pay for some uPro courses too.

I'm looking for a GPS recommendation (seems like a good thread to post the question in).

In addition to basic positional features, I would like a golf GPS that would let me store my shot distance per club. I read a few GPS's will give you simple shot distance, but are there any that will let you track and store the distance per club, so you can come up with averages? It would be good to know over time if my average distance for a club is improving or getting worse (which could indicate a swing problem).