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user13371

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Posts posted by user13371

  1. Now that I think of it, I do have time to do at least this simple test today:

     

    Turned the GPS turned on (demo mode), dropped it in a cup of water on my desk, will check in a few hours. Battery compartment tight, but I purposely left the rubber thingie over the USB port unseated. Will check back before I leave the office today.

     

    This isn't be as severe a test as submerging for half an hour in a meter of water -- but it'll be more of a soaking than most folks would give it on a rainy day or a drop it in a puddle.

     

    Pictures to be attached shortly.

  2. ...once the cover over the USB socket breaks, You're wide-open for a soaking...

    Do you mean on the Magellan GC or eTrex 10/20/30 specifically, or any GPS at all that has an external port covered with a rubber plug?

     

    If the socket is sealed properly INSIDE, it isn't going to let water in -- the plug is mainly to keep water, dust, debris out of the socket itself. Even without the plug, I expect a well made device would still meet the IPX7 standard of keeping water out for half an hour submerged in a meter of water. BUT - not all devices are equally well made, even if the maker claims IPX7 in their advertising. That's why I raise an eyebrow at gelfling6's broader assertion.

     

    I'm very tempted to give my own eTrex 20 a long soak just to see how it fares. Bought it from one of those stores* that offers a 100% lifetime satisfaction guaranteed for return or replacement, no questions asked, so I'd have nothing to lose. Not sure if I'll have time to do it today or even this weekend, but maybe early next week if nobody else tries it and posts their results here.

     

    ---

    * Yeah, you know which one I mean. But I won't mention it by name because whenever I do, someone says I'm shilling for them.

  3. TR_S, I think you're setting yourself up for a self fulfilling prophecy. Your best option would be to test it to destruction (kayak/bathtub/shower/dishawasher/etc), then send it back for warranty repair. When you get the replacement, eBay it and go buy a GPS you'll like or trust better. For rugged and waterproof, I recommend a DeLorme PN-60.

     

    Did you need one of them :) things to know I'm kidding?

     

    Seriously though, it does seem like you've had more problems with your etrex 30 than most users. Does this have you primed to look for or invent new problems that haven't happened yet? Maybe you really would be better off with a different model.

  4. ...if the battery compartment isn't WR then it is of utter importance to check for cleanliness at the rubber ring and lube it with silicone fat after a couple of years

    A reasonable precaution on every bit of gear ever intended for outdoor use, for hundreds of years - batten down the hatches!

     

    I recall reading some forum posts about a different Garmin (Colorado, don't know if it was the whole series or just one model in that line) where the gasket & latch on the battery door wasn't sufficiently water-resistant. But that's the all I can dredge up on my first cup of coffee this morning and without tapping to the search engines for help.

  5. If I worried about leaks (which I don't), I'd wonder about the rubber plug over the USB port rather than the battery compartment gasket. The plug is just a press-fit while the battery compartment has a rigid bayonet latch.

     

    This design is similar to earlier eTrex models. Also, I think many of the earlier "x" models that took data cards also had exposed contacts for the card slot, under the battery lid.

     

    So does it leak? I've heard of folks having problems getting the little rubber thingie on, I haven't seen any "I drowned my HCx!" complaints - have you?

  6. If the card seems to make a difference, you might have a problem with the card, not necessarily the device.

     

    Tr_S, what brand and size is your microSD card? Have you tried backing it up, reformatting it, and then putting it back in "empty?" Then compare startup times as you add various data to it.

     

    WITHOUT a card installed, I've already noted elsewhere that my eTrex 20 can take several minutes to start up when there are new or changed GPX files loaded on it -- and after that it only takes seconds.

  7. Maybe it's just you. Running 2.73, I did this: Set the pointer on a distant waypoin and said go. Wait until it draw the magenta line and showed me the distance. Shut it off. Waited a minute and turned it back on A few seconds to re-acquire my position and it correctly draws the line and distance to that waypoint. The WhereTo page also shows the correct "navigating to..." name.

  8. Dakboy's option 1 is good, and point 1a should be to enable WiFi so you can catch whatever hotspots might be around you.

     

    His Option 2 will only work if the phone is unlocked from a carrier. Not sure if and (or all) iPhones in thel UK are locked or unlocked.

     

    Last time I was in England was Dec2004 and I didn't think about that stuff back then :)

  9. After your initial "cup of coffee" start up.... How long does it take to start up after that?

    Let's see -- I'll restart it now and put a stopwatch to it ... 19 seconds. ...if you've edited/changed any of your waypoints or geocaches since you did the last load of files. I know adding/changing the files directly bumps you back to that much longer startup time.

     

    More data: I just deleted the larger set of GPX files from the GPS, put a simple GPX of 500 caches on and restarted - SEVEN MINUTES to start up. I guess a lot of that time is spent clearing thousands of caches OUT of memory as well as loading the new set.

     

    I can see why an impatient screen watcher might think it had locked up. Those who just go away and come back later will never notice a problem.

  10. ...holding out for a device that can store at least 1,728,669 active caches! ... My intent was to be factitious...

    Yes, I knew that even without the smiley. But it always makes me wonder when some people - quite seriously -- complain that 5000 or 10000 or (pick some larger value) isn't enough. I live in an absurdly cache-dense metro area and think 5000 is just about right for my purposes.

  11. After your initial "cup of coffee" start up.... How long does it take to start up after that?

    Let's see -- I'll restart it now and put a stopwatch to it ...

     

    19 seconds.

     

    Edit to add: Repeated a few times and it stays within a second or two of that. I think it varies -- longer, by a few sconds -- if you've edited/changed any of your waypoints or geocaches since you did the last load of files. I know adding/changing the files directly bumps you back to that much longer startup time.

  12. How many geocaches do you have on your etrex? I always had about 1000 to 1100, but since 2.73 i had to go back to about 750 or the device won't boot until i delete the gpx and do a three-button-reset.

    Right this minute? 4217 caches plus 225 child waypoints. The GPX files take up about 20 megabytes. I also have an OpenStreetMap containing roughly the northern third of he USA, 771MB. No problems noted so far.

     

    Are you sure you're giving it enough time to start up? After refreshing/reloading a set of GPX files, it can take several minutes -- and it will seem much longer if you're staring at an apparently unmoving, unchanging splash screen. On a day I'm planning to go caching, I dwnload the batch, restart the GPS, and then go have another cup of coffee. When I come back it's done, without fail.

     

    ...Some day Garmin will produce a gps designed just for geocaching...
    I'm holding out for a device that can store at least 1,728,669 active caches!

    With only one premium membership and a very carefully composed/scheduled set of pocket queries, it'd take a few weeks short of one year to fill that up. And the majority of your data would always be stale with regards to logs, enabled/disabled status, etc.

     

    Rather than holding more caches, I'd like a much simpler improvement:- code an "unzip" processor into the thing so I can drop a zipped pocket query right into the GPS (and Basecamp, while they're at it) without having to do that step in another program first.

  13. Would depend a lot on where you live.

     

    If you to do this on you own property, you should be allowed to. On the other hand, I live on a street with a very vigilant "neighborhood watch" and often worry for the safety of any stranger walking down the road, day or night.

  14. ANYHOW... apart from that little iDevice detour, just putting the GPS onto a network as shared storage struck me as a neat idea. I can leave it there whenever I'm not using it, makes it easy to copy maps or GPS files to it from any of the computers in the house without having to plug anything else in. I know Apple's Airport routers aren't the only ones that have a USB port and support shared storage... anyone doing this trick with a different router/NAS device?

  15. Walt, you're wrong. Again. :P

     

    I don't know why you keep repeating that canard about having to jailbreak or use itunes or email to exchange files with an iPhone. I've mentioned a few of these apps before, and mentioned one at the start of this thread.

     

    And here's another one relevant to this thread: I just found this: FileBrowser ... looks like it will do what I want* ... I type this, my eTrex is sitting connected to the router in the next room, my iPhone on the table next to me browsing the GPS's file folders. Have figured out at least one way in FB to copy files between iPhone and the GPS.

     

    ---

    * Edit to add: After playing with FB for a little while, it's ironic: The folks who make it actually advertise it as exactly what Walt said required a jailbreak: -- "like having Windows Explorer on your iPad / iPhone" -- but while it lets me do copy pocket queries from my iPhone to the GPS, in some ways it's clunkier as using Windows. It's always something.

  16. Apple's wireless routers have a USB port for connecting printers, hubs, external drives, etc.

     

    I plugged my eTrex 20 into that port this evening and it powered up immediately as a shared disk on the network. By itself, that's a little bit useful. When I'm home can leave it plugged in all the time and copy PQs to it directly, saving a few seconds of connecting and powering up. No big deal. But if I can find a file manager app that lets my iPhone copy files to or from a shared disk on the network, I can see it being MUCH more useful. It might even let me ditch one one of more computer(s) around here that I'm only keeping for their USB ports.

     

    It looks like FileApp Pro (or maybe even the free, lower-featured FileApp) would let me download and unzip PQ files directly on my phone and copy them to the Garmin. Anyone else already tried this?

  17. not a fan of subscriptions

    That's a shame - it's the easiest way to get a consistent bunch of imagery, whether you go with DeLorme or Garmin.

     

    You absolutely can find, download, stitch together all the maps you want for "free" using something lile MOBAC. But time is money and the subscription fees you don't like would certainly save you more than $30/year in effort.

     

    working.png

    Image used by permission.

    Source: XKCD

  18. Coggins, if you can present situation situations where the eTrex 10 basemap is useful to you or others, I'll listen.

     

    But for my own purposes? Best I can come up with is if I was dropped into the middle of nowhere, needing to know the general direction and distance of the nearest main road, town, or geographical feature-- with no other way of determining that other than the GPS.

     

    Hasn't happened to me yet, and I doubt it ever will. Closest to that scenario was about 30 years ago, USAF survival training. No GPS, but the minimal navigation skill and area knowledge I had then was more useful than what's on the eTrex 10 today.

  19. ...explain to me what you mean when you say that you can't load maps onto the etrex 10 and that the maps on there are not very good...

    I think this is something you have to see to appreciate.

     

    Go to a store that has working models of both the eTrex 10 and 20 on display. When you look at the 10, remind yourself that what you see is what you get. The maps on the eTrex 20 are better (color, more detailed) right out of the box, and you can download/add even better ones if you want to.

     

    But -- that may not matter for you personally. The enthusiasts here will automatically tell you to buy the more expensive model with more features -- but if you don't want or care about those features that's just silly talk. If you buy the lower end model and decide later that you need more, you can always upgrade.

     

    To answer your original question "Is the eTrex a good geocaching GPS?" Absolutely, I don't think you can do any better in that price range.

  20. For some reason, a 'Windows' folder full of similar files (winsx?) was created - all of 7.3MB!

    Yes, that's a common problem for Windows users :)

     

    WinSXS folder explained

     

    Although - that's usually just on the boot volume, the one with Windows installed on it Still a bit of a puzzle how it got copied over to the GPS.

  21. ...on the mac I need 4.0.1.1 which is not readily available.

    "Readily" available depends on how hard you look. CommunicatorPlugin_4.0.1.1.dmg is downloadable directly from this directory but I admit that's not easy to find...

     

    It seems that if I have one version loaded on the gps, i can't use the gps on the other system that is not compatible to the currently loaded version on the gps....[

    That's interesting. I thought the Communicator plugin only installed on the host computer and didn't change/do anything on the GPS itself - so installing something on one computer shouldn't change how the GPS interacts with a different computer.

     

    Could you give a little more detail about what error messages you're getting - exact wording - when you try specific things?

  22. ...Have you emptied your trash? Seems like that's a common problem with Mac owners...

    Second time in a few days I've seen a comment like this. And someone else suggested you had to also shut off the GPS and remove the batteries after emptying the trash.

     

    Explain this to me, please. Apart from having little or nothing to do with the problem being described, I'm not sure what "common problem with Mac owners" you're talking about.

     

    As far as I know, if you delete a file from a disk connected to a Mac and don't empty the trash, the deleted file is recoverable (and using space) until you DO empty the trash. Keep that up for a long time, and you could run the volume out of space. But that's not unique to the Mac. Is pretty much the same as on a Windows machine if you don't empty the recycle bin.

     

    But that would not explain the OP's problem: Says the GPS works fine and transfers data with his PC but not his Mac. A full volume would still be full regardless of what machine you connect it to.

     

    So... could you point me to some technical reference on what "common problem" can affect Mac owners from not emptying the trash?

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