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user13371

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  1. ...absolutely no reason to pay that price...

    And yet, that''s not an uncommon price for these, judging by this and other recent eBay sales. I also aw one listed for $175 in the Garage Sale here recently. It sold, but I don't know of they got their asking price.

     

    There are certainly better GEOCACHING options for that kind of money - but when older equipment like this gets a good selling price, it's for someone else. If you have sunk costs in other gear (mounts, cables, computers or other devices with RS232 ports, maps, specialized software) it probably makes more sense to replace just a broken GPS than your whole kit.

  2. The model the Op was referring to has a Serial AFAIK

    76csx also has USB. I *think* it's the only model discussed in this thread with both. Not sure about the 60csx. Amazingly, I know some folks who use old computers, fish finders, chart plotters, etc who consider RS232 a useful feature. That's why any used 76csx is more likely to sell to a boater than a geocacher.

     

    Anyway the Op never came back, maybe he made a totally different choice.

    Happens a lot. Scared another newbie off, all this intensity here :D

     

    Or maybe he's just watching that original auction - it's at $66 (as of Saturday, with 2 days to go). And in the context of the original question - yes, at a good price the 76csx would be a good beginner's choice. Obviously the market at large values it more than your limit of $30, and I myself wouldn't go over $80 for it.

     

    Academic, that is. I'm not in the market for one right now.

  3. The thing I don't get, really, is why the 76csx gets no love while the 60csx is still somewhat respectable. I don't just mean the comments here or for geocaching in general. You can look at completed sales on eBay and see used 60csx usually* go for more than the 76csx.

     

    Same innards!

    ---

     

    * but I just noticed some recent sales that refute my premise!

     

    76csx

    http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?LH_Sold=1&_from=R40&LH_Complete=1&_sacat=0&_nkw=Gps+76csx&=&rt=nc&LH_ItemCondition=4

     

    60csx

    http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?LH_Sold=1&_from=R40&LH_Complete=1&_sacat=0&_nkw=Gps+60csx&=&rt=nc&LH_ItemCondition=4

  4. See also:

    http://www.geocaching.com/reviews/gps_garmin_gpsmap-76csx

     

    Great GPS overall (and yes it does have a card slot) but maybe not ideal for geocaching today. Think of it as a 60csx that floats - and the 60csx was long considered THE premiere geocaching device. The only real advantages newer models have are faster processors and better "paperless" geocaching support - convenient features for getting all of your geocache data (names, logs, hints, etc) into the gadget, instead of just the waypoints.

     

    Someone who wants the 76csx for boating, or maybe to replace a legacy unit, will probably bid that eBay one far over Splashy's suggested $30 - though I'd be surprised if it went as high as the listed "Buy It Now" price.

  5. ...DOES run the battery down though, so zi keep it off generally. Probably (un-surprisingly) about half the battery life I'd say, maybe only 40% less.

    Only 40% less? That's huge!

     

    I'd really like to see real tests of battery life based on side by side testing to support claims of such a large difference. Have you done any real testing and recorded hours of runtime, or is this just a gut feeling?

  6. A lot of y'all are making this more complicated than it needs to be.

     

    Short version: More satellites to work with is a good thing.

     

    Longer version: USUALLY, the more satellites your GPSR can see at any given time, the faster it will be able to computer a fix. And the better the apparant geometry (that is, how widely "spaced out" the collection of satellites appear in your view of the sky), the more likely you are to get an accurate fix. The combined collection of GPS and GLONASS satellites improves the likelihood at any goven time of having more sats in view, in a favorable geometry.

     

    On the other hand, the entire GLONASS constellation suffered an outage ( see also http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26957569 ) early in April, every satellite sending bad data - so every receiver trying to compute a fix with that data went a bit wonky*. As that can happen, being able to tell your GPSR to ignore GLONASS at times is a good thing also.

     

    * Which reminds me of a poem by Longfellow...

     

    There was a little girl,

    Who had a little curl,

    Right in the middle of her forehead.

    When she was good,

    She was very good indeed,

    But when she was bad she was horrid.

  7. I have come across many cheap - really cheap - USB cables that either

     

    1) break easily, or

    2) have really finicky connections, or

    3) seem to work for charging but not data, or

    4) seem to work for data but not power.

     

    So, with the caveat "make sure you're using a well made cable" - yeah, what everyone else said - they should all wrk.

  8. Odd.. I have no problem with using MapSource with any of the USB Garmins I have.

    Nothing odd about that - the question was originally if BaseCamp would work.

     

    Both MapSource And BaseCamp will work with either USB or RS-232 garmins.

    Hey, I only know what I read in the funny pages, but Garmin disagrees with you on that regarding BaseCamp for older models

    https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId=%7Be69a0b50-e2b4-11df-73e5-000000000000%7D

     

    Which is academic for my purposes, none of those older models are a concern at the office I'm supporting. All kinds of rules of what we can and cannot install, so I just had to make sure the "allowed" software (Basecamp) would work with the device they had (Garmin 60cx on USB) - otherwise help them put together a request for a different package or exception to the rules.

  9. ... The subject was BaseCamp. ...

    Actually, the ORIGINAL subject was compatibility. I started this thread and should have been more specific.

     

    At the beginning I should have framed the question if there was any REQUIREMENT, compatibility reasons, to use MapSource in lieu of Basecamp. The answer to THAT question is really "just if you have a serial-port, no USB model."

     

    Natural drift took it into a disucssion of why someone might like one program ober the other.

  10. Overall, it sounds like a bad cable. Unfortunately, the DeLorme cable is unique and the only place to get one is from DeLorme. Not like you can run over to any Walmart to grab a regular USB cable for testing/replacement.

     

    And though it is PROBABLY the cable, you coudn't rule out problem in the device itself. Which means you have to call DeLorme and either have them send you a new cable (and hope that fixes it) or send the whole thing back for replacement. Time consuming.

     

    As for salvaging your trip to Mexico and gepcaching - were you able to copy maps to an SD card using a separate card reader? Were you able to test the cable connection at least for power by plugging it into some other kind of USB charger apart from a computer? Amd did you check the battery type setting just to see if it straightened out your question about rechargeables showing correct level on the battery guage?

     

    PS - "lack of comiseration" on Delorme's forum ... Though hosted by DeLorme, it's mostly frequented by a small number of diehard fans. The level of help you get in any problem will vary widely. Calling the real DeLorme support line is more useful.

  11. Been a while since I used a DeLorme, but I think there's a "battery type" selection on one of the menus. It needs to be set properly for the the battery level gauge to work.

     

    For the cable issue, one work around may be to copy data to an SD card in a separate reader, them put the card back im the GPS. That will get your data over, bit doesn't help if you were hoping to power the GPS from the computer.

     

    Um, IS the cable delivering power to the GPS? If not from your computer, have you got any other USB charger that you could check it woth (many smartphone and tablets come with USB chargers). Do yu have access to a dofferent computer you could check it with?

  12. Sadly, choice is not an option at this end. Company machine with company guidelines about what end users can and cannot have. Can make a business case for exceptions sometimes along the lines of "required functionality not available in other software" but "I don't like it" isn't a valid business case.

     

    The only way we'd get this one a waiver would be if he had to use a serial-port-only GPS. But he IS using the USB connection on his 60cx.

  13. Thanks.

     

    One of our field offices is swapping out a very old PC with a newer one, and MapSource is no longer on our "approved" software list. The end user is concerned because, well, MapSource is what he knows how to use. If speed is the biggest difference then he shouldn't worry - his new machine is much faster than the creaky old one being replaced.

     

    All he's doing is exchanging waypoint and track data anyhow, with a Garmin GPS 60cx, at least he's using the USB port :D

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