GPS Help for ALzheimers

[blueblood]

My wife has fought all her life with dyslexia but done very well e.g. graduated with honors from Indiana University. However, now comes Alzheimers and the fight gets tougher. We have moved to Sun City Hilton Head a community of about 4000 homes growing at a rate of ~800 per year to a planned 8000. The streets are complex; most end in cul-de-sacs or are courts or winding around. It's a wonderful place for active adults but my wife has been getting lost regularly often for an hour or more until she is able to find her way home. Same applies to going to nearby towns.

I need to get my wife a GPS that will help her find her way to and from activities she wants to do. She is a fighter as I have siad and does not intend to let Alzheimers stop her for the foreseeable future. The doctors agree and even say its very desirable that she continue to go/do things that forces her to exercise her mind i.e do the bank account, trips to wherever, etc.

I have an older Earthmate GPS that I used on a laptop in motorhome but would like to get something she can use more easily. She uses golf cart to go around Sun City and then the car for other activities. I need a good display since voice commands to turn left or right have no meaning to a dyslexic person at least in time to react. She needs to be able to see the path clearly. I would like to get somethng that could be easily moved from car to golf cart or if two separate GPS's are desirable then so be it.

Any suggestions from users would be greatly appreciated.   

[Tom]

I wonder if screen visibility might be an issue in the golf cart, although most of the Garmin units have a very bright screen. Although many folks use the Garmin SPIII or 26xx series, their screens are IMO a little on the small side. (Before anyone jumps on me, I have a SPIII).

I seem to recall that Garmin makes a slightly larger unit with correspondingly larger screen. Can't recall if it's the 176 model, but it was originally sold as a "land and sea" package, meaning it came with both marine navigation charts and street maps, and was easy to move between a boat and a car. I'm just wondering if they have something similar without the marine charts.

The first time I saw this unit was in a friend's car, albeit a few years ago, and it's screen is defnitely larger and easier to view than the SPIII. It sat on ther Garmin bean bag but, like the SPIII/26xx, had options for fixing the mounts more permanently in two vehicles.

[Ron]

Check out the Garmin website GARMIN Might just give you some ideas,

[Karl]

Blueblood,

The Garmin 2610/2620 can display the route with distance to turns (updated regularily), and an arrow points in the proper turn direction. You don't even need voice to successfully navigate. Another nice feature is the ability to 'return to start', which inverts the route directions and can bring her safely home again from anywhere. Others may have the same features, but I can't speak from first-hand knowledge.

[blueblood]

Blueblood,

The Garmin 2610/2620 can display the route with distance to turns (updated regularily), and an arrow points in the proper turn direction. You don't even need voice to successfully navigate. Another nice feature is the ability to 'return to start', which inverts the route directions and can bring her safely home again from anywhere. Others may have the same features, but I can't speak from first-hand knowledge.

The "return to start" feature would be very helpful. Do you know if one can just push a button to set start point from where are one is at present. For example, if she becomes lost -can she just have GPS take the co-ordinates and use as start point and lay out a way home. I am assuming the finsh point of my home can all ways be in the data.

[BernieD]

Blueblood

I have my home address marked as a waypoint in my 2610 as "HOME". Regardless of where I am in the US or Canada, even parts of Mexico , I can double push the "FIND" button and touch YES and Garmin will route me back to my house. I have never noticed or tried "return to start" on my unit but have used "HOME" many times.

[blueblood]

Blueblood

I have my home address marked as a waypoint in my 2610 as "HOME". Regardless of where I am in the US or Canada, even parts of Mexico , I can double push the "FIND" button and touch YES and Garmin will route me back to my house. I have never noticed or tried "return to start" on my unit but have used "HOME" many times.

Bernie - thanks that's good info. Sounds like she would be able to use that easily. Do upon have any suggestions on source for 2610. Price shopping  I see $619 on Amazon and $587.99 on some place called GPS Experience.   

[BernieD]

Do upon have any suggestions on source for 2610. Price shopping  I see $619 on Amazon and $587.99 on some place called GPS Experience

Blueblood

Unfortunately, the favorite source of many Forumites for Garmin products and information, Bronco One in Phoenix, is no longer in business. While his prices were not necessarily the lowest they were close and he was a fountain of help and information.

The $587.99 sounds like a great price but do some checking on the seller. I just looked up the 2610 on CNET and GPS Experience was the low seller and had a 5 star vendor status. Tax and shipping included so that looks like the way to go.

[Steve, CDN]

Leo,

Once you determine which model of Garmin would best suit the needs of your wife, a techniqu I use to search for low prices is to search Google for terms like  "Cheap Garmin"  and  "Discount Garmin".

In addition check Amazon for as their prices are often quite good.    Also be sure to check the Garmin site for any rebates they may have in current use.

[John From Detroit]

Even an Garmin Etrex (about 100 bucks US) will allow you to set waypoints using your laptop and point toward the destination (iv'e used one that way, I now use it to feed the laptop info for Street Finder, works great in both modes.  You can set waypoints three ways

1: using a computer or other map method obtain the coordinates of the target and manually program
2: Upload from computer using Garmin software
3: (By far the easiest) Visit the target and choose "Set waypoint"  Label and store


Now the problem..... Considering she has Alxhetrimers,  This makes learning how to use new toys very hard to do, For example my late mother-in-law could not figure out how to use a touch-tone telephone or how to dal my phone number when we moved her to a senior residence facility, Of course... At the time we did not know just how seriously advanced her Alzheimers was (I thought minor, well...  Minor was not the proper word at all... Very advanced)  It was not till we talked her into moving that we found out just how bad she was

[DougJ]

Blueblood, I'm jumping in here a bit late.  Let me work from the following quote.

For example, if she becomes lost -can she just have GPS take the co-ordinates and use as start point and lay out a way home. I am assuming the finsh point of my home can all ways be in the data.


I have a 2610 which I think would be better than the 2620 for your wife.

You could program the routes for her using your computer (rather than the 2610), although if she's a fighter she might well want to do that herself, and then with the handheld remote I think she'd find it straight forward to find the route she wants and to activate it.

But why, the 2610?  Because I find programming routes on the unit itself to be very finicky; I prefer to do the route on the computer and upload it to the unit.  I'm thinking that even your "fighting" wife might have trouble programming routes on the unit.  You can program routes on the computer with the 2610, but I'm not sure (but don't think) that you can do that with the 2620.

As Bernie does, so do I: have stored the waypoint for my home and then, even from the unit, it is very easy to instruct the machine to route me home.  Incidentally, when you get off the route, the program is really quite good at instructing you to get back on route.  Mind you, the driver can often be more intelligent than the machine and so the machine's suggestions are at times "the long way round," but work.

Also, by programming on the computer you get a route going (which you save) and then by doing reverse, you get a route coming home (which you also save and upload both to the unit).  As far as I know, you can't reverse the route when using the unit.

Ciao,

Doug

[Karl]

Blueblood,

John brings up a good point - Alzheimers sufferers find it hard to learn new things. I would suggets you (or she) lay out the route, along with planned waypoints, on your computer, and then upload only that route to the 2610 via the flash card. Make a step-by-step list of which buttons she should push during her travels and tape it somewhere near the unit in the car. By uploading just one route at a time, she is less likely to get confused.

Also, the 2610 (and probably the 2620 also) has the ability to 'simulate a route' while still inside the comfort of your home or coach. It's just like driving the route, so she can practice until you're both comfortable with her abilities to do it on the road. Putting only one route on the card at a time eliminates some of the choices she may need to make along the way.

I, like Bernie., always mark my current position as "Home"; then if she gets lost, all she has to do is hit "Find", Press "Home" (the waypoint you previously stored), and "Go To", and it will route her back home. If she misses a turn (we all do), it will automatically recalculate a new route for her.   

[blueblood]

Ok, I have taken everyone's opinion to heart  and ordered a 2610. I ordered it from GPS Explorer at $662.99, which has a $75 rebate good until the 30th, so the final price will be $587.99. They threw in the InstallAssist; I don't know its real value.

She will defintely, one might even say demand that she do the programming. My daughter has secured a copy of MS S&T for her since my Delorme SA 2005 has so many errors it would be worthless or at least I wouldn't feel confortable having her out there driving trying to use it. So, she can look at the aternatives and see what works for her.   

Thanks for all the help. Any other suggestions that one might have will be welcomed.