gpsblake

It's a zillion times easier to type (or voice) logs on a cellphone than any heldheld device including the Montana. Even a $30 cellphone can do that but no Garmin can. Even a $30 cellphone can do voice dictation, smart typing, and such but Garmin still can't. Garmin decided to basically throw in the towel on touch screens with the exception of the Montana (mostly for motorcycles) and they probably went off internal data to realize that touch screens simply weren't selling.

You hit it on the head. Of all my Garmin's GPSrs that I still have and were used, only the original Etrex buttons still hold up perfectly, even though you had to use the buttons a lot, lot more back then to put in coordinates manually one by one. My GPSMAP 62 and Oregon 600 now have pencil erasers jammed into the unit where the buttons used to be. You've inspired me to take the old yellow Etrex out of storage and try to find some caches with it in 2023.

The only touch screen gpsr in production is the Garmin Montana series, quite large and quite pricey. The Oregons, Dakotas, and Etrex 25, 35 all have been discontinued. Garmin I guess decided there is no market for touchscreeen anymore now that most geocachers use a cellphone. All units made in the past 12 years plus have paperless geocaching. That said, if you can find a good used Oregon 7xx series, that will work perfectly for geocaching if you must have touchscreen. Now if you don't need touchscreen and want a new GPSr unit, probably the Garmin GPSMap series 64s is all you need. There are 65, 66, 67 that are more pricey . The Garmin etrex 22x is still being sold if you need a budget GPSr that is under $200.

Has anyone tried to put the base routing file from the old Etrex 10 on the Etrex hC to see if it can take it? I am thinking about getting this model, to use as a cycling computer mostly but geocaching from time to t ime.

For finding geocaches, both these units will take you to ground zero as will any modern unit thus won't increase your geocache find or the ability to find that tricky cache any easier. But modern GPS units can use more than just GPS, like GLONASS, Galileo etc.. so while the Oregon 450 might give you 12 foot accuracy, modern units might give you 6 foot accuracy. Again, for geocaching not much of a breaker but for other uses, it might be. Modern units except for the Etrex 10 will give you pretty much unlimited geocache and map storage, the Vista HCX only has a very limited amount of memory for maps and no paperless caching at all. Can't remember if the Oregon 450 uses an SD card or not and if so, what's the max storage is.

How did I get maps into the Etrex 10?? You won't get much in it though, I got around 2 rural counties in it, which is sufficient for local cycling but not much else. And it sucks up the memory on the 10 so you only get a few hundred geocaches loaded at best. Getting rid of the time zone map helped out some. Link below is an old thread that helped me get them on the 10. 250 caches on gpx files, so in that regard, it's not an improvement at all, probably by design so you buy the more expensive units. The idea of having live GC via bluetooth is a good thing.

What is the geocache storage limit on the Etrex SE? Unless i missed it, the manual is kind of unclear on this other than saying it can store 5 gpx geocaching files, whatever that means buy I'm sure that means more than 5 geocaches. Maybe 5 files of 1,000 geocaches each? It does appear to have bluetooth and links up to Garmin Connect. Also has an electronic compass just the more expensive units. $149 seems to be a real fair price. Now if there is a hack to put some maps on it like the old Etrex 10 had (although not much). Manual https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-76DD39C5-047F-4599-892F-60C9207A6637/EN-US/eTrex_SE_OM_EN-US.pdf

Plug your Etrex 20 into your computer via the USB wire The computer should attempt to pick it up as a new drive, allow it if prompted Open up the File Explorer and the drive that is your Etrex 20, go to X:\Garmin\gpx folder where X is the driver letter of your device. If you have an SD card installed, that will also show up as a hard drive on it's own but the path to any geocaches stored on your SD card will be the same as mentioned. Delete anything that is *.gpx, easiest to do if you sort by file type. That will clear the unit. A full reset, which you probably don't need, will also delete out all the geocaches. But it's a much harder solution. That will clear your geocaches out of your unit. Basecamp still works with Windows 10 by the way and I use it for recording walks and bike rides.

I still have an explorist 100, GC, and a Magellan Triton. The Triton was like the Titanic, doomed from the start for gillions of reasons. The Explorist 100 still works and still will get you to ground zero if you don't mind putting in the coords manually and no way to log a cache as found on the unit. It's a unit that feels good holding in your hand. The GC series was an improvement over the Triton but Magellan using Windows CE. Magellan tried to cut corners... The GC, 110 and 310 were identical hardware wise but only slightly different software. It was too late for them by this time. What doomed Magellan was the constant changes in ownership, which lead them to get behind Garmin in technology and stubborness not to switch to USB technology until the GC.

About ready to replace my GPSr, not so much for geocaching, but for bike riding and some light kayaking but it has to be able to geocache. The GPSMAP 79s, an upgrade to the 78 and 76 series appears to be my choice, plus it's $50 cheaper than the GPSMAP 64s. And they finally go the buttons in the right position on that series. My only question, is the firmware the same as the 64, 65 or 66? I know for example the GPSMAP 78 was the same firmware as the GPSMAP 62. Anyone ever use it?

Actually, I dug out my Etrex 10 for walking, and yup sure enough, the buttons rotted off (as did my old Dakota). However, this cheap fix helped completely fix the problem. Just requires to buy a pencil eraser and some electrical tape.

I still think the best way around this problem is after 7 days of no action, the waymark gets published automatically, with the group officers able to unpublish it if it's discovered it doesn't meet the category.

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/c/outdoor-recreation/handheld-hiking-gps/ - No Oregon's or Etrex 25/35 listed either as current. Also heard this on the Geo-Gearheads podcast that the Oregon's of all models were discontinued. Interesting, i thought the Oregon's were their best selling model for geocaching. (or just fewer and fewer people are using a dedicated GPSr)

I use the Garmin Oregon 600 but also have used the GPSMAP 62s. Both work fine but as others have pointed out, the Oregon has a bigger screen. The only thing about the Oregon is that when it rains, the rain will act like you are touching the screen so your map so if you are on the map screen, you might end up with the menu on the unit or some obsecure display, won't affect your ride and geocaching stats though. The fix of course is to lock your screen on the Oregon while riding in the rain.

The $69 Walmart ONN 8 inch tablet has GPS in it. I know this by using an app that showed (GPS status) that proves this.

Is the Oregon 700 worth $200 over the GPSMAP 60? Yes, if you are going to be geocaching frequently enough. It has everything you really need for geocaching, hiking etc. If the GPSMAP 66 worth $300 more than the Oregon 700? Absolutely not in my opinion. If you don't want a touch screen, I would recommend a GPSMAP 64 for half the price of the 66. Another option since you said you are hiking and perhaps size and weight are an issue is perhaps something like a Etrex (except for the 10) which is smaller in size and saves an ounce or two. As others have chimed in, geocaching accuracy isn't a factor anymore, all units will get you to a cache site, FINDING that micro or hard to see cache, well, that's a whole other matter.

Actually I disagree. Garmin has been very slow to adopt to modern technology. They still haven't (on purpose I think) gotten bluetooth right. A $70 Iphone 6s I will argue is superior to the $500 GPSr in every possible way except battery life. Try typing a detailed log on any handheld GPSr unit versus that if even the Iphone 6s and it's no contest, the Iphone wins. You can even dictate a log using your voice on a smartphone. Can't on a GPSr. The camera of the 6s, superior in every possible way to even the Montana or Oregon 750 series. Accuracy for geocaching, exactly the same. Play Wherigo?? No current Garmin plays it. Adventure Labs?? Nope with a GPSr. Screen size, screen resolution, $79 Iphone 6s easily beats any GPSr. Spoken directions??? Only the very most expensive handheld GPSr's do that, any cellphone does it easily. Routing and mapping, the cellphone wins very easily. Compare a cellphone from 16 years ago to those of today. No cellphone made 16 years ago will work. A Garmin GPSr from 16 years ago works just perfectly and will get you to ground zero as easily as any modern GPSr will today. Sorry, technology has changed and Garmin has not kept up. I think the Monterra series had the possibility but it never took off. Now in saying all of that, I still use a GPSr (Garmin 62 or Oregon 600) over a phone for geocaching.

Guys, the difference between 1.5 meter accuracy and 3 meter accuracy when it comes to geocaching means nothing. Both will get you to ground zero and neither will help you in finding the hard to find micro, plus you have to account for the accuracy of the placer of the geocache. Of course, for other purposes, like benchmarking or other professional uses, it might be a difference. I think the Montana also gives spoken turn by turn directions and the Oregon doesn't (although a $40 cellphone can, come on Garmin, you really can do better when it comes to that). I know the GPSMAP 66i will do spoken turn by turn, not sure about the others in the 66 series.

Neither of which is required to geocache with nor will increase your chances in finding a geocache. In fact, an active cellphone might be more accurate because it was use cellphone towers, something that no handheld GPSr can use.

GPSr prices have gone up, and it's getting harder to find something under $200 that isn't the Etrex 10... Oregon 700 or GPSMAP 64s is a good choice but around $250... Or upgrade your current phone to something like the Moto G8 or an Iphone 7, which is around $200 but accurate as any GPSr on the market. You'll get a much nicer cellphone that fully works with geocaching.

Just my unprofessional opinion, but it seems the 60-66 series of units pulls in satellites closer to the horizon better than say an Oregon, thus, leading to maybe a little bit more accuracy because of better triangulation. Not noticeable for geocaching though, any unit these days is going to get you where you need to be, especially if you account that geocache accuracy also depends on the person who placed the cache. I guess they chose the 65 name because the units look nearly identical to the 64s and probably act similar to the end user, still seems though Garmin is coming with new units to compete with itself. Good for the consumer, maybe we will see a price drop for the 64 series.

Yes, they've gone back a number this time from 66 to 65 but also have added a 66r series to the line up. I have no idea what new features, if any, this new series from Garmin has.

That was actually panic or "ZERO" day for geocaching because quite a few GPSr units could only go up to 6 digits, which I think is the reason geocaching adopted the hex format instead of just numbers. I had an etrex and had to use scripts to chop off the G in the code in order to upload.

There wouldn't be noticeable improvement on the cache find rate, even if your unit was accurate down the millimeter, and that's because you are reliant on the accuracy of the person who placed the cache. Any GPS unit or any half-decent phone will get you close enough to ground zero. The geocaching format MM.xxx means at best, the real accuracy can only be within 6 feet at best. To require more accurate than that, would have to be MM.xxxx or better.

People will spend $100s in gas, lodging, units but don't want to spend a dollar for a decent container for a geocache. Always been that way. Guilty as charged here.