GOT GPS?

Did you buy this GPS at a local store, or Online? when I was looking at this thread, I figured you probably ended up with a Demo model, and not a regular GPS. What type of store was it, and did you buy the one that was on display, that had to be boxed up? You may need to exchange the GPS at the store, or call up Garmin on Monday. I have heard of Garmin producing Demo Only units in the past for Display Only, and not for sale.

Haiti just had a big earthquake, and I am wondering if there are any Mapsource files of Earthquake faults, and also, of where the plates of the Earth meet. I know Google Earth would have the info, but I am looking for links to Mapsource files, on the net. THANKS, - Geoff

I am giving up my caches for adoption except Rotary Tree Keeping Rotary Tree cache.

Same problem here I plugged my device in the USB, and got that screen, then went ahead, with windows checking the device, then it found no errors. Any USB mass storage device, whether GPS or like my 120GB camcorder, if it's unplugged, without clicking "Safely Remove", it sets up an error condition in Windows. Windows seems to remember the premature unplugging when the device is plugged in again, bringing up that screen again.

Thats funny, this happened to me just the last couple days, I did a google search. Now it's fixed.

I have had problems with my Map60CSx, with glare, and had to use backlight, when in indirect lighting, but I admit that the Colorado 400t was worse. I turn on the backlight on the Map60CSx in the daytime, when I am getting too much glare. The backlight does eat batteries though. With my older eyes, I admit that any reflection off of the plastic window of the GPS units, is more of an issue now, than just 4 or 5 years ago, when my eyes were not as bad. Now I depend more on backlights to cut through glare, to see the screens. Seems like a glossy screen like the 550t would be better in sunlight than the matte screen of the older Oregons.

I had a Map60Cx, that when I tried to take it apart, with new mini-screwdrivers, the plastic screw mounts had shattered, even when I thought I was careful. The GPS did not come apart fully either, and I ended up using lots of scotch tape to hold it together. Spring loaded metal prongs on the battery compartment, lost contact with the circuit board, so I went inside, to fix it, but that shattered most of the plastic screw mounts in the GPS. So these GPS units should not be opened up.

Couple weeks ago, I noticed I hit maximum GPX files on mine, and I put them all in a zip file on the MicroSD card. That way, I freed up space for 255 new GPX files.

For the last year and a half, I been geting lots of problems with my 60CSx, booting up at "8pm March 31, 2007". I bought the GPS back in Sept 2007. The GPS, I even had outside, sitting still, and after a minute of acquiring a signal, it switched back to "8pm March 31, 2007, and the screen went into nite mode, here at 11:45am. The sats on the screen seem to reset, after it switched to nite mode. This GPS been through multiple resetting, and updating of the dual firmwares. This is the second buggy GPS from Garmin, the last one, was my Map60Cx, with all kinds of power issues, including bouncy reciever signals. Just wished I knew how to delete the 8pm 31march2007 bug out of the system. My resetting has not helped. About every 3rd bootup is an 8pm 31march2007 issue. Other bootups are okay.

My first GPS was the Magellan 4000XL 12 channel unit, back in 1998. That thing went through alot of abuse, like cooking in a hot window, and dropped on the road at 40mph.

Quite a deal at 286.87 In the basket, but not bought yet.

Updated my Map60CSx , and it still has a bug from Chipset version 3.0 Every 3rd time I turn on my 60CSx it says "31-Mar-07 8pm". My 60CSx was a very nice unit back in Sept 07, when I bought it, but at the end of that year, they brought out Chipset version 3.0, and ever since, my GPS will boot up with "31-Mar-07 8pm for the date and time, and I did try hardware resets a few times. Crazy stuff.

I have both the Map60CSx and Map60Cx, and the elevation in the tracklogs of the Map60Cx was pretty crappy, would show alot of elevation changes on flat ground, and Topofusion would show all the climbing I did, even though the land was perfectly flat. This is the reason I kept the 60CSx, and gave my sister the Map60Cx.

The only thing I can think of, since I have an eXplorist also, is that you could hit MENU, then select Preferences, then Select Clear Memory, then select ALL. Then leave the GPS in the open for at least 15 minutes to, get a good quality signal.

OLDEST setup: Palm m130 with Cachemate and Mobipocket Reader. 2006 to 2008: Sprint Fusic phone with Geocache Navigator, and Map60CSx Oct 08 to Now iPhone 3G with the Geocaching APP, and my Map60CSx and the occational use of my Nuvi 260w with the Pilotsnipes GSAK macro created pocket quiries. iPhone is nice, but still got to use the Map60CSx to zero in on the caches, then log the finds right at the cache locations on my iPhone.

I use the iPhone 3G with google maps, Geocacher App, SeekCache App, but I use my 60CSx to get close when in the woods, else if I am in a parking lot, the google maps work well. My iPhone is 1 mile off lots of times, so I just use SeekCache App, then the list of caches in the Safari browser, and log that way out at the caches, using my 60CSx to zero in. I can't trust the accuracy of my iPhone since it is all over the place. I would like to see an ability to open a browser within the Geocaching App, to log that way, but that might need a special formatted page within the Geocaching.com site.

I remember you had an old GPS IIIplus, and you used it to find a cache of mine years ago. Bell Creek Park Cache Stash. The newer GPS units are pretty good. The new eTrexes use a standard mini-USB cable, but any USB GPS, like all the newer Garmins, require you to install USB drivers, to allow the PC to talk to the USB Garmin. This does not use memory cards, but it is a fairly cheap color unit.

My 60CSx did the same thing recently, with the backlight failing, but the buttons were lit up. Later that night, the backlight popped back on. The gps has been dropped hard a couple times before this happened.

Good cache application, I was using SEEK CACHE app, but it was not getting good positioning before spitting out a list of caches on the Safari Browser, but this Groundspeak App, I can wait for the updates to it. At least it is a nice start, and hopefully there will be an option of logging into the app, and linking to the Safari browser from the Groundspeak App.

My most accurate GPS to date, seems to be the Map60CSx, and when held as vertical as possible, I got excellent tracklogs. My Map60Cx without the sensors, gave a pretty terrible tracklog, where would be all over the place with the elevation, even when walking on flat land. My Explorist XL had problems at times picking up bad signals, and using them. One time as I was hiking with my friends, on an island in Put-In-Bay Ohio, the GPS jumped like 12 miles back to land, then back to reality, in a matter of seconds. Hopefully, the manufactures can include a speed filter on the Satellite Page int he Future, that you can set an upper limit, that you know the GPS will not speed past. Like selecting 5mph max, then the GPS rejects all readings that indicate a movement faster than 5mph. I would also put into GPS software, an accuracy filter, to reject readings worse than a user selectable amount. Like if you selected to reject readings worse than 20 foot accuracy, then the GPS will just sample the signals again, till the readings get below 20 foot accuracy. This way there would be no spikes in the tracklog. The worst spikes in a tracklog where from a Colorado 400t, and after walking down my sidewalk. The Colorado 400t showed a severe sawtooth tracklog, whereas the sidewalk was perfectly straight. By the way that Seismometer is now on my iPhone 3G.

I bought this on Sunday, when I did a search for GEOCACHING, but still use the Safari browser, and Gopher Lite due to not being able to LOG IN yet, with this application. Does show promise, but there is so much cache clutter, where I need to filter out all the caches that are mine, and and those that I found already. Also to be able to filter out all non-traditionals, is what I need to be able to do on this APP. Did not know about this thread before today, since I have not been caching in a while, so I was taken by surprise when I searched for GEOCACHING.

I had an early model 60Cx, and I have a 60CSx bought last September, and the 60Cx bought Feb 2006, was all over the place with the Battery Meter going up and down, when using any rechargable, and especially did not like the Radio Shack Hybrids. Any battery that crapped out in the 60Cx, would continue to work in the newer 60CSx of mine. Not just the battery meter showed fluctuations in the old 60Cx, but the Receiver was very unstable. The best batteries in my old 60Cx seemed to be Duracell Alkalines, which helped the old 60Cx run more stable. Seems some GPS units may not be purfect, with some of them being on the border of being defective.

Garmin Texas GPS: Always in search mode for OIL If your are trying to search for a geocache, it will first search for OIL. Whenever it finds OIL, it checks its database of POI, then reports the find, to the Big Oil companies. Whenever there is a stolen OIL truck, all the Garmin Texas GPS units will be in search mode for the stolen truck, then report it if it is nearby, so even if the truck is repainted and the plates changed, the thief can not get away. Whenever you buy some texas oil, the GPS can transact a discount via your credit card. 10,000 Texas OIL Waypoints 200 geocache waypoints 1,000,000 tracklog points, but only work in the OIL Search Mode.

Since the Oregon has a patch antenna, like the Nuvis, and my nuvi 260W, I believe that WAAS is best with a stick antenna(quadrifiler), and not a patch. I have had maybe 15 GPS units since 1998, both with Patch and Stick Antennas, and I always had an easier time with the Stick Antennas, than the Patch antennas. I have not seen any nuvis with patch antennas, work with WAAS, and my 260W never had WAAS. Technical paper on the Patch Antenna > http://waas.stanford.edu/~wwu/papers/gps/P...ggerIONAM02.pdf These patch antennas are usually best for overhead, and tend to not receive well near the horizon. The Stick Antennas, when held vertical at about head height, usually pick up the sats near the horizon well, including those WAAS sats that are quite low. I had an eTrex Vista, and I have an eXplorist XL, both with Patch antennas, and from what I can remember, is that they had trouble with sats low in the sky, and had some trouble with WAAS. I think it is probably better to just turn off WAAS, on the GPS units with patch antennas, like the Oregon, that is built like a nuvi, and also the eTrexes that are acting up. Would be interesting if turning off WAAS on the eTrex HC units, solves some of the problems, and also the Oregon. Any takers on this idea?