Brainerd

Lenmar NiMH rechargables fit nice and tight in the V. It is also a good battery/charger combo. Check out Outpost.com (Fry's) Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

The towel or washcloth wedged under the windshield is pretty easy and cheap. I use a similar technique with a soft sunglass case in my car. One note of caution. The screw on the back left of the unit should be covered with tape. If it is not covered, it could scratch the windshield. Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

quote:Originally posted by Prime Suspect:[ I use my Ray-o-vac 1-hr charger on them, with no problems. I had one of the 1st Ray-o-vac one-hour charger. It worked well, but it did heat the batteries during the charge cycle. The higher capacity NiMH's would get quite hot. This will reduce the number of charges that a battery can handle. If you are in the market for a new charger, check to see that it does not heat the batteries during the charge cycle. The Lenmar one does not.

To get the rated '20+' hours from the V, you will need to turn off the waas, don't use the backlight, and run it in battery saver mode. Probably fine for driving, but that accuracy is very helpful when caching. I have some Lenmar 2000 mah and they give me about 18-20 hours, with some backlight use. Lenmar also just came out with a 2300 mah NiMH. I also am using the Lenmar Mach 1 one hour charger. It doesn't heat the batteries (bad for battery life), and does a nice quick job. The charger also has an adapter for the car, so you can recharge the batteries while you are away from home. Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

Apparently, size does matter.

Thanks to 4x4van & phantom4099 for the info. I'll pass it on to my folks.

I love Garmin because of my GPS V. However my folks have the Magellan Sportrak Pro. It's a nice unit at a very good price. The only thinging I noticed absent from the Pro were an accuracy estimate, and the ability to search for the nearest POI (when they are loaded from the CD). Both companies seem to make nice units. Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

1. keep the batteries in. Press menu twice. You will see that the battery meter is replaced by an icon of a power cord. 2. After you plug it in, press the power button to bring up the backlight. Then press enter. It should stay on as long as your car adapter is pugged in. Check out Robert Elsinga's GPS V FAQ Page for loads of neat info. Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

CYBret has an exellent step-by-step tutorial for using Spinner and Plucker. Paperless Caching Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

quote:Originally posted by Robert Elsinga =8-):... GPS V FAQ site .. That is a great resourse! Thanks, Robert, for creating and maintaining the page. Tom [This message was edited by Brainerd on August 20, 2003 at 02:31 PM.]

quote:Originally posted by Team Shibby:I don't recall the cachers name (but he has a lumberjack in his avatar) has given some great tips and tricks for the V as well as many owners who post here. ... EDIT: I think the cachers name was Brainerd who has given many good tips. Kar Thanks for the nice words Kar. Those are good tips from yourself, as well. BTW. The lumberjack on the mystery cache is Paul Bunyan. Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

I recently sent Garmin an email asking them to consider adding 'recalculate' as an option from the 'off road mode'. They said that they would consider it. If you would like to see it added to the next firmware update, just click on this link for Garmin Technical support feedback and send a similar request. Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

quote:Originally posted by dzavetsky:... someone also said that the autorouting info is 50% MORE than the numbers I see with autorouting off ... Autorouting only adds 25% for me. My 19 megs of maps are 15.3 megs without the autorouting.

How good of condition are the ammo cans from cheaperthandirt? Lotsa rust or not bad? Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

Thanks Webbed one. I want to still be able to look at it. I just don't want it to annoy others in my area by it showing up on the search result page. If option #1 takes it out of the nearest search result page, then I will choose that one.

I'm going to archive one of my caches. On the archive page, there is the following question: How should this be archived? There are two options to this question. They are: 1) List in archived section (make available) 2) Do not list (hide from site visitors) My goals are as such. I want to remove the cache so it does not show up on a 'nearest caches' search result page, but I do want it to be available for someone to search by keyword, user name, or the waypoint. Does option #2 take all record of it away, or will this option satisfy my goals? Safecracker Tom Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

quote:Originally posted by dzavetsky:Just curious...is there a way to turn off autorouting for just certain maps one would load?? Nope. You will not be able to have some of the areas with autorouting, and some without it. You can turn off the loading of the autorouting only on the entire map set that you load to the V. Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

Yup. That option is availible with the CitySelect map set that ships with the V. You will want to include the autorouting data when loading the maps to the V. One time, I mistakenly deselected that option, and the V did not do so good in navagating! Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

Here are two courtesy of The Southern California Geocachers web site. They were made by Team 360. Word Format In PDF format Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

quote:Originally posted by dzavetsky:What is the diff between "offroad" and "onroad" modes?? ''Offroad'' uses a compass arrow that is on all GPS units. ''Onroad'' refers to using the 'autorouting' capabilities of the GPS V. That feature will tell you what streets to take, and then it will navigate you on the streets to the cache. When you get as close as possible to the cache on the streets, you park the car, and then recalculate the route with a Route Preference of 'Off Road'. For the record, there is not an 'onroad' route preference. The calculation choices for routing on the streets are either 'Faster Time' or 'Shorter Distance'.

The V is also a better buy because the current offering is the 'deluxe package'. That includes a 'city select' CD map set and car kit with power adapter. These cost over $150 when purchased seperately. The 76S does not come with a mapping CD, so you will have to buy one to get mapping detail that goes way beyond the basemap. Current prices on Amazon: GPS V Deluxe Pacage: $399.94 76S: $349.94

quote:Originally posted by alchemist2000: Does anyone know if there is an easy way to switch from on road to off road mode? I use this feature a lot. While you are viewing the map/navigation page, press 'menu', then select 'recaculate'. A drop-down box will appear. Select 'off-road' and there is your compass arrow.

In the hills in the LA area, altitude can be helpful. I realize that it is not extremely accurate, but even with a +/- 50' it can help in choosing a path to take. But, because it is not applicable to most caches, the cache owner should just note the altitude in tbe description -- if they cache think that it would be helpful. Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

Enjoy! I love mine. Here are two neat and somewhat hidden features: 1. Name the waypoint for your house 'home'. When you want to navigate home just press find twice. 2. To have the unit do a diagnostic check, press and hold 'enter' with the power button while turning the unit on. Also, go to Gamin's web site to load the latest firmware, and MapSource software. They just posted updates in the past two weeks. Garmin Software Updates MapSource 5.0 is much nicer than the 4.xx that is shipped with the unit. My last little tip is to press 'menu' three times to go into the setup. Set your battery type to the correct type to get an accurate reading on the battery meter. Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau

If you are just getting it for caching, I would recommend a used unit with at least 2 megs of memory. Be careful when lookinig at the color models. I have a Samsung Palm Powered cell phone (I300). I like it, but the color screen is not very legible in direct sunlight. Not a great thing when caching. The older non-color units will not have this problem. If you are getting one, and intend to use the other Palm features, which are great, then a newer model with a minimum of 8 megs of memory would be the way to go. Again, make sure that you can read the color screen in direct sunlight. Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. Henry David Thoreau