BiscuitMunchers

A Geko 201 is serial, not USB. To connect it to a USB port, you would need Garmin PN 010-10206-00 AND Garmin PN 010-10310-00. Nope, it's not cheap. The second cable could be replaced by a serial to USB adaptor. Unfortunately there is no single solution to the problem.

I've play a little with CacheMagnet. http://sites.google.com/site/cachemagnet/ I've never tried it with an iPod, but it is supposed to download descriptions. It's free.

I would check and see which firmware is installed. Right now I have the beta 3.22 installed because I wanted to play with the google earth map feature. The important thing is the GPS Software version. I have 3.70 and it seems to be more accurate.

I created my own red light camera poi file, using google maps. I was able to get the local red light camera locations from the city website. There is also a site http://www.poi-factory.com/ that has red light camera poi files for around the country.

I checked around the site a little. It appears that some folks have had problems with IE7. It looks like people are having better luck with Firefox. The search function on the forum doesn't work great. Try searching with google by typing in the search term followed by site:forums.Groundspeak.com. In other words, if you type in garmin communicater site:forums.Groundspeak.com, you will see the result for garmin communicator problems, and might find an answer.

I'm not sure this is going to help you, since I don't have a Mac. I just tried this with my Garmiin Oregon 400T and a PC. I was able to bring the data from the GPSr right into Google Earth. It had both the waypoints and the tracks.

If you are trying to download caches by using the checkboxes on the search page and the downloading the caches, the real problem is that it is a .loc file. That doesn't contain the paperless info you are looking for.

Personally, I use Pocket Queries. Then all you have to do is copy the .gpx file to the \Garmin\gpx folder on either the GPSr or the SD card. No need for GSAK or Easy GPS. You then have the description, hints, and logs.

I just got the Geocaching with Geosphere. It costs $7.99. For a while I was using GSAK and Air Sharing. That combination costs about $30 total. Air Sharing is kind of slow. With Geosphere, the only thing I had to do was create a free email account on Yahoo. Then you create your PQ's and send them to the Yahoo email account. Then you log into the email account through Geosphere and download the PQ's. There is a short video that comes with Geosphere, that explains the functionality. The video has one error. With the latest version, you can use Zipped PQs. Of course, since iPod Touch doesn't have a GPSr, the compass function doesn't work. Other than that, it works great. You can also do field notes and mark the cache as found. Then you can upload the information to Geocaching.com and post your finds. Nope, I don't work for the Geosphere folks. I just think it's a great application.

I think the easiest way is to get a copy of EasyGps. It's free. I'm sure there is a way to do this with GSAK, but I think this is easier. First install EasyGps. Connect your Nuvi to your computer. Copy your POI files to your computer. Copy the current.gpx file to your computer. Once you are certain that is accomplished. disconnect the Nuvi from your computer. Power your Nuvi up, select "Where to?", select "My Locations", and then select "Delete All". I know, it's scary. Using EasyGps, open the current.gpx file you saved to your computer. You should be able to delete the caches. When you have deleted the caches, do a File> Save As favorite.gpx. Reconnect the Nuvi to your computer. Put your POI files back into the POI directory. Put the favorite.gpx file in the gpx directory. Disconnect the Nuvi from the computer, start it up again, you should be good to go. It seems that if you copy the gpx file into the gpx folder on the Nuvi, it gets sucked into the current.gpx file. To keep caches from showing up in Favorites, DO NOT put the Pocket Query gpx file in the gpx folder.

I am using GSAK and the GPX_by_Cache_Type.gsk macro with my Nuvi 350. For close to 1000 caches, it only uses 1.8 Meg when converted to a gpi file. That includes descriptions, logs, and hints. The conversion to a gpi file using Garmin's GPI Loader is pretty straight forward. If you want to have more than one poi file, they need to have different names.

If you download from the search page, you will get a .loc file, whether you are a premium member or not. To get the .gpx file, I'm pretty sure you have to create a Pocket Query. On the cache description page, you can get a .gpx for that single cache.

I was just looking at Google Earth. I agree, I could only save as kml or kmz. Could someone explain how to save as a gpx?

You can upload the kml to http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/convert_input and convert it to a gpx.

Once you get the gpx file, you can upload it to http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/convert_input and convert it to a kml or kmz file. Then you can view the new kml or kmz file in google earth.

I bought an Oregon 400T from REI on April 4th for $599.95. I went back a week later, and it was priced at $549.95. They refunded me the difference. We saw the ad for the $399.99 for today (May 1st), we went back and they refunded the difference again. Of course since the price ends in 99, we won't get a dividend on it. The $150 plus the tax we got back was way more than the dividend would have been. I have been an REI member for many years, and may not have always been satisfied with some of the stuff they carry, I have alway been satisfied with the customer service. They have always given me a refund if I wasn't satisfied with the product. I still have to send in the rebate, so that will be another $50 off.

A premium membership is the easiest way. It will email the file to you. A reasonably quick and dirty way to get the geocaches is go to "Hide & Seek A Cache". Search by address or zip code. When the results page comes up, towards the bottom of the page there is a "Check All" selection. Then Click on the "Download Waypoints". You should be able to load the resulting file into MapSource and load your GPSr. That is 20 at a time. Beats 1 at a time.

Guess I didn't ask that question very well. I have some child waypoints for results of puzzle caches. I don't want to lose those. Any ideas?

I was reading Markwell's info on GSAK. It is suggested that you should delete waypoints whenever you load a new query. How do you keep from losing you child waypoints?

I wasn't the first to do this, so I'm not claiming to be original with this procedure. It works with a PC running Vista. Pay $4.99 plus tax for the Air Sharing application. Get the GSAK application. Get the GSAK2iPhone application at http://www.ketzler.de/gsak2iphone/ It is free. I tried loading the HTML from GSAK, but found it too difficult to navigate without the conversion (Fat fingers) Get your Pocket Query and load it into GSAK. Export the HTML output from GSAK. Convert the HTML output using GSAK2iPhone Connect to the iPod Touch using the Air Sharing application. Copy the output from the GSAK2iPhone to your iPod Touch. It is not the fastest thing in the world, but there is no Jailbreaking required. I was able to move 500 or so caches in less than five minutes.