Garmin Geko 101 Handheld GPS (Yellow)

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Product Details

Product Manual [455kb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 0.9 x 1.9 x 3.9 inches ; 3 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00007MIKM
• Item model number: Geko 101
• Batteries: 2 AAA batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #31,731 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

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• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 8, 2003

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description
The lightest, most affordable Garmin GPS receiver, the Geko 101 offers basic GPS navigation functionality that's accurate and easy to use. With its sun-yellow case, the economical Geko 101 is perfect for navigational novices. Features such as one-touch waypoint marking make it a snap to use. Easily maneuver from one waypoint to the next using the Geko 101's 250-waypoint storage capacity with symbols, retrace your path with TracBack, and pan along your track with PanTrack.

Map page. View larger.

Mark waypoint. View larger.

The Garmin Geko 101 packs easy-to-use GPS navigation into an affordable handheld device. View larger.

The Garmin Geko 101 has five keys located on the front of the unit for easy one-hand use that allow the user to quickly access all of the unit's functions. The Geko 101 has a 64 x 100 pixel, high-contrast display for easy viewing, and it can run for up to 12 hours on only two AA batteries (not included).

Designed with the user in mind, this Garmin GPS unit weighs a light 3.1 ounces with batteries and measures a pocket-size 1.9 by 0.96 by 3.9 inches (W by D by H). The Geko 101 is waterproof to IPX7 standards, meaning it can be submerged down to one meter of water for up to 30 minutes, and is rugged enough to endure the most trying use. And the Geko 101 provides that most critical of benefits--peace of mind. With the Geko 201 you will always know where you are, where you have been, and where you are going. And since you will always know the way back home, you can concentrate on what you set out to do--explore the outdoors.

What is TracBack?
Garmin's exclusive TracBack feature allows you to return along a traveled path or route without marking any waypoints. The GPS unit will store a tracklog or "electronic breadcrumb trail" as you travel. When you are ready to return to where you started, the GPS unit will look at the hundreds or thousands of tracklog points, take the 30 most significant, and turn them into a route to lead you back to your starting point.

What is PanTrack?
Using the PanTrack feature, you can move the pointer and pan a track in either direction, then select a location along the track to start a TracBack or GoTo or to mark a waypoint.

What's in the Box
Geko 101 GPS receiver and manual.

Product Description
With its sun-yellow case, the economical Geko 101 is perfect for navigational novices. Features such as one-touch waypoint marking make it a snap to use. Easily maneuver from one waypoint to the next using its 250-waypoint storage capacity with symbols, and pan along your track with PanTrack™

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

96 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing but pleased, April 17, 2003

By A Customer

I recieved my Geko 101 about two weeks ago, and so far I am very pleased. You can't expect extrordiany things from [an inexpensive] unit, but if you don't want to spend alot, you're not missing much. For the light camper, it's perfect. You can pay ... more to get the Geko 201 with WAAS, which makes it accurate to 10 feet. Or you can skip the WAAS and get this, which is acurate to 50 feet. However, in my experiances, usually this unit is accurate between 25 and 12 feet. An extra 15 ft. so what!

Geko 101:

Pros-
1. Small! It's about the size of a cell phone

2. Lightweight. Because it's so small, it should be obvious that it's very light.

3. Accurate. Even though it doesn't have WASS capabilities it is just as accurate at times.

4. Waterproof. You never know when you might need it.

5. Features. It has just about everything you need or want (minus a detailed map) including when you'll arrive at your destination, speed, elevation, and all different units of measure.

6. Ease of use. The five button configuration makes it easy to use. Let's face it, if you find it difficult,[you shouldn't].

Cons-

1. It's not the greatest GPS ever made, but what do you expect for [the money]?

2. Batteries. This unit takes 2 AAA's. Although life is not a problem (12hrs.) unless you own something else that takes AAA batteries, sometimes they can be a pain.

3. PC compatibility. There's no way to link the Geko 101 to your PC. Oh well, even if you could, it would be $...more for the software.

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ok for GeoCaching, good portability but poor battery life, December 2, 2003

By	David Michmerhuizen (Fremont, CA USA) - See all my reviews

I have this exact unit and have been using for GeoCaching for about 6 months. The guts of the unit are pretty much the same as the more expensive ones - you'll know where you are just fine. Much of the user interface is the same as the more expensive models.

The main pro for this unit (other than price) is size - it's smaller than the next products up the line and easier to just stick in your pocket.

The main con is battery life. The amount of time you get out of 2 AAAs is not so hot. You'll eat up a pair of batteries every time you go out. I counter this by only turning the unit on to get my bearings. With a device that uses AA batteries I would be able to leave it on and use the tracklog/backtrack features. I think about it...

Some other factors to consider;

Display - once you go up above the basic etrex yellow unit the garmin units have higher-res displays, which are nice.

Connectivity - you can do ok without it, but this model is the only one that does not allow waypoint download (not sure about the 201.) Experienced geocachers favor the higher-end models with more memory. They load large numbers of cache waypoints into memory and are ready to go no matter where they are in their home area. If you're a more casual hiker/cacher, then the cheaper models do just as good a job - even this one.

Mapping - the gekkos and the etrex yellow will show you where your waypoints are in relation to each other, but don't show any other features. The more expensive models can do natural features and even uploaded topo maps.

You can GeoCache with almost any GPS. The Etrex yellow is the standard, but this has served me well. Happy Caching!

36 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excelent for Geocaching, March 29, 2005

By	FOX (USA) - See all my reviews

First off, after reading reviews here about low battery life, I have used this unit now for three days of geocaching, doing 3 or 4 geocaches per day, PLUS all the time to learn the unit, program in coordinates from home, etc. I am STILL on the first set of batteries, and still have 2 out of 4 on the battery meter.

But then again, I use alkaline batteries, not the rechargable gimicks that only have 1.2 volts per cell rather than 1.5 of a REAL battery, and never last long in any device.

ALSO... there is a BATTERY SAVE feature in the menu that you can select, that I guess the others never bothered to find or read the manual about. This turns the receiver part on and off that is not noticeable to you at all, and I recommend leaving it on, unless you are trying to get accurate to one foot, which might be harder to do with the battery save feature on.

I leave the battery save feature on until about 50 feet from the cache, then turn it off so I can zero in to the exact foot of the cache.

That's right. I am able to go in and narrow to the exact foot of the cache.

What you have to do, is when you get around 15 feet, start walking REAL SLOW! Because if you keep walking fast, you will pass it as the counter keeps going if you are walking fast.

If you pass it, just keep walking about 15 feet, turn around and try comming back REAL SLOW, following the arrow step by step, and you should have no problem getting right to the exact coordinates. I sure don't have any problem doing so.

Walk slow so you can see the distance go down one foot at a time, until you are at ZERO. Many caches I have found were exactly at the location the Geko 101 led me to. There were a few caches that were 10 feet off, but that was the fault of the people who hid the cache that didn't get the exact coordinates right with their GPS units. This unit led me to the left side of a real small bridge about a foot away from the edge, and when I went under the bridge, the cache was in that EXACT spot under where I was standing on the bridge when I got to zero on the Geko.

The coordinates are only as good as the people and thier GPS units that hide the caches. If they have an old GPS that isn't as accurate, or don't measure the exact location accurately, and YOU use the best, most expensive and accurate GPS unit available, you are NOT going to get right to the cache, because the hider made a mistake in plotting the cache coordinates!

I have been waiting for YEARS for GPS units to come down in price, and wanted one with street maps, but they just will not come down in price. And on Ebay, you only find used ones that actually end up selling for MORE than I can buy one on Amazon!

Auctions are nothing more than contests where participants compete to see who can pay the MOST for something.

Finally got this as a gift, tested it out with Geocaching, and it is more than perfect for the job. And you don't really need streets and maps in parks and woods, as they don't show trails anyway, only streets.

You make your OWN trail maps automatically with this unit as you walk around.

I even use it while driving to find the Geocache sites, and even without roadmaps, you can figure it out just by folloing the big arrow, and watching the miles go down. It even has the ability to tell you exactly how many minutes you have left, or what your arrival time will be. Even when you are walking on trails.

It is nice and small and perfect for Geocaching as not too many people will notice it. It is the exact size of a tiny cell phone, so you can quickly hold it to your head as if you are talking, and people will just think it is a phone. Only the top half is yellow, the other side is dark.

NICE rubberized parts on the unit. I can just set the thing down on the dash of the car, and it does not slide around. Sure, I can't see the display with it flat on the dash, but it stays put, until after I make the complex turn or whatever, and then can pick it up again.

There are optional mounts you can get for the car, but I like the one for bike handlebars.

So many times I find neat secret areas on bike trails and have a hard time finding them again. Now I can just plot the locations, title them with an alphanumeric name, and next time, this unit will lead me right to my favorite spots on or off the bike trails, even letting me know how much farther I have to go in miles or minutes.

When you get down to .1 mile, it jumps to around 500 feet and counts down the rest of the way in feet.

Since I am still using the first set of batteries, and it looks like I still have a lot of use left out of them, I didn't get to test and see if indeed all the waypoints and info I saved into it will stay when replacing the batteries as the manual says it will do.

The manual says, so long as you change the batteries right away, you will not lose any information you have stored in it.

If after this set of batteries dies out, and I replace them and this is NOT the case, I will add to this review an update saying so.

I have since seen this unit in another store, and noticed that the green Geko logo was not on the unit as it is on mine. Why would some units not have the Geko on it and others do?

Glad mine has the Geko on it.

----------------------------------
UPDATE:

Half way through geocaching yesterday, the battery went down to the last bar of 4 bars on the meter. The manual states that it will TELL you when you have only 10 minutes of power left, but I didn't want to have to change batteries in the middle of a long cache, so even though the batteries would have lasted who knows how much longer, I decided to change the batteries sooner than I may have had to.

I took out the old batteries in the car, and put in the new set. Turned on the unit, and was pleasantly surprised to find that indeed, all my waypoints and other information was still in the unit, nothing was lost!

This was my biggest fear, as I had spent a long time entering in a lot of cache locations into it.
------------------------------------

Another update:

I accidentally forgot to turn the battery save function back on after finding a cache, and the batteries were being sucked very quickly! As soon as I noticed the battery meter going down fast, I double checked, and sure enough, I didn't have battery save on.

The default on this unit is NORMAL, not BATTERY SAVE, and if you don't use battery save, this thing will probably eat a set of batteries in only an hour.

You should leave the unit in BATTERY SAVE mode at all times, unless you are within 50 feet of a cache and need to narrow down closer.

In battery save mode, I have no problem spending an entire two days, morning to dusk, finding geocaches, without having to change batteries.

I may make a C or D cell battery pack for this unit so I can go even longer, there is no reason they had to make this with tiny AAA instead of AA batteries, except for the uneducated consumers that demand tiny and small devices all the time.

I would have been happy if the unit was twice the size, if it meant longer battery life. But in a democracy, you always have three wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch. In other words, mob rule.