Team DeLorme

We've released a beta version of our next firmware which delivers the 800 character limit for cache information. Send me an e-mail if you have any specific questions... the PN-20 users that help out on this forum have done a nice job of sorting out the comments here too. I can confirm that we do provide the basics... searching for the closest geocache... changing the symbol from Cache to Cache Found... There's even more information on the DeLorme forum... forum.delorme.com. Chip Noble Team DeLorme

There are PN-20 people here too! Not to mention here... http://forum.delorme.com/index.php The forums really are a great place to get fast answers, regardless of the manufacturer of your GPS device. I am always amazed at how knowledgeable and helpful all of the members are. It is changing the way we interact with our customer base... from design and testing to sales and marketing as well as customer service. Forums like this site really make it easy to get help if you are a new user. They also allow companies to hear what the customers are saying and take action. It is a very powerful tool, thanks for all the reading material! Chip Noble Team DeLorme

Hey Pawz, Topo USA is a windows only software. In order to use the software on your Mac OS you can use the "boot camp" utility if your Mac is an Intel Dual Core processor model. Boot comp allows you to run a Windows OS on your Mac hardware. It does require you to purchase and install Windows. Boot camp itself is a free download from Apple. The other option is to use the emulator program "Parallels" on your Mac. Most users have had good sucess using this program to run DeLorme software on a Mac OS. Check in at www.gpsreview.net, the gentleman who did the PN-20 review on that site uses Parallels, he may be able to answer more specific questions as to running it on your Mac. I hope that this helps! -Brian Team DeLorme

More info after a quick check with TS... A service pack is available for Street Atlas USA 2005 allowing exchange of waypoints, tracks and routes with USB Garmin devices like your Vista C. It will also allow you to connect the device to your laptop for in-vehicle navigation. Follow the link below and run the update. http://www.delorme.com/support/supporttemplate.aspx?id=158 Let us know if you have any questions. Chip Noble Team DeLorme

What you are asking for is doable through DeLorme's Xmap software and the PN-20 GPSr. It is not the least complicated thing in the world though. Check out www.xmap.com and let me know if you have any questions. -Brian Team DeLorme

Hello Phipps', Your Vista C may be compatible with the DeLorme 2005 software. There are 2 potential issues. 1-Software may be out of date, with each software release we update the GPS devices that are compatible. 2-The device is not compatible with the computer is the first place (when you plug the device into the computer does Windows recognize it?) Check this DeLorme support site: http://www.delorme.com/support/supporttemplate.aspx?id=348 Also, are you using Street Atlas USA or Topo USA? Topo is a far more "geocaching friendly" software, for the record. You can always contact DeLorme technical support for more info as well. (207) 846-8900 I hope this helps! -Brian Team DeLorme

Keep in mind that the Earthmate GPS PN-20 comes with a 1GB SD Card as well as Topo USA 7.0 (detailed topographic and street maps for the entire US), and a $100 credit for additional map downloads like USGS quads, color aerial imagery and NOAA charts. We're trying hard to make sure people are aware that everything you need is in the box... a story that gets lost at retail sometimes... I would definitely recommend the PN-20 for mountain biking, hiking and geocaching. I use it for these activities on a regular basis. The PN-20 will also perform adequately for driving... be sure to create your road, trail or direct routes using Topo USA and transfer them to the PN-20. Navigate with the route to view time and distance to turn, see the upcoming road name and turn arrow and hear beeps announcing decision points. I don't recommend the device as a primary in-vehicle GPS as recalculating routes can take longer than desirable when turns are missed and new directions are needed. I would recommend one of the many in-vehicle devices that are out there if road routing tips the scales for you. As you consider the different devices think of the PN-20 as a great mapping GPS with good driving features to get you to your cache location. I read a review on the geocaching forum that described the color aerial imagery as cheating, it made things so easy. I liked that description... There are lots of screenshots on our website if you're looking for more examples of the maps or details about the features. I also like to point out the 30 day money back guarantee... put it to the test. Let me know if you have any additional questions about the PN-20 or Topo USA. Chip Noble Team DeLorme

Several of the people that ride on Team DeLorme put the device in their Camelbak pocket. I had the device in my jacket pocket while cross-country skiing and my backpack hip pocket while hiking. It worked well in both scenarios. I used the RAAM mount on my bike this season... once I got over the initial hazing from all the ulta-weight conscious riders I found having the route in front of me to be worth the added ounces. Having the map right there actually gave me the upper hand on a couple of tricky races when the paper map guys had to pull over to check directions and I was able to glance down and see the right road to follow... It's worth it for training at least... although my handlebars show that I tend to be a gadget collector... http://forum.delorme.com/viewtopic.php?p=62729#62729 Chip Noble Team DeLorme

We put quite a bit of effort into Topo USA 7.0 targeting athletic data and cycling specifically. You can calculate bicycle routes (no limited access roads) and transfer them to your PN-20 to get maps and directions while you're riding. I use it to lead rides for our Team DeLorme cyclists while we train for the Trek Across Maine... it's kept me on-route through more than one confusing intersection. We also allow you to tie your heart rate monitor to the GPS data. I ride with a Suunto monitor and am able to geotag the heart rate to my GPS track using Topo USA. It's great to see how your heart rate and speed respond to the tough climbs. Check out the Topo USA site for more information on the athletic data and cycling features... I believe benjamin921 and embra answered your questions but feel free to e-mail me if I can help with anything else. Chip Noble Team DeLorme

The PN-20 is all about the maps... keep in mind that I work for DeLorme but am an active upland hunter and fly fisherman too. The aerial imagery is great for seeing old logging paths in the back woods of Maine... the USGS maps are also great for seeing footprints of old homes and camps. Topo USA comes with the PN-20 giving you Topographic maps for the entire US and 100 dollars toward downloads of many other datasets like USGS quads, color aerial imagery and NOAA nautical charts. The beauty of the map topic is that you don't have to take my word for it, there are lots of screen shots on our website for you to check out. My guess is you've already seen some of them. Check out forum.delorme.com for more info too... Don't forget about the 30-day money back guarantee either... Let me know if you have any questions and good luck with your research. Chip Noble Team DeLorme

Nice review, thanks! 800 characters in the comment field coming soon... up from current 256. See your cache description and hints along with other Groundspeak GPX tags. Feel free to post any questions you have about Topo or the PN-20 here or at forum.delorme.com! Thanks, Chip Noble Team DeLorme

Thanks for helping with this benjamin921 and embra; you're both correct as usual. While Topo and the PN-20 support both .loc and .gpx files, the .gpx is the only format that supports extended attributes for a geocache. The 1.3 firmware for the PN-20 supports 255 characters and is available on our support site. The 1.4 firmware will support 800 characters along with several other improvements and will be available as a beta very soon. I have been using the beta version for a little while now and like the ability to read extended descriptions and hints. I agree with embra's observation that the two line comment could be improved with a full page comment view. This is on our list of feature requests but will not be available in the 1.4 firmware. We've got a long list of great ideas coming in from our users and have to balance our development resources... check out the forum.delorme.com site for more details. Chip Noble Team DeLorme

Do you worry about the weather when you're geocaching? I suppose there are otter boxes and plastic enclosures to protect you from the rain... having geocached in the snow recently I appreciate the waterproof/ruggedized nature of a handheld GPS. You're solution definitely sounds high tech though, we're just hoping that the average cacher will consider a solution that tries to put it all together for them. Still, cell phone connection to the geocaching.com site is sweet. I've checked for other cachers' comments before to see if a cache had been disturbed. Can't do that with a GPX file... I'll add it to my internal wish list. Thanks for the feedback. Chip Noble Team DeLorme

There is an Exchange Dialog that displays two lists, the contents of the Topo project on the left and the contents of the PN-20 on the right. All you have to do is select the waypoint, track, route or map that you'd like to move and pick Send to get it from Topo to the PN-20 or Receive to get it from the PN-20 to Topo. It's very straight forward. You'll connect the PN-20, select the track you just logged, press Receive to download it then press Done to close the dialog. You'll open the Print tab, center the map on your screen, press Print Preview to see the extent of the page, zoom to best fit the track then press Print to get a paper copy of your track. To answer the GSAK question... it depends on how much you want to customize your waypoints. We don't have the tools that GSAK has yet but we do send the cache details, hints and other information to the comment field on the device. One other nice thing that GSAK allows is for you to change the information that gets written to the Name field. We changed Topo to display the cache name and have since learned that some people go by the cache ID... oops. Fire me an e-mail, I'd like to hear more about how you are using the device for your race planning. Let me know if you have any other questions. Chip Noble Team DeLorme

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear in my earlier posts. You need to call our professional sales group to get the $99 upgrade to XMap, it isn't available on our website. We had a lot of Topo and PN-20 users that wanted to upgrade so they made a special price for them. It does require you to speak with them. Give them a call at: Phone: 207.846.7025 or 1.800.293.2389 Mon-Fri 8:30am-8pm ET or fire me an e-mail if you have any questions. Chip Noble Team DeLorme

Well, here are the specs from our manual, along with a link... PN-20 Manual After talking with our GPS Engineer, the problem with specifics about RMS values is that all GPS devices use various filtering mechanisms to tune their devices for particular activities. You will hear terms like sling-shoting when a Kalman Filter has caused a position estimate to keep moving after the user has come to a stop. We have fine-tuned our device for slower traveling speeds like those that you will see while hiking and biking. This gives us a high accuracy. I have had some great opportunities to track while viewing aerial imagery on the device and have always been impressed with how closely we stick to the trails that appear on the map. All manufacturers are going to post best performance times. I have listed our hot and warm start times below. Bottom line, if you fly to the other side of the country with any GPS device you're going to wait for a few minutes or use the "Set Current Location" option to give the device an idea that you've moved a long way from your last 3-D fix location. You will run into a ton of personal opinions when it comes to ability to maintain a fix in deep tree cover. I have had the PN-20 all over the great state of Maine during testing and have always been impressed with how well it maintains a fix. I have used it in the urban canyons of Boston and had good results in all but the extreme scenarios. You will read posts from people that have had 3-D fixes in their houses and you will find people that have lost 3-D fix in areas where they thought it should work. I think you will see quite a debate on which devices perform best. We use ST Micro for our GPS chipset. Garmin just switched over to using ST Micro as well. I have done enough side-by-side comparisons with the 60csx to believe that your decision should be based on other features in the device. Consider the maps; they are a big differentiator for the devices. Consider panning and zooming too... the PN-20 pays for the detail in the high-resolution imagery by sacrificing a little speed. The bottom line is we do not want you to be unhappy with the device you use... Kick the tires on the PN-20 and use that guarantee if you are not satisfied. Let me know if I can help with anything else. In addition, yes, you can average waypoints with the PN-20... I hope this gives you some more detail on the Earthmate. Chip Noble Team DeLorme Appendix B Physical Specifications Case: IPX-7 waterproof, impact resistant Size: 5.25" x 2.43" x 1.5" Weight: 0.33 lb Technical Specifications General • NMEA-compliant 12-channel receiver • WAAS-enabled (SBAS) • Low-power baseband and RF chip set (RF chip based on the ultra-low-power silicon-germanium BiCMOS process) • Warm start: < 38 seconds • Hot start: < 3 seconds • Power: full power: 165mW; Sleep mode: < 55mW • Maximum Velocity: 1000 knots • Advanced high-sensitivity algorithms for superior tracking in urban environments • Weak signal tracking down to -145dBm • Proprietary Kalman filter for enhanced position accuracy • Superior noise rejection for high EMI environments • Operating temperature range -20 ºC to +75 ºC • Storage temperature range -55 ºC to +100 ºC • Built-in antenna

This is a combination of the $299 promotion through Geocaching.com and the existing PN-20/Topo $99 upgrade offer through our professional sales group. You will need to get the PN-20 and Topo first and then take advantage of the upgrade. There was a flurry of phone calls from different sales and marketing people when I posted this... they made me go back and point out that $299 promotion is a limited time offer. If you are interested, you should check it out before the loophole closes. Chip Noble Team DeLorme

My apologies, sometimes the tech talk gets in the way of simpler explanations. You are correct in referring to a firmware update as an upgrade. It is how GPS manufacturers deliver new features and improvements to their handheld devices. PN-20 users are notified through our NetLink tab in Topo when an update is available; we are working on our fourth update, 1.4 right now. You will download the update and then run the setup file... just connect the device and follow the steps in the wizard. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll provide more details. Chip Noble Team DeLorme

The Earthmate GPS PN-20 does not have a digital compass. It also has a screen size that is comparable with the Garmin eTrex series. You have listed two Garmin models that have sensors and a larger screen. If these are high on your list of requirements then the PN-20 might not be the right fit for you. We have worked hard to change the way that GPS users look at their maps. We have provided a high detail topographic map for the entire US with our device. We have also given users access to high-resolution aerial imagery and the popular USGS quad maps. You can download NOAA charts as well. Our upcoming firmware release will give you the ability to view descriptions and hints on the device, up to 800 characters. Check out the screen shots at our website to see why we believe it's all about the maps. http://www.delorme.com/geocaching The dirt trail that leads to this cache is only visible on the imagery. I've done enough bush whacking to know that I'd rather see the trails before I head out so that I can plan accordingly... Consider the maps, then think through the digital compass, and screen size. The DeLorme device has a 30-day money back guarantee so you have plenty of time to evaluate and then return if it does not meet your expectation. I would like to hear what your decision is after you do your research. Chip Noble Team DeLorme

I'm not sure that 'tedious' is a fair description... I'll outline the steps so that you can make the call for yourself. 1. Download the GPX file from Geocaching.com. 2. Use the Draw tab in Topo USA to import your GPX file. 3. Use the Exchange Dialog to transfer the Waypoints to your PN-20. It's really that simple. Personally, I build Pocket Queries for the areas where I travel. It allows me to push a lot of waypoints to the device at once and it includes the cache description and hint along with other important info. One of the new features we're trying to share with people is the ability to view full cache details (up to 800 characters) within each Waypoint on the PN-20. We are trying hard to remove the need for printing cache descriptions or carrying a second device with the cache details. We're also listening very closely to people like yourself and working to make improvements for waypoint management in Topo USA as well as other places. I've been championing the Send to GPS plug-in and based on reaction to your post feel like we'll see progress in this area... We're a small company and we try hard to react quickly to these types of requests. There's a 30 day money back guarantee on our device. I'm in the forums pretty regularly... feel free to fire me an e-mail if you have any questions. If I can't show you what we've done to improve the geocaching experience then you're free to return the device... we want our customers to be happy with their purchase. Chip Noble Team DeLorme

Find Near Map Center will search a radial pattern from your current GPS location and display a list of all find results. You can filter for waypoints, geographic features, points of interest and many others. You could get very specific and ask to only see geocaches. You could also search for a geocache by name. Our next firmware update will allow 800 characters to display on the PN-20. I've been using an alpha version of the update and have been very pleased with the ability to view all of the details and hints. It helped me read a very detailed hint for The Molasses cache in Boston where I still came up empty... because it got dark and very cold... not because I couldn't remember the clue! Embra's right... it's all about the maps with the PN-20. The screen shots used at the www.delorme.com/geocaching page came directly from my GPS device. Aerial imagery when you're out in the field is amazing. I've had more than one hike made easier because I could see a trail in the imagery that wasn't available in any of the Topo or USGS maps. Try the PN-20 out for 30 days. Let me know if you have any questions. I could give you a few pointers on how to put it through it's paces... Thanks, Chip Noble Team DeLorme

The sales staff at DeLorme is top notch... I'm sure if they were able to do that for one customer, they'd be willing to do the same thing for you. Let me know if you have any questions once you've got your device. I might be able to give you a few pointers... Good luck with your geocaching! Chip Noble Team DeLorme

I've heard similar feedback from our hardcore forum users regarding Topo USA's ability to handle their waypoint management needs. GSAK is a powerful tool, no doubt. We recognize everyone's desire to sort and filter by all of the different Groundspeak tags. We've been working toward better GPX support for a couple of releases now, that's why were here listening to feedback from people on the Geocaching forum as well as on forum.delorme.com. We have plans to improve Topo and the PN GPS device... suggestions like yours will help us toward that goal. Obviously, the individual cachers will be the final judge as to whether we deliver enough functionality to let them move to a single device in the field. 800 characters is coming soon, I used it the other day to get shut out on The Great Molasses Cache in Boston. Just goes to show that all the details and clues in the world won't help you if it gets too dark or your fingers get too cold! Fire me an e-mail and I'll give you details on the next PN update... Thanks, Chip Noble Team DeLorme

I'm left handed and am very comfortable using our device. It doesn't have any left/right bias. We tried to keep the related buttons near each other... page/quit on the left, menu/enter on the right. The lithium ion battery doesn't last as long as standard AA batteries but it does offer some advantages. You can charge the battery while it's still in the device... at your computer or using the power adapter for your car. I promote rechargeables because they are more environmentally responsible. The PN-20 also floats if you're using the lithium ion! This is a bonus that we discovered during IPX7 testing... if you're a boater that might be worth noting. The latch is something we've worked on. It's a standard SD card latch where you press down on the release and the door pops up... but as the posts you've read point out, some had latches come loose, others tried to lift rather than push down. Our 30 day money back guarantee took care of all of these and would be available to you as well. Here's the closest retailers to your location... don't forget the sale price, info at www.delorme.com/geocaching Bill Jackson’s – Pinellas Park, FL Black Creek Outfitters – Jacksonville, FL Map & Globe – Sanford, FL Alabama Outdoors – Birmingham, AL Call ahead to confirm that they have one available... Let me know if you have any questions! Chip Noble Team DeLorme

Waypoints can have 32 characters for names and 256 characters for comments as of today. We'll be rolling a firmware update out soon to expand comments to 800 characters. To answer Evshro & son, we chose 800 characters as a first pass at extended support for the geocaching details. We'll be making further improvements with each new release and hope to challenge all those multi-device cachers who carry a PDA with them when they are hiking. Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks... Chip Noble Team DeLorme